The Croakey team

Information about Croakey Health Media’s Board of Directors can be found here.

Social journalism team

Croakey’s Social Journalism team is steered by public health journalist Dr Melissa Sweet, in collaboration with many others. The team includes the editors, as well as contributing editors, columnists and people who collaborate on various projects.

Members of the team wear multiple hats, and the editors declare their conflicts of interest here.

Roles

Editor-in-Chief – Overall editorial responsibility; reporting to directors and members; steering social journalism activities and development; outreach and sustainability; organisational development. A CHM director.
Managing Editor – Editorial responsibilities; outreach and sustainability; organisational development.
Editors – Commissioning, editing, writing and publishing articles. Contributing to social journalism activities and development.
Creative director/web developer – Website design and development; graphic design; contributing to social journalism activities and development.
Chief Operating Officer – Supporting financial sustainability and development; business planning; working with funders; and providing outreach and relationship management.
Contributing editors – Providing advice; contributing to social journalism activities and development; outreach and engagement.

Editorial

Dr Melissa Sweet

Editor-in-Chief

Alison Barrett

Managing Editor

Jennifer Doggett

Secretary of CHM members

Linda Doherty

Editor

Cate Carrigan

Editor

Marie McInerney

Editor

Meera Senthilingham

Editor

Dr Ruth Armstrong

Editor

Dr Amy Coopes

Editor

Lyndal Rowlands

Editor

Graphic design & web development

Business development

Mitchell Ward

Creative Director & Web Developer

David Morgan

Chief Operating Officer

Kelly Dargan

Strategy & Sustainability

Contributing editors

Dr Summer May Finlay

Contributing Editor

Dr Lesley Russell

Contributing Editor

Dr Tess Ryan

Contributing Editor

Dr Tim Senior

Contributing Editor

Dr Megan Williams

Contributing Editor

Dr Mark Ragg

Contributing Editor

Peter McInnes

Contributing Editor

Croakey Conference News Service

Journalists and others who have contributed to this service include:

Dr Ruth Armstrong
Alison Barrett
Annie Blatchford
Rosemary Cadden
H. Clare Callow
Cate Carrigan
Mardi Chapman
Dr Amy Coopes
Jennifer Doggett
Dr Summer May Finlay
Matthew Giles
Nicole MacKee
Marie McInerney
Marge Overs
Dr Lesley Russell
Dr Tess Ryan
Meera Senthilingham
Dr Sarah Simons
Dr Melissa Sweet
John Thompson-Mills
Mitchell Ward
Karen Wyld

We also thank and acknowledge others who have contributed to Croakey, including:

El Gibbs, Nicole MacKee, Kelly Briggs, Dr Justin Coleman, Dr Lynore Geia, Fronscesca Jackson-Webb, Dr Melissa Stoneham, Michelle Hughes, and The Health Wrap contributors Kellie Bisset, Ellice Mol, Megan Howe, Helen Signy, Barry Dunning, Frances Gilham.

Help support non-profit public interest journalism

Public interest journalism is an important determinant of health, due to its roles in accountability and holding power to account, empowering communities, and contributing to health literacy. A strong public interest journalism sector contributes to planetary health and health equity, as well as healthier people, communities, societies, and systems of governance.

Join one of our annual Funding Consortia

Croakey has a mixed revenue stream that includes support from members of our funding consortium. There are four tiers of funding consortia:-

Health Equity Champion
Health Equity Star
Health Equity Heart, and
Health Equity Supporter

The details of each tier can be found here and a list of current consortium members can be found here.

If you would like to be part of one of the Consortia, please contact us at: info@croakey.org.

You can also support Croakey by subscribing to our weekly email bulletin or by making a donation.

What people say about Croakey

Croakey is one of the few places where public health “activists” can vent their spleen. (I’m not sure why we’re called ‘activists’, but we certainly need a place to ‘vent’.) It’s also a useful place for journalists/media to find contacts who can speak intelligently on public health issues.

