They provide strong financial leadership, ensure performance against our strategic priorities and build connections with like-minded health, education and community organisations. This ensures we continue to provide the highest levels of specialist health care for all Victorians.
Board
The Eye and Ear is led by a skilled board of Directors.
Ms Melanie Eagle
Chair
Ms Eagle is an accomplished board member and Chair, government advisor, and senior executive with extensive experience in governance, policy reform, and strategic leadership. She currently serves as the inaugural and reappointed Chair for the Disability Worker Registration Board, as a Board member of St Vincent’s Medical Research Institute, and as a panel member for the Australian Association of Social Workers Ethics Panel. Her distinguished career has also included appointments as a Director at Alfred Health, as the inaugural Chair of Respect Victoria, as a member of the Victorian Ministerial Disability Advisory Committee, and as the CEO of LiverWELL (formerly Hepatitis Victoria) Her passion is innovation and its translation into improved community outcomes.
Mr Bruce Mildenhall
Mr Mildenhall has an extensive background in governance at a public sector and community level. He served as the State MP for Footscray for 14 years, including seven years as Parliamentary Secretary to Premier and nine years as a City of Footscray Councillor. In the health sector he served on the board of a primary health service for more than 20 years. He also chaired the board of the largest residential aged care service in the western suburbs for nine years, led a review of mental health workforce training, and has been a board member of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation and a metropolitan hospital. Beyond these involvements, Bruce is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and was a senior manager in the Victorian public service before entering parliament.
Dr Susan Sdrinis
Dr Sdrinis is a medical practitioner and specialist medical administrator. She has held roles as Executive Director Medical Services and Director Medical Services in Victorian public hospitals, as a Senior Medical Advisor in the Victorian Department of Health, and board director. Her interests are in the areas of clinical governance, medical governance and professional issues, and mentoring clinician managers and medical administrators in training. Dr Sdrinis is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Mr Kyle Vander-Kuyp
Mr Vander-Kuyp joined the Board in August 2023 and brings a wealth of experience across government, corporate, not-for-profits and community organisations. Mr Vander-Kuyp is an Elder and Respected Person at Koori Court. He is a strong advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture, travelling extensively to provide mentorship, development opportunities, and cultural support for Indigenous youth. Mr Vander- Kuyp is a former athlete who represented Australia at the Olympics and every major international competition over a 20-year career. Since then, he has held positions across many organisations including as an Ambassador to the Department of Human Services where he raised awareness for better access to services such as Medicare, Australian Hearing and Centrelink. In addition, he is the Founder and Director at Killara Foundation, an Ambassador and Speaker at Beyond Blue, a Chair of Directors at Connecting Home, advisor on many RAP Working Groups including Tennis Australia, Australian Athletics Australian Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Australia.
Ms Chris McLoughlin
Ms McLoughlin has 15 years of experience in public health, leading People and Culture functions at Alfred Health and Monash Health. She integrates culture development with process and system design and has leadership and human resources experience across manufacturing, state government, and consulting firms. She collaborates with leaders to develop high-performance cultures and teams that facilitate thriving environments for individuals and groups. Beginning her career as a social worker, she established child protection and corporate training units for the state government and directed KPMG's leadership training unit. Currently, she serves on the board of Gippsland Southern Health Service and offers consulting services to a health service in South Australia.
Ms Janice Brown
Ms Brown is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years of experience in financial accounting, assurance, compliance and risk management. In addition to being a Financial Assurance Director at PwC, Ms Brown has been a Chief Financial Officer in superannuation, health insurance and disability service entities, all in the for-purpose sector. Throughout her career, she has gained extensive experience with financial reporting and analysis, mergers, regulatory reform, investment and capital management and strategic planning. Ms Brown is also a qualified Company Secretary, has strong corporate governance skills and is an Associate Member of the Governance Institute of Australia.
Mr Jared Heath
Mr Heath is a Partner of Corrs Chambers Westgarth. With over 18 years of government advisory experience, Mr Heath has advised government and the private sector on various major projects, as well as significant legislative, regulatory and policy reviews and integrity inquiries. He served in the Office of General Counsel of the Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic and as the General Counsel of the Board of Inquiry into historical child sexual abuse in Beaumaris Primary School, the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings and the Royal Commission into Family Violence. He has co-authored an independent review of Victoria’s pandemic management framework. Mr Heath is currently a director of the South-East Monash Legal Service and the Gorman Foundation and previously served as a director of the Australian Indonesia Business Council. He is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School.
Ms Kelly Schulz
Ms Schulz is the Chief Curiosity Officer of Knowable Me, a market research company that helps organisations understand human diversity through lived experience insights. Ms Schulz has held senior roles across complaints, accessibility and inclusion, customer experience, brand and communications. She brings strong strategic judgement, human-centred thinking and a practical understanding of how organisations can better serve diverse communities. She holds director roles including with Onemda Association and the Victorian Public Transport Ombudsman. She is also a member of Swinburne University’s Technology, Innovation & Value Creation Committee and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Ms Schulz identifies as “blind, with just enough vision to be dangerous” and is ably assisted by her guide dog, Zali.
Mr Geoff Southwell
Mr Southwell is a senior executive and experienced non-executive director with more than 35 years of leadership across ICT, financial management, and corporate governance in commercial enterprises, government, and not-for-profit organisations. He is CEO of a disability advocacy organisation, a founding board member of the Disability Worker Registration Board of Victoria and has served as non-executive director and treasurer on several not-for-profit boards. His executive career has included leading in ICT, operations, consulting and finance. He has experience in technology strategy, enterprise systems transformation, privacy and cybersecurity governance, and financial performance. Mr Southwell holds an MBA from the University of Melbourne, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
