Australian Health Promotion Association

Postal Address:

Committee (2011)
The Queensland Branch AGM is being held in February 2012. Further information to be released soon.

President: Kirsty Tinsley
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Kirsty currently works as a Senior Public Health Officer for the Tobacco and Alcohol Branch, Preventative Health Directorate, Queensland Health.  Kirsty professional interest is in primary prevention, with her current role working to reduce tobacco, alcohol and other drug use in pregnancy.  Kirsty’s previous experience has involved physical activity health promotion as well as the broader alcohol, tobacco and other drug prevention field.

Vice President: Elisha McGuiness
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I have worked in health promotion for almost 6 years.  I completed my undergraduate in South Australia and in 2007 chose a change of scenery and moved to far north Queensland.  I am based in the Cairns Public Health Unit and currently my focus is on chronic disease prevention with a focus on creating supportive environments for physical activity and inclusive community engagement and participation processes.  I enjoy the challenges that working in Rural, tropical Australia bring, particularly those presented in my new found interest of remote Indigenous sexual health promotion.

Secretary: Susan Edmondstone
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Susan works as a Health Promotion Officer for Queensland Health, Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Service in Townsville. Susan coordinates components of the development, implementation and evaluation of multi-strategy, multi-sector health promotion programs and relevant initiatives for the Townsville Alcohol, Tobacco & Other Drugs Service, in the Townsville Health Service District geographic area in line with relevant national, state and departmental policy directions. This position has a specific focus on substance use and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Treasurer: Rhonda Stanton
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Rhonda has worked in the field of health promotion for over ten years and is currently the Service Manager of a health promotion and prevention team at Community Health Services based at Goodna. This is her second year as Treasurer of the Qld Branch of AHPA. Her previous involvement with the Branch was as a general committee member from 1999-2000. Her interest areas are in mental health, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs and workplace health promotion, particularly at the organisational level.

Committee Members

Marguerite Sendall

Margo is a Lecturer in Health Promotion (and Qualitative Research ) in the School of Public Health, QUT.  Margo’s background is school health promotion, in particular HPS but she also has extensive experience in youth and sexual health promotion. Margo teaches both undergraduate and postgraduate units in public health and health promotion and researches in the field of school health, school health partnerships and phenomenography.  

Kath McFarlane

Kath has worked in health promotion for the past 15 years in regional, rural and remote communities of Queensland. Kath now calls Cairns home. Kath works for Tropical Regional Services, Queensland Health to build the evaluation and research capacity of staff working in health promotion. Aside from evaluation, Kath also has a strong interest in building health promotion workforce capacity and closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes.

Sue Devine

Sue Devine is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences at James Cook University and has worked in health promotion in North Queensland since 1992.  Sue lectures in the areas of health promotion and rural and remote primary and public health care across all undergraduate allied health professional disciples and is the coordinator of the postgraduate health promotion program.

Jane is a qualified teacher and health promotion practitioner with 18 years experience in the health promotion field.  She has worked on the development and management of numerous multi-disciplinary health promotion and evaluation projects through her work as an academic, private consultant and a public and community sector practitioner.  Jane has an interest in the use of participatory theories of practice in the design, implementation and evaluation of health promotion programs to build their quality and achieve sustainable outcomes.

Deb has a Bachelor of Health (Health Promotion & Education) and a Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety. My current role is Health Promotion Officer for the Queensland Bowel Cancer Screening Program for Brisbane North. Deb has also worked as an ATODS Prevention Officer, Project Officer on a Community-based Triple P project and Program Manager for a Division of General Practice on children’s resilience and chronic disease self-management projects. Deb feels that she is lucky to have had a broad health promotion work experience and I see many opportunities in health promotion to make a difference to the health outcomes of individuals and communities.

Jackie currently works as a lecturer in public health at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Prior to that Jackie worked as a Research Fellow on an international work-life balance project through Griffith University. Jackie has over 25 years experience in the health and education field and has worked with government and on-government organisations. Roles include A/Director Health Promotion Sunshine Coast Health Promotion Unit, Senior Health Promotion Officer, Tropical Public Health Unit and Project Officer in various health related areas. Jackie's key interests include workplace health promotion, psychological health and women's health.

Lauren is currently a PhD student based at the Cancer Prevention Research Centre at the University of Queensland.  My PhD is related to physical activity interventions. Before commencing my PhD, I worked as a physiotherapist. Lauren joined the AHPA executive committee in 2010.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Health Promotion at the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2009, Susan received a fantastic opportunity to transfer to Brisbane and work as an Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATODS) Prevention Worker for Drug Arm. Susan now works for Cancer Council Queensland as the ‘Brisbane Southside Community Services Co-ordinator’ and currently co-ordinating the Statewide Community Speakers Program. Susan works with a brilliant Prevention and Early Detection (PED) team to promote Cancer Council Queensland’s programs and services. Their aim is to reduce the incidence, prevalence, morbidity and mortality of cancer by promoting knowledge, skills and behaviours for the prevention and early detection of cancer. Susan says she thoroughly loves her work and have been fortunate to meet many inspiring and dedicated Health Promotion professionals. Susan has been a member of AHPA QLD Branch since 2010 and have enjoyed working with the newsletter sub-committee and working on various 2011 AHPA National Conference sub-committees.

Kristi Heesch

Kristi is a Lecturer in the School of Public Health at the Queensland University of Technology and holds an honourary Senior Lecturer position in the School of Human Movement Studies at The University of Queensland. She teaches classes in health promotion and public health, and she conducts research in the field of physical activity and health. Kristi joined the AHPA executive committee in 2008.

Nikki Boswell

Nikki is qualified in Adult Education and Community Development and holds a Graduate Diploma in Human Nutrition.  Nikki is continuing to study towards her Masters in Human Nutrition through Deakin University and currently works for Playgroup Queensland as a regional development officer. During 2012 she will engage in the health promotion sector as a facilitator of Playgroup Queensland’s ‘Have Fun Be Healthy,’ nutrition and physical activity project. She has a particular interest in child and youth primary prevention and nutritional literacy initiatives.

Georgie Harwood

Georgie is currently completing a Masters of Public Health at the University of QLD. Georgie was originally trained as a Health and Physical education teacher with ten years experience. Georgie also has three years experience researching at both UNE and UQ. In Georgie’s free time she trains and races with the UQ cycle club. As well as training at Somerville House with the River City Masters Squad under the guidance of Luke Stafford. Georgie's favourite passtime though, is spending time with friends and family especially her niece and nephew.

Laetitia F. N. M Kumbuzi

Laetitia M Kumbuzi has a background in behavioural science and a Master in Health Service Management majoring in Health Promotion and has recently completed her Master in Business Administration. Laetitia is currently based in Cairns and works as a Health Promotion Officer for the Queensland Health, Oral Health Services. Focus is on raising awareness of the importance of oral health to general health and empowering communities to take control of the factors that impact on their health and well-being by advocating for environments that support communities to do so. Letty enjoys working in health promotion and aspires to continue to gain more knowledge and skills and making a positive impact in the communities that she works in.