Dr Rosemary Stanton OAM

Public health nutrition "activist"

Follow us on social media

Merchandise

Get Croakey merch

Contacts

Testimonials

Croakey is now well established as compulsory reading for influencers and observers in health and medicine in Australia and internationally – and rightly so. As a blog, it gives voice to people who support or oppose government health and social policy. It allows people to express their views and opinions openly, passionately, and freely – from all perspectives. More importantly, Croakey provides a forum for new ideas and new thinking – based on experiences at the frontline of health service delivery – which we can only hope find their way into future health policy to provide better health services to the Australian community.

John Flannery

Health communications expert

Croakey Health Media is an outstanding service and team. They covered our 2023 Planetary Health Equity Hothouse Policy Symposium, generating incredible communication about complex issues in easily digestible ways and with massive reach. We are incredibly lucky to have Croakey Health Media – access to reliable, quality public interest journalism is vital for democracy. I would highly recommend this service and team.

Professor Sharon Friel

Director, Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, ANU – #HothouseSymposium (2023)

When writing grant applications and budgets, please consider including Croakey Health Media in your plans.

Alison Barrett

Croakey Managing Editor

Croakey provides a national stage where all players in the health arena can have their voices heard. It has enabled consumers more easily to make their perspective and opinion known. Croakey has also taken a leadership role in developing a strong presence in social media, an important development for primary care in stimulating community-based approaches to health.

Leanne Wells

CEO of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia

Croakey not only gives me up to date information on contemporary health issues, but allows me to send my health information across Australia in an instant. It is also the perfect vehicle for starting peoples’ movements, engaging with Indigenous peoples and our issues, and building a community that has at its basis a desire to make positive change happen. It is polite and political, informative and inspiring. Active engagement is what Croakey does – and I like it!

Professor Kerry Arabena

Public health leader

As CEO of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (VMIAC), it is my pleasure to write a testimonial for Croakey. In the past three years, VMIAC have happily engaged the services of Marie McInerney and her team at Croakey to cover major events in the life of VMIAC. We have been fortunate to have Croakey cover our awards night last year and our conference the year before. Marie has brilliantly captured the essence of our organisation and the views of our members and stakeholders. I cannot envisage a time when we will not engage Croakey as we find their brand of journalism uplifting, accurate and honest. Marie’s ability to draw out the stories she produces is wonderfully fresh and always empowering. I would not hesitate to recommend Croakey as a leading service to any event.

Maggie Toko

CEO of the Victorian Mental Illness Awareness Council (VMIAC)

With a health system that is facing unprecedented challenges we need all the courage and all the insight we can get our hands on. Croakey is a space that invites us to to challenge and interrogate our practice and our policy. Croakey’s journalism and activism inspires me to remain optimistic.

Mary Freer

Change Day Australia

If you care about a public health issue, or want others to care, get it online and get it on Croakey.

Professor Tarun Weeramanthri

Public health physician

Croakey is a valuable voice in the health space, providing a respected and wide ranging platform for health experts and professionals to debate this crucial area of public policy.

Catherine King

Federal Government Minister

Croakey is an outstanding achievement and an absolutely essential part of the public health scene. It’s required reading for anyone who wants to know what’s happening, why, and what should be happening. Croakey is produced by an exceptional team of editors, authors and other contributors. Always a top read.

Emeritus Professor Mike Daube

Curtin University

Jennifer Doggett

Jennifer Doggett is an editor at Croakey and reports for the Croakey Conference News Service. She is a Fellow of the Centre for Policy Development and a consultant working in the health sector for a number of professional, industry and consumer groups. She has previously worked within the Federal Department of Health, as a political advisor and in a community health organisation. She worked for Nicola Roxon when she was opposition Health spokeswoman and before that for Meg Lees when she was leader of the Democrats. Jennifer is the author of “A New Approach to Primary Care for Australia” and “Out-of-pocket: rethinking co-payments in the health system”, and a contributing author to CPD’s recent publication More Than Luck: Ideas Australia needs now. Jennifer’s chapter Getting health policy into shape argues for a sharper focus on addressing the issues which matter most to consumers: out-of-pocket expenses, co-payments, and unequal access to health-care providers. She has a Masters in Public Health and a Graduate Diploma in Health Economics.

