Dr Maria Power has joined East Gippsland Regional Clinical School as lecturer with the East Gippsland School for Aboriginal Health Professionals.

She has provided the following snapshot of her professional journey that has taken her from Central Gippsland to the United States, the Northern Territory and back to Gippsland.

Maria Power has joined the East Gippsland School of Aboriginal Health Professionals.

Recently I have moved from being based in Darwin for over two years to East Gippsland. Though born in Melbourne, I grew up at Erica (on the way to Walhalla). My immediate family members moved further east and I welcome being able to now be so much closer to many of them.

Via a partnership between East Gippsland Regional Clinical School (EGRCS), School of Rural Health, Monash University and East Gippsland School of Aboriginal Health Professionals (EGSAHP), Centre of Excellence for Aboriginal Health in East Gippsland, I have just recently been appointed as a researcher based at Bairnsdale.

EGSAPH is the Steering Committee for the research with which I am involved and will provide cultural mentoring and support. My appointment has been made possible after the proposed research project received Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee approval earlier this year.

The data collection involved is designed to gauge the interest of local Indigenous youth in tertiary health qualifications, assist them in pursuing such aspirations and hopefully return to the East Gippsland region to work in either Aboriginal community controlled or mainstream health services.

I come to this project poised to contribute from a wealth of engagement including more than 20 years’ experience in Indigenous education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels.

Previously I have participated in delivery of workplace as well as classroom training, development of training resources, training needs analyses and significantly contributed to industry training best practice models.

My work during the past 13 years has facilitated the achievement of success in Higher Education, Vocational Education and Training and Leadership Development by adults in remote Australian Indigenous communities. A team member and I, for example, trained 23 apprentices from the Tiwi Islands on-site until 21 graduated.

Further study has personally enriched me and I value the opportunity it gives for growth in skills and knowledge. Completing my doctorate involved an academic year in Chicago where I engaged with survivors of torture and human rights abuse and also did a placement among the Ojibwe Native American people.

Later I finished the International Trauma Studies Program at Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University in New York. In both locations, being part of a cohort of post-graduate international students proved most instructive. With my love of lifelong learning, I look forward to initiatives being developed that support EGSAHP’s and EGRCS’s aspirations.

Associate Professor Elmer Villanueva

As well as taking on the role of Acting Director, Gippsland Regional Clinical School, Associate Professor Elmer Villanueva has been invited by the Commonwealth Government to become a member of the Advisory Committee on Biologicals (ACB) of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

The ACB provides advice to the Minister for Health and the Therapeutic Goods Administration on issues relating to cell and tissue therapy products.  This appointment is due to Elmer’s expertise in population health, epidemiology and biostatistics.  His appointment started in September and runs until the end of 2014.

Elmer has also received an invitation to sit as Member on the Inaugural Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medical Devices (ACSMD).