The Chancellor

Professor Ngiare Brown

Chancellor, James Cook University

BMed, MPHTM, FRACGP

Professor Ngiare Brown is the first female and first Indigenous Chancellor of James Cook University. She was elected as the sixth Chancellor of the University in January 2023, commencing in April 2023. She is also the second member of the University’s alumni to take up the role. A proud Yuin nation woman from the south coast of NSW, Professor Brown is a senior Aboriginal medical practitioner with qualifications in medicine, public health and primary care, and has studied bioethics, medical law and human rights.

Professor Brown was one of the first Aboriginal medical graduates in Australia, completing her medical degree at the University of Newcastle in 1991. She graduated with a Master of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from JCU in 2000 and was named an Outstanding Alumna in 2012. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Throughout her career, Professor Brown has held a variety of positions in education, mentoring, clinical practice, research and advocacy. She is a founding member and foundation Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, and a founding member of the Pacific Region Indigenous Doctors’ Congress. She was also the Indigenous Health Adviser to the Australian Medical Association, Manager of Preventative Indigenous Health Programs for World Vision Australia, Assistant Director at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, and Senior Research Manager for the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, and an inaugural member and co-chair of the Prime Minister’s Indigenous Advisory Council. She is currently Chair of the National Mental Health Commission’s Advisory Council and Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Committee for the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

An inaugural member of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner's Close the Gap Campaign, Professor Brown has made extensive contributions to research process, bioethics, policy, translation and practice within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. She has also developed an extensive international network in Indigenous health and research over the past three decades.

In addition to her academic and advocacy work, Professor Brown is the Founding Director of Ngaoara, a not-for-profit committed to child and adolescent wellbeing. She currently works as a clinician and consultant to develop and deliver sustainable, integrated primary and specialist care for children with complex co-morbidities. Through Ngaoara, she supports communities to develop strength-based approaches to breaking intergenerational cycles of trauma and disparity.