Our people and members
Lived-experience leadership, policy advice, and organisational members.
Steering Committee
MCRMC is guided by a Steering Committee of migrant and culturally diverse parents.
Chandi de Fonseka
Steering Committee Member
Chandi is a migrant mother who knows the quiet gap between arriving with hope and trying to find maternity care in a new country. She believes no mother should feel alone at that time, and that every woman should feel supported, understood, and that she belongs.
Pushpa Leela
Steering Committee Member
Shani Weiss
Steering Committee Member
Melbourne migrant mother of two. She brings lived experience in raising children within a new country and cultural health system.
Nurit Kopolovich Hadad
Steering Committee Member
Child and Family Health Nurse advocating for respectful and safe care. Focuses on help mothers feel heard and comfortable in healthcare.
Tomomi Baudys
Mother of two Japanese–Czech Australian boys and dental technician. Dedicated to sharing lived birth experiences as a migrant woman.
Steering Committee Member
Dr Ishita Akhter
Researcher and advocate for CALD women's maternity care. PhD in Engineering from Melbourne Uni. Focuses on patient-reported experiences.
Steering Committee Member
Mele Topou
Steering Committee Member
Bio coming soon.Â
Uthpala Ferdinando
Uthpala is a migrant mother of two. After a traumatic first birth and culturally unsafe postnatal care, she chose differently the second time. She shares her experience so services better understand South Asian and migrant families.
Steering Committee Member
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Pooja Gujaral
Steering Committee Member
Bio coming soon.Â
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Farideh Bharami
Steering Committee Member
Bio coming soon.
Dr Ramona Chauhan
Steering Committee Member & Policy Advisor
Bio coming soon.Â
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Rana Al Akoury
Steering Committee Member
Bio coming soon.Â
Fakiha (Fay) Bhattee
Steering Committee Member
I was born in Pakistan and moved to Australia almost 30 years ago. I come from a Muslim family and value the importance of culturally respectful care. I speak Urdu, Punjabi, and English, and I am proficient in reading, writing, and speaking Urdu. I have worked as an early childhood teacher in a child care centre for almost 20 years. I'm passionate about supporting families and communities, and I'm happy to volunteer my time to help translate important information for migrant women.
Sonia Reyes
Steering Committee Member
Bio coming soon.Â
Policy Advisors
Policy Advisors give independent advice on evidence, submissions and practice. They do not govern the organisation.
Professor Jacqueline Boyle
Policy Advisor
Associate Professor in public health, obstetrician and gynaecologist. Research based on a platform of health equity. Collaboratively optimising Women's Health across Public Health, Health Equity, Digital health, Health Services and Translation
Monash University
Aishah Jameel
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
University of Melbourne
Policy Advisor
Aishah is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, where her research focuses on equity-oriented maternity care for Arabic-speaking, Muslim women of refugee backgrounds in Victoria. She is passionate about generating and translating knowledge that strengthens maternal and child health outcomes for communities experiencing systemic vulnerabilities. Alongside her doctoral research, Aishah is a Senior Research Officer at the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) where she leads the planning, delivery and monitoring of research projects.
Dr Yordanos YeshitilaÂ
Policy Advisor
La Trobe University
Dr Yeshitila is a research fellow at the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre (OTARC) at La Trobe University. Her research lies at the intersection of maternal and child health, health economics, and health services research, with a focus on improving outcomes for priority and underserved populations. During her PhD, she investigated models of maternity care for women from refugee backgrounds, with the aim of identifying approaches that are both effective and economically sustainable in improving maternal and perinatal outcomes.
Priyanka Rei
Policy Advisor
Australian Multicultural Health Collaborative (AMHC)
Priyanka Rai brings more than 15 years of experience across healthcare, advocacy and non-profit leadership. She most recently served at Breakthrough T1D, formerly JDRF, leading global programs to improve healthcare access in underserved regions. Previously, at Painaustralia, she played a central role in developing the National Strategic Action Plan for Pain Management. Her tenure at Dementia Australia demonstrated her strong commitment to community-focused advocacy, where she contributed to national policy reform and led initiatives supporting individuals with complex neurodegenerative conditions. Priyanka holds a Master of Science in International Business and Management and a Bachelor of Business Management.
