Anne McKenzie AM is a health consumer advocate whose extensive experience and well-developed skills have been gained over three decades in both professional and voluntary roles. In 2004, she commenced as the consumer advocate in a joint appointment between the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Western Australia and the Telethon Kids Institute.

Since then, Ms. McKenzie has led the development of consumer and community involvement programs, which have had a direct and lasting impact in ensuring the community has a ‘voice’ in health research and are recognized nationally and internationally as best practice models for consumer and community involvement in research.

In 2016, Lotterywest provided 3-year funding for the involvement program to become the Consumer and Community Health Research Network and under her leadership expand from two organisations to the 22 partner organisations of the Western Australian Health Research Network.

Ms. McKenzie is regularly invited to present at local, national and international conferences, seminars and webinars and since 2005 has given 181 presentations, of which 113 have been as an invited speaker.

She has developed a range of resources and training programs to support researchers and community members to work in partnerships. This included training workshops for consumers and community members in 2007 and in 2009 she collaborated with a UK expert consultant Ms. Bec Hanley to develop training workshops for researchers, clinicians and students. Since then, Ms. McKenzie has delivered 154 face-to-face and virtual training workshops on consumer and community involvement in health research to over 3100 attendees from across Australia.

Committees

Ms. McKenzie is a member of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia and former Board Chair of Health Consumers Council WA.  She currently serves on key national health and research committees such as the Department of Health, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Prescribing Service, The Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Healthcare and the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance.  During the past 18 years Ms. McKenzie has served on 15 state, 32 national and 3 international health and research committees. Ms McKenzie has been an active member of the National Health and Medical Research Council's Community & Consumer Advisory Committee since its inception in 2013. Most recently she was the consumer advocate on the Advisory Committee for the Revision of the Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol 2020.

Awards

An Honorary Life Member of the Health Consumers Council WA (2012)

Appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to community health through consumer advocacy, strategic policy, research and development (2015)

The NHMRC Biennial Consumer Engagement Award for the promotion of best practice consumer and community engagement in health research for over 20 years (2021)

Research

Ms. McKenzie has been involved in 29 funded research projects as a CI, AI or invited expert consultant since 2004. Funding bodies include NHMRC, ARC, Healthway, WA Dept of Health, Commonwealth Dept of Health, Medical Research Futures Fund, Lotterywest, the WA Cancer Research Trust, Cancer Australia and the UK Medical Research Council.

Publications

Ms. McKenzie has authored or contributed to 43 publications, reports and book chapters and has been an invited expert reviewer for the International Journal of Population Data Science and the BMC Research Involvement and Engagement Journal.

Previous Positions

Senior Project Officer Community Engagement, Telethon Kids Institute (Feb 2021-Jun 2021)

Senior Manager Community Engagement, Telethon Kids Institute (2019-2021)

Head, Consumer and Community Health Research Network, The University of Western Australia (2016-2019)

Consumer Advocate, the School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia (2004-2016)

Consumer Advocate, Telethon Kids Institute (2004-2016)