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 Kids Research Institute of Australia.

Since then, Ms. McKenzie led the development of consumer and community involvement programs in WA and across Australia, which have had a direct and lasting impact in ensuring the community has a ‘voice’ in health research. These Programs have been 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 expanded from two organisations to the 23 partner organisations of the Western Australian Health Research Network. She led this key platform of the WA Health Translation Network platform until April 2019. She returned to the Kids Research Institute as the Senior Manager of Community Engagement until June 2021. Ms McKenzie now works as a consultant to organisations such as the Kids Research Institute, the VCCC Alliance and the University of Queensland.

Ms. McKenzie is regularly invited to present at local, national and international conferences, seminars and webinars and since 2005 has given 200 presentations, many of which 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 effective and sustainable 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 180 face-to-face and virtual training workshops on consumer and community involvement in health research to over 3700 attendees from across Australia.

In 2016, Ms McKenzie worked with a UK expert Sally Crowe to develop a modified James Lind Alliance (JLA) Priority Setting Partnership for a joint project on Family and Domestic Violence undertaken by the UWA School of Population and Global Health, the Kids Research Institute, and Anglicare WA. Since then, 13 Priority Setting Partnership Projects, of which seven had national and international participants, have successfully used the modified JLA process.

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, Disability and Ageing, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) the Australian Clinical Trials Alliance (ACTA) as an Independent Board Director and a member of the UWA School of Population and Global Health School Advisory Board. 

During the past 20+years Ms. McKenzie has served on numerous state, national and international health and research committees. Ms McKenzie has been an active member of the NHMRC's Community & Consumer Advisory Committee since its inception in 2013. She is now a member of the joint NHMRC and MRFF Consumer Advisory Committee and is a member of the NHMRC's Targeted Calls for Research Advisory Committee. Ms. McKenzie serves as a consumer member on Grant Assessment Committees for the NHMRC, the MRFF and the Department of Industry, Science and Resources.

Awards

• Advocacy Achievement Award, Australasian Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (2022)
• The NHMRC Biennial Consumer Engagement Award for the promotion of best practice consumer and community engagement in health research for over 20 years (2021)
• Appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to community health through consumer advocacy, strategic policy, research and development (2015)
• An Honorary Life Member of the Health Consumers Council WA (2012)

Research

Ms. McKenzie has been involved in 33 funded research projects as a CI, AI or invited expert consultant since 2004. Funding bodies include NHMRC, ARC, Healthway, WA Dept of Health, the MRFF, Lotterywest, the WA Cancer Research Trust, and the UK's Medical Research Council.

Publications

Ms. McKenzie has authored or contributed to 57 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 and the BMJ Mental Health Journal