Dr Rebecca Li
Policy Advisor
NSW Health
Dr Rebecca Li is a FRANZCOG obstetrician and gynaecologist at Campbelltown Public and Private Hospitals and an AGES fellow. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin. Her work on cultural safety in maternity care is also shaped by her own high-risk pregnancy and preterm birth.
Thilini Weerasingha
Policy Advisor
Griffith University
Thilini is a registered nurse from Sri Lanka, a former Senior Lecturer in Nursing, and a PhD researcher at Griffith University. Her research focuses on maternity care for culturally and linguistically diverse women in Australia. She brings clinical, academic and multicultural experience to the Policy Advisory Group, and works so that migrant and refugee women are respected, heard and safe in their care.
Dr Ramona Chauhan
Policy Advisor
Indian Society of WA
Dr Chauhan is a family and domestic violence lead, Woman Committee Member at the Indian Society of WA
Dr Katarzyna Olcoń
Policy Advisor
University of Wollongong
Dr Katarzyna Olcoń is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on anti-racism, critical multiculturalism, cultural humility, and community mental health. She has led and collaborated on research examining culturally responsive maternity care for refugee and migrant women in Australia, including studies on implementation gaps in maternal health services and the co-design of cultural humility education for healthcare professionals. Dr Olcoń is committed to advancing equitable, culturally safe, and person-centred health and social care through research, education, and community partnerships.
Policy Advisor
Alecia Staines
Maternity Consumer Network
University of Queensland
Alecia Staines is the founder and President of Maternity Consumer Network and a Policy Advisor to MCRMC. A mother of six and a PhD candidate in respectful maternity care, she has spent a decade taking women’s experiences into state and national policy, including the NSW Birth Trauma Inquiry and work on stillbirth, rural maternity services and woman-centred care. She co-authored guidelines on the prevention of perinatal trauma and has delivered respectful maternity care training in more than 50 maternity services across Australia. Alecia’s work is focused on making sure women’s experience is treated as part of quality and safety.
Shadow Toke
Policy Advisor
University of MelbourneÂ
Murdoch Children's Research Institute
Stronger Futures Centre of Research Excellence
I am a graduate researcher at the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children's Research Institute, and a Stronger Futures Centre of Research Excellence Scholar. I have a professional background in interpreting for S'gaw Karen and I am passionate about improving maternity care for migrant and refugee background communities. My PhD research seeks to answer: What works (and what doesn't) to enable culturally safe and trauma-informed maternity care from the perspectives of S'gaw Karen speaking women, S'gaw Karen interpreters, and maternity care providers.
Madeline Simpson
Policy Advisor
Southern Cross University
University of Technology, Sydney
Madeline Simpson is a midwife and PhD researcher. and traumatic birth experience advisor. She has worked as a clinical midwifery educator and midwifery unit manager, and her research examines psychologically traumatic birth and postnatal post-traumatic stress. Her published reviews set out the risk factors for birth trauma and why the quality of care during labour matters as much as the clinical outcome. She advises MCRMC on traumatic birth experience, trauma-informed practice, and how policy can reduce preventable harm.
Dr Delia Rambaldini-Gooding
Policy Advisor
University of Wollongong
Dr Delia Rambaldini-Gooding is a Social Policy academic in the School of Social Sciences. Her research centres on addressing marginalisation, disadvantage and social exclusion. She focuses on improving policy, and social and health service provision for groups experiencing structural disadvantage, including multicultural communities, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, as well as young people and older adults. Dr Rambaldini-Gooding has a strong record of collaborative research with third-sector organisations in Australia and internationally. Her expertise lies in inclusive, qualitative research methodologies—particularly participatory action research (PAR)—which foregrounds the voices of people with lived experience and include them as co‑researchers to drive meaningful change. Her work is guided by a commitment to reimagining policy and service systems in ways that genuinely include and empower both service users and service providers.
Dr Kerryn O'Rourke
Policy Advisor
Charles Darwin University
Bio coming soon
Dr Glenys Frank
Policy Advisor
Deakin University
Australian College of Midwives
Bio coming soon
Organisational Members
Colleges, services and community organisations who have joined the coalition. There is no membership fee.
Colleges, services, researchers and community organisations can join as organisational members. Email info@mcrmc.org.au
