Community Advisory Committee

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View Bio

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John Asgari has a background in Clinical Dietetic and Health Science. He is currently a Consumer Advisor and has served for various health organisations including SCV, DHHS, Monash Partners Comprehensive Cancer Consortium Advisory Group, Oral Health Clinical Council, National Centre for Immunization Research & Surveillance Science – Consumer Advisory Group.

John has been accessing services at Cabrini for more than 30 years and his engagement as a Consumer Representative with the Cabrini started in 2018. John is passionate about improving healthcare quality and delivery and considers Cabrini is a great place for an effective partnership with diverse consumers in all levels of decision making for providing person-centre healthcare services for all consumers.

Tony has more than 35 years’ experience in business development, procurement, operations and contract management and an extensive knowledge of the transport, freight and infrastructure sectors.

Tony’s involvement with Cabrini has been as a patient along with his family and over the past six years, as a consumer representative on the Community Advisory Committee. Tony has had a strong and continuing affiliation with Cabrini over many years and is committed to helping Cabrini to enhance patient satisfaction, guide the provision of services and shape future developments.

Denise has had a career in the disability field working in both the private and public sector. As an occupational therapist, she worked in case management before moving into vocational rehabilitation and disability employment in leadership and senior management roles.

Her involvement with Cabrini Health has been as a patient. She values Cabrini as an important health provider in her local community. Denise has a keen interest in quality service provision and appreciates this opportunity to contribute to continuous improvement from a consumer perspective.

During her working life, Alison was a lawyer and a researcher in the fields of stockbroking and federal politics.  Initially, she was involved with Cabrini as a carer for her three children, her parents and then as a patient herself.  Alison commenced volunteer work with Cabrini as a biographer for palliative care patients ten years ago.  Her work in this role, and her time spent with patients nearing the end of their lives, led to her participation in the End of Life Care Committee.  This is an area in which she has a particular interest, together with patient communication.

Andrea has a background in nursing for over 30 years and has been a resident of Stonnington for 20 years. Her experience with Cabrini Health is of her family and herself being patients. More recently, her father had an extended stay which sadly ended in palliative care at Cabrini.  The experience was very intense and painful for Andrea, but she felt that the care, empathy and support by staff was extraordinary. Andrea is passionate in giving back to Cabrini, to help make future patients and families have the most supported and empowering experience.

Heather has had many years accessing Cabrini’s services, both as an inpatient herself, as well as through her carer role for her parents. From these varied experiences, Heather felt that she was in a position to provide honest feedback on a range of topics. This led her to become a Consumer Representative on the Cabrini Community Voice, and then stepping onto the Community Advisory Committee.

Heather enjoys volunteering in this Consumer Representative capacity, and feels she is a valued member of the team. Heather is especially interested in helping change processes to improve community-based care.

As an Educator and Career Development Practitioner, Alison is interested in lifelong learning and peer to peer collaboration. With an affinity for remote and rural areas, and experience working internationally, Alison is particularly interested in the work of Cabrini Outreach.

Alison sees her involvement in the CAC as an opportunity to contribute to the wider Cabrini community, honouring the values of compassion, integrity, courage and respect. She values the collaborative nature of her Consumer Representative role, helping to develop and maintain a high-quality, consistent and compassionate health care service for the wider Cabrini community.

“My life’s a journey with many health adventures and challenges, given I’m a person with complex health issues”; a statement by Michael that not only reflects his health journey and status, but his enduring and positive outlook on life and what he can contribute to individuals and organisations.

Recognising that every person’s health journey is different, he is passionate about not only bringing the voices of patients to the leaders of Cabrini, but proactively advocating that these ideas and improvements are explored and / or addressed at either governance, organisational or service levels.

Michael brings a wealth of governance, leadership and management knowledge and insights, having worked with the boards, chief executive officers & executives of nearly 6500 health and human service organisations both nationally and internationally. With a primary focus on Not For Profit aged care, allied and primary health care, acute care and disability, he has a comprehensive understanding of challenges and opportunities that confront the leaders, staff and volunteers of these organisations; including many Catholic providers and religious orders. He is the Managing Director of Australian Strategic Services, the Chair of Better Boards, the Consumer Representative on the Cabrini Blood Management Committee and has served as a Director on a number of private and NFP boards.

As a creative and visionary strategist, he is widely known for his deep understanding of the various health and human service industries / sectors, as well facilitating and project managing governance, strategic planning, merger and amalgamation and organisational development projects. But first and foremost he has always remained squarely focused on ensuring that an organisation’s vision, mission, values and strategies are enacted for the direct benefit of each individual or family they serve.

Mike has worked as a Chartered Accountant, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Director during a career that involved work in Australia, UK, USA and Europe. He is now focused on giving back through roles as a Mentor and Business Coach, and through volunteering with Food Bank and as a member of the Cabrini Community Advisory Committee.

He has been involved with Cabrini since 2017 when he was a member of the Patient Experience Advisory Committee (the forerunner of the Community Advisory Committee), also as a regular patient, and carer for family members during their stays with Cabrini. Mike is passionate about Patient-Centred Care, and is enthusiastic about leveraging his international business and consumer experience to assist the wonderful Cabrini team to provide the best care in a supportive and compassionate environment.

Philomena has Cerebral Palsy and has spent most of her life in a wheelchair.

Having a disability has made Philomena very aware of the many issues faced by people with disabilities in all areas of life.

Philomena is on many Disability Committees and she is passionate about making positives changes for all people.

She joined the Consumer Advisory Committee at Cabrini in 2024 to help improve the patent experience for people going through the hospital system.

In her role as Patient Experience Manager, Rhiannon is passionate about engaging and educating Cabrini staff to continually strive for an excellent patient and family experience. By analysing data provided by the Patient Experience Survey, improvement projects are developed to address key areas of concern. Consumer Representatives work in collaboration with Rhiannon and Cabrini staff to plan, develop, and implement these improvement plans.

Lucy has been the Customer Relations Manager since 2023. Customer Relations receive and manage formal compliments and complaints for all Cabrini services. Compliments received are acknowledged where possible and shared with the manager and their staff. Complaints are acknowledged and a review is generally undertaken with a response provided to the complainant. A review of complaints can lead to quality improvements in the local or wider department areas.

Jodie has been the Director, Clinical Quality and Patient Safety since 2021. In this role she oversees the Quality Systems Team with a responsibility for organisation-wide quality and safety accreditation systems such as policy review, clinical audit and quality improvement projects. Jodie is passionate about improvement and supporting staff to provide safe, high quality patient-centred care.