Chair

Jacinta Elston

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health co-lead, VCCC Alliance; Consultant and Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

Jacinta Elston is an Aboriginal leader in the Australian cancer community, with global experience in Indigenous affairs across public health, higher education, research and policy development. She was the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) at Monash University from 2018 to 2022, and before that spent more than two decades at James Cook University, leaving in early 2018 as Professor and Associate Dean of Indigenous Health in the Division of Tropical Health and Medicine. Her first role there, nearly 35 years ago, was focused on Aboriginal women's experience of cancer.

Jacinta was the first Aboriginal person appointed to Cancer Australia's Advisory Council, serving from 2012 to 2015, and chaired Cancer Australia's Leadership Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Control for six years from its establishment in 2016. She is Deputy Chair of the board of Breast Cancer Network Australia and, since 2022, a consultant to Cancer Australia on strengthening Indigenous cancer control nationally. She is grounded in her commitment to life in regional Australia, where she has served on the boards of Indigenous community-controlled health and legal organisations, and is passionate about mentoring emerging Indigenous leaders.