Dr Janine Mohamed is a proud Narrunga Kaurna woman from South Australia. She has been based on Wurundjeri Country in Melbourne since 2019 as the CEO of the Lowitja Institute – Australia’s National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research.

Over the past 20 years, Janine has worked in nursing, management, project management, research, workforce and health policy in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector. Many of these years have been spent in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector at state, national and international levels, including:

  • Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia (AHCSA)
  • the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO)
  • Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), where she was the CEO from 2013 to 2018.

As a pioneer for Indigenous healthcare, Janine has recently been named Victoria's 2024 Australian of the Year.

Janine was also awarded an Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity Fellowship in 2019 and a Doctorate of Nursing honoris causa by Edith Cowan University in January 2020. In 2021, Janine was awarded a Distinguished Fellowship by The George Institute for Global Health Australia.

She is a regular spokesperson on key topics in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health, such as cultural safety, the social and cultural determinants of health, workforce and Indigenous data sovereignty.

Janine Mohamed