Our Team
Our team are committed to improving health service systems that meet the needs of Victorians from refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds.
Gavin Halge
Refugee Health Network Coordinator
Angela Keating
Project Lead – Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide
Samina Hassan
Sector Development & Policy Advisor
Maddie Cranney
Project Officer – Australian Refugee Health Practice Guide
Olivia Smith
Program Support Officer
Our Executive Group
The Victorian Refugee Health Network is governed by an Executive Group that provides strategic direction and oversees the Network’s activities. Positions are appointed for a three-year tenure, with half the positions rotating in any given year. Executive Group members are appointed via an expression of interest to the Network membership and sector.
Victorian Department of Health
Kath Desmyth
Kath is the Statewide Facilitator of the Refugee Health Program. In her role she provides support and training to nurses and allied health staff...
Nesrudin Mohamed Salah (Co-Chair)
Nesrudin is a dedicated Refugee health nurse and emergency nurse at Cohealth and Royal Melbourne Hospital, with a total of 7 years nursing now.
Rebecca Eckard
Rebecca Eckard is the Director of Policy and Research at the Refugee Council of Australia, the national peak body for people from refugee,...
Sophie Dutertre (Co-Chair)
Sophie is a project and program manager with specific interest in refugee and asylum-seekers’ access to information and informed decision-making....
Dr. Saniya Kazi
Saniya Kazi is a Consultant Paediatrician passionate about child health equity. Saniya works for the Monash Refugee Health Service as well as...
Katherine Monson
Katherine Monson (BA/BSW, MPH, MClinFamTh) is the Coordinator of Community Development at Orygen specialist program, a youth mental health service. ...
Kaye Graves
Kaye is the Senior Leader of the Bendigo Community Health Services Migrant and Refugee Cultural Diversity team. The focus of the team is to build...
Melanie Block
Melanie leads a refugee and asylum seeker health program at community health service cohealth . She has over 20 years working in community health...
Catherine Cursio
Catherine Cursio is one of the managers of the Health Program at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. With seven years experience in asylum seeker...
Umme Jaweria Aleem
Umme Jaweria Aleem is a community advocate and consumer representative on the Executive Group of the Victorian Refugee Health Network (VRHN). In...
Jessica Bishop
Jessica is Manager of Sector Capacity Building at the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture (Foundation House), where she leads teams that...
Dr. Linny Phuong
Dr Linny Phuong is a paediatric infectious diseases physician based in Melbourne and the founder and Chair of The Water Well Project, a health...
Dr. Karen Linton
Karen has worked in community health in Footscray since 2022. Refugee and asylum seeker health (RAS) has been her special interest and passion;...