The OTA Advisory Board is established under the OTA Act to:
- to advise the CEO, either on its own initiative or at the request of the CEO, about the following matters:
- the objectives, strategies and policies to be followed by the Authority in the performance of its functions;
- the performance of the Authority’s functions;
- organ or tissue donation and transplantation matters; and
- to provide strategic advice to the Minister about the performance of the Authority’s functions if requested to do so by the Minister; and
- to do anything incidental or conducive to the performance of any of the above functions.
Chair
Dr Helen Szoke has had a career spanning community, health, education, regulation and international development. She is a strong advocate for human rights and has extensive experience in management, advocacy and public presentations.
She is a non-executive Director, currently sitting on the Council of the University of Melbourne, the Board of Life Without Barriers. Helen is co-chair of the Collingwood Expert Advisory Group on Anti-Racism, advisory committee member of the Climate Project Griffith University, member of the Expert Panel to Indigenous Business Australia and is an independent member of the Judicial Commission of Victoria. She sits on Advisory Boards for the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal College of Australia and New Zealand Obstetrics and Gynaecology which are addressing bullying, discrimination and harassment in those medical specialities.
Dr Szoke was Chief Executive of Oxfam Australia until 2019. She previously served as Australia’s Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner and as the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner. During her time with Oxfam, she was both a Vice-President and a board member of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), and the ACFID Humanitarian Reference Group (HRG) Champion. Dr Szoke sat as an Executive Board Member for Oxfam International and was previously also a Board member of the Cranlana Foundation.
Deputy Chair
Professor Carol Pollock is an academic nephrologist and renal transplant physician with over 290 publications in basic research and clinical medicine. She is an inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015), was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research Supervision (2012) and recognised as a ‘Distinguished Professor’ by the University of Sydney (2012).
Carol was the 2014 recipient of the Ministerial Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research and was Scientific Chairman of the 2013 World Congress of Nephrology. She is Chair of the NSW Cardiovascular Research Network and Chairs the Research Advisory Committee of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Nephrology.
Her health leadership roles include inaugural Chair of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation and past Chair of the Clinical Excellence Commission. She remained a Director of both organisations till April 2016. She was Chair of the Northern Sydney Local Health District Board from its inception in 2011 till 2016, and since 2016 has been Director and then Chair of the NSW Bureau of Health Information. She is the current Chair of Kidney Health Australia.
Carol was recognised for her significant contribution to medical research, education and science, to nephrology, and to clinical practice and governance, by being awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2021.
Kelli Owen is a Kaurna, Narungga & Ngarrindjeri sovereign woman who holds a Bachelor of Education (Edith Cowan University) and a Masters of Indigenous Languages Education (University of Sydney). She is the National Community Engagement Coordinator for the National Indigenous Kidney Transplantation Taskforce (NIKTT), a member of NIKTT Operations Committee, Project officer with SA Health overseeing the Kanggawodli renal project with CNARTS (Central Northern Adelaide Renal & Transplantation Service), is a CI and member of AKction (Aboriginal Kidney Care Improving Outcomes Now) with the University of Adelaide and is leading the SAHMRI (South Australian Health Medical Research Institute) project COMPASS (Connecting Our Mob Patient navigators As Sustainable Supports).
One of Kelli’s current projects is coordinating the interstate patient navigator project across four sites to streamline the kidney model of care and journey across states. She is collaborating with renal teams to adapt health education resources to increase health literacy to meet the needs of her people. In her current role, she yarns up with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities across Australia, focusing on their kidney journeys, local issues, and culturally appropriate solutions to increase equity and access to kidney transplantation. Kelli is familiar with Indigenous Governance and Data Sovereignty methods, harnessing the voices of Indigenous people to raise awareness of equity issues and health system barriers to address. Kelli prides herself as an information sharer, helping to grow kidney care knowledge to assist her people to make informed decisions. Kelli’s passion to share knowledge and to bridge knowledge systems of understanding to design innovative models of kidney care is a vital skill Kelli brings to the projects to ensure its success.
Kelli is a mother of 5 and Mutha (nanna) of four. Kelli has lived with CKD knowing ESKD would eventuate. Her lived experience of the journey, from diagnosis, pre-dialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis, Haemodialysis, transplant workup and assessment, transplantation leading to her current situation of post-transplant care management makes her an invaluable contributor. The challenges Kelli has experienced living in a regional town in South Australia has instilled her with an appreciation of the difficulties faced by rural and remote patients accessing essential health services. Issues pertaining to accessing treatment, transport, health language used, knowledge translation, genuine informed consent, medications, allied services and feeling culturally safe in hospital settings are areas she passionately advocates for.
Nick comes to the Advisory Board of the Organ and Tissue Authority having enjoyed a varied career in the Australian Defence Force as an Army Officer.
Hailing from the Riverland region of rural South Australia, Nick, his wife Lisa and their daughter Winnie currently live near Ipswich where Lisa, a serving Airforce Medical Officer, is commanding the Royal Australian Air Force’s only deployable hospital.
His career has taken him from Puckapunyal to Tokyo and everywhere in between, including Afghanistan and significant periods in Townsville and Hawaii. After studying a Bachelor of Arts at the Australian Defence Academy and officer training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon Nick has spent the majority of his regimental time as a Combat Engineer. His staff experience has seen him support the Army’s partnerships with international armies and industry partners. For this work he was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in the 2019 Queen’s Birthday Honours and Awards.
Most recently he was the Chief of Army scholar, affording him the opportunity to read and think about deterrence before being seconded to work in sensitive issue management. He is currently posted to the Army’s Directorate of Workforce Strategy.
Along with Winnie, Nick joined the Donate Life family in 2019 following the sudden death of Nick’s late wife and Winnie’s mother, Leanne. Leanne lost a long battle with bipolar disorder, taking her own life when Winnie was 8 months old. With the support of Donate Life staff, intensive care specialists and organ retrieval surgeons, Nick and Leanne’s family were able to help Leanne donate her organs and tissue. Knowing that out of such tragedy there might be hope was powerfully restorative for their grief.
Nick also holds a Masters in Military and Defence Studies from the Australian National University and is a Peer Ambassador with SANE Australia.
Oren Klemich commenced his career in real estate in 1985, after studies at The University of Adelaide. His company, Klemich Real Estate, was established in 2002.
In 2009 Oren and his wife Gill tragically and suddenly lost their oldest son, Jack, to meningococcal disease. Jack, aged 18, was a registered organ donor and the lives of 5 Australians have been transformed from Jack’s precious gift of life.
Since Jack’s death, Oren has been a strong advocate for meningococcal research and the promotion of organ donation. As a donor parent, he looks forward to contributing nationally in his role as a member of the OTA Advisory Board.
Mr Terry Slevin has been Chief Executive Officer for the Public Health Association of Australia since May 2018.
He is Adjunct Professor in the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University, and Adjunct Professor in the College of Health and Medicine at the Australian National University.
He is a Fellow of PHAA, and was the first Vice President (Development) of the Association. He is the editor of a book on skin cancer Sun, Skin and Health, released by CSIRO Publishing in 2014, and has published over 70 papers in the peer reviewed literature across a broad range of public health topics.
