Who Are We?

Pat Anderson AO is a Co-Patron of the First Nations Eye Health Alliance. 

Aunty Pat is an Alyawarre woman known nationally and internationally as an advocate for the rights and health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people including community development, policy formation and research ethics. 

Aunty Pat was Co-Chair of the Referendum Council, the Co-Chair of the Uluru Dialogue, and a key advocate for the YES vote for the Voice to Parliament 2023 Australian Referendum.

Lose Fonua is the Chief Executive Officer for the First Nations Eye Health Alliance. 

Lose is a Wiradjuri woman trained in leadership, public and population health and has a long professional history of working in health promotion, medical research, prevention, capability building and strategy at a local, state, and national level.  

As the founding Director of consultancy company Tell Consulting, Lose's key passion is to see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with the requisite skills and resourcing to flourish and thrive. 

ceo@fneha.com.au

Co-Chair

Jaki Adams was born and raised in Garramilla (Darwin) on Larrakia Nation Lands and is of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, with ancestral links to the Yadhaigana and Wuthathi people of Cape York Peninsula and the Gurindji and Kungarakan peoples of the Northern Territory, and extended family ties across the Torres Straits and Warlpiri (Yuendumu).

Jaki has some 30 years’ experience in government and non-government/international development sectors, which includes leadership roles across The Fred Hollows Foundation for the past eleven years.

Jaki has held significant roles in The Fred Hollows Foundation for the past eleven years, including eye health programming, strategic leadership, partnerships and advocacy across the Indigenous Australia Program, the Pacific, Timor Leste, Philippines and Indonesia. Jaki’s current role, as Director Social Justice and Regional Engagement, sees her leading The Foundation’s positioning in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples having the right to sight, good health and self-determination, with a more specific focus on supporting the Uluru Statement from the Heart (Voice, Treaty, Truth), allyship accountability and health equity more broadly. Jaki is also supporting the Strategic Partnership with FHFNZ and convenes the IAPB Indigenous Peoples Special Interest Group.

In 2022 Jaki completed a Masters of Social Change Leadership through the Atlantic Fellowship for Social Equity (AFSE) and is a Global Atlantic Fellow. Her social change project focuses on Allyship Accountability from an Indigenous perspective and Jaki continues to understand what the non-negotiables are for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In 2023 Jaki was awarded the Australian Council for International Development’s (ACFID) Outstanding Contribution to the Sector Award for her championing health equity, supporting strategic eye care relationships in Australia and across the Pacific, helping drive the agenda of the Allies for Uluru Coalition and elevating the voices of First Nations people (in Australia and internationally).

Secretary First Nations Eye Health Alliance Nick Wilson is a proud Ngarrindjeri man and is originally from South Australia. Nick now lives and works on Larrakia Country in Darwin. 

Nick studied graphic design at university and has a keen interest in all things creative. Nick has worked in Indigenous health for over 13 years and has experience working the community-controlled, state government and tertiary education sectors. Nick has also worked for many years in health promotion, environmental health, trachoma and currently leads up a statewide team in workforce development. 

A/Professor Kris Rallah-Baker is a Yuggera/Warrongo/Wiradjuri man and Australia’s First and currently only Indigenous Ophthalmologist. 

Kris holds an Adjunct Associate Professorship with QUT, is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne, founding member and former President of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, former AMA Federal Councillor, Director on the Federal Board of the Royal Flying Doctors Service, technical advisor to the Fred Hollows Foundation, Chair of the Vision2020 Indigenous Committee, a Zeiss Key Opinion Leader, Director on the Board of the Nova Peris Foundation and Director/Owner of Sunshine Coast Ophthalmologists at Noosa and Nambour

Anne-Marie Banfield is a proud Kaurna woman from South Australia, who has been living, working and raising her family on Gunditjmara in the Southwest of Victoria for last 30 years. 

Anne-Marie has extensive experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander eye health and has worked as Eye and Ear coordinator and Aboriginal health practitioner. Anne-Marie is the founder of Kadadjiny an Aboriginal instructional and graphic design business specialising in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning and education resources and material, currently lectures with The Australian College of Applied Professions, The University of Melbourne, and Latrobe University, sits on the Australian College of Optometry RAP committee and consults and presents at conferences and webinars on Aboriginal health and education.  

Lauren Hutchinson is a Murrawarri woman and optometrist. Lauren was born and raised on Wiradjuri country in the central west of NSW. 

She graduated from her Bachelor of Vision Science/Master of Optometry from QUT in 2017, following which, she returned to the central west, now residing back on the beautiful lands of the Wiradjuri people once again. Lauren has worked as an optometrist both in private practice and within the community-controlled sector. Lauren’s passions are in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, rural and remote and paediatric health and is committed to advocating for improving outcomes for her people in these spaces. 

In her spare time you can find Lauren spending time with her beautiful nieces and nephews, on a hockey field or fishing on the Galari (Lachlan River).