News

Western Health Alliance, which operates the Western NSW Primary Health Network (WNSW PHN) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms Melina Saunders as a Director of their governing board.

Born in Dubbo, Ms Saunders is a proud Wiradjuri and Gunditijmara woman who has dedicated her career to improving the health and wellbeing of young Aboriginal people.

"My goal is to empower young Aboriginal people to make informed decisions about their personal health and build capacity in their own communities," Ms Saunders said.

"To achieve this, I have worked with Aboriginal organisations such as the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience and the Wirrpanda Foundation delivering programs to local, regional and national audiences."

"My appointment to the Board of the Western Health Alliance will allow me to guide the organisation to achieve real results for the improved health of Aboriginal people in the Western NSW region."

Now based in Canberra, Ms Saunders is a consultant at KPMG specialising in providing core governance, operations and advisory services for government projects working with Aboriginal organisations.

She has recently worked with several Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in NSW, assisting the Department of Health in the implementation of a new funding model for the Indigenous Australians’ Health Programme.

Ms Saunders, a former athlete and current member of the Netball Australia Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group, is also an experienced facilitator, running workshops with the netball community to increase Indigenous athlete participation at the high-performance level.

Dr Tim Smyth, Board Chair welcomed the appointment of Ms Saunders saying her knowledge and experience would help the organisation to identify and pursue opportunities to improve the health of Aboriginal people in western NSW.

"My fellow directors and I look forward to welcoming Ms Saunders to our next Board meeting in Broken Hill on February 28."