COI declaration: Jennifer is Chair of the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance. She provides (or has previously provided) consultancy services to a range of different organisations in the health sector including: Department of Health (Commonwealth), NSW Health, The Royal Australasian College of Psychiatrists (via CEG-AP), The Black Dog Institute, The Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Health Care, the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, the Australian Health Care Reform Alliance, Consumers Health Forum and Stryker Australasia (via CMAX Advisory). Jennifer has received fees and travel related expenses for attending a number of conferences and events on behalf of the Croakey Conference News Service, as well as a policy simulation exercise organised by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association. She has previously been employed by Client Solutions, the Australian Divisions of General Practice, a federal Senator (from the Australian Democrats), the AIDS Council of South Australia and the Federal Department of Health. Jennifer Doggett provides consultancy services to a range of organisations in the health sector, including providers of physiotherapy, medical technology, nursing, medical education and training and medical services, including the current COVID-19 vaccine program.

Dr Lesley Russell

Dr Lesley Russell is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Menzies Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) at the University of Sydney. She is a contributing editor at Croakey, and also began contributing the regular Health Wrap column in early 2018. Her research interests include healthcare reform in Australia and the US, mental health, Indigenous health, addressing health disparities and health budget issues; her policy papers and annual budget analyses are available on the University of Sydney e-scholarship website. Lesley was previously a Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University. She has a PhD in biochemistry from the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU. Lesley has substantial experience working in health policy in the US and Australia, both in and out of government. In 2009-12 she worked in Washington DC on a range of issues around the enactment and implementation of President Obama’s health care reforms, initially as a Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Progress and later as a Senior Advisor to the US Surgeon General, Dr Regina Benjamin, in the Department of Health and Human Services. From 2007-2010 she was the inaugural Menzies Foundation Fellow at the MCHP and a Research Associate at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. Prior to that she was a health policy advisor to the Federal Australian Labor Party, working for Simon Crean when he was Leader of the Opposition and then Julia Gillard when she was Shadow Minister for Health. She worked for seven years (1984-1991) as health policy advisor to Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee in the US House of Representatives. Lesley is a keen skier (with a home on the slopes in Keystone Colorado) and hiker and a regular contributor to CroakeyGO.

COI statement: Lesley writes regularly for Inside Story and receives compensation for these articles. She undertakes occasional consultancy work, most recently for Oxfam Australia, Probity Australia, and the federal Department of Health. In the past she has worked as an employee or consultant for several pharmaceutical companies, including MSD Australia, CSL and Teva. She continues to provide policy advice to the ALP.

The Croakey team

Social journalism team

Roles

Editorial

Dr Melissa Sweet

Alison Barrett

Jennifer Doggett

Linda Doherty

Cate Carrigan

Marie McInerney

Meera Senthilingham

Dr Ruth Armstrong

Dr Amy Coopes

Lyndal Rowlands

Graphic design & web development

Business development​

Mitchell Ward

David Morgan

Kelly Dargan

Contributing editors

Dr Summer May Finlay

Dr Lesley Russell

Dr Tess Ryan

Dr Tim Senior

Dr Megan Williams

Dr Mark Ragg

Peter McInnes

Croakey Conference News Service

Help support non-profit public interest journalism

Join one of our annual Funding Consortia

What people say about Croakey

Follow us on social media

Merchandise

Contacts

Projects

Testimonials

Dr Melissa Sweet

Alison Barrett

Jennifer Doggett

Linda Doherty

Cate Carrigan

Marie McInerney

Meera Senthilingam

Dr Ruth Armstrong

Dr Amy Coopes

Lyndal Rowlands

Mitchell Ward

David Morgan

Kelly Dargan

Dr Summer May Finlay

Dr Lesley Russell

Dr Tess Ryan

Dr Tim Senior

Dr Megan Williams

Mark Ragg

Peter McInnes

Help support non-profit public interest journalism

Join one of our annual Funding Consortia

What people say about Croakey

Follow us on social media

Laurell Grubb

Nicole MacKee

Dr Melissa Sweet

Business development