Our board
Board and staff at our strategic planning weekend in Canberra, ACT, on 16 July 2022. From left to right: Cody Smith, Dr Aileen Kennedy, Morgan Carpenter, Dr Alice de Jonge, Paul Byrne-Moroney, Dr Anita Jacombs, Clare MacDonald, Olympia Balopitos, Dr Agli Zavros-Orr, Councillor Tony Briffa. Photo thanks to Dr Hannah Holland
Simone-Lisa Anderson – Director
Simone-lisa is the project lead and co-ordinator of Better Lives – a Tasmanian project creating better lifelong outcomes in both education and health through professional development, for people with IVSC. Through the Better Lives Project Simone-lisa has found herself consulting with government bodies around Australia; holding a visiting lecturer position with the University of Tasmania; co-designing and reviewing resources for national organisations; presenting at numerous conferences both intra and interstate; and leading a team to create national first patient/student resources for people with IVSC. Simone-lisa also is a founding board member for the Restriction of Medical Treatments Act in the ACT under 4 categories with a 5-year tenure, and a co-investigator of Interlink and a co-designer of the Victorian Intersex Health and Wellbeing Project. She is a member of the Tasmanian Whole of Government, Department of Health and Department of Justice LGBTIQA+ reference groups, where she has driven considerable amount of change, including: a clinical definition of IVSC, legislative, policy, procedure and protocol change in most government departments; as well as policy for employees with IVSC. Simone-lisa has written Primary Health Pathways for GP’s and works closely with the Tasmanian Secretary of Health to support better outcomes for people with IVSC. Lastly, she is the Tasmanian and Parent Representative for Intersex Peer Support Australia. Simone-Lisa Anderson was elected a director at the 2024 AGM.
Tony Briffa JP – Co-Chair
Antoinette (Tony) Briffa was a co-executive director between December 2016 and May 2021, alongside Morgan Carpenter and is now a vice-chair. Tony is one of Australia’s first intersex advocates, appearing on 60 Minutes in 2000 and 2005, and published in Nature in 2004. Tony more recently presented a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, in 2014. She is also a councillor of Hobsons Bay in Melbourne, the first openly intersex person elected to public office and the world’s first openly intersex Mayor. An aviation engineer and specialist, she is a former president of Intersex Peer Support Australia (IPSA) (also known as AISSGA), co-chair of the Victorian government’s intersex expert advisory group, a member of current and previous Victorian Ministerial Advisory Groups on LGBTI issues, a board member of ILGA Oceania and chair of the intersex committee of ILGA World. Tony speaks nationally and internationally and has appeared on television, radio, magazines and newspapers discussing intersex human rights. She is a Justice of the Peace and former Bail Justice in Victoria.
Paul Byrne-Moroney – Director
Paul learned he has an extra X chromosome at the age of 28, and that he is intersex at the age of 50. In 2006 Paul co-founded of the Klinefelter Syndrome Support Group of Victoria, is a representative of several community advisory and reference groups (CRG) such as the Victorian Government Intersex Expert Advisory Group and the Victorian Pride Centre CRG. Since 2020 Paul has been a Victorian Peer Support Representative for Intersex Peer Support Australia and since 2022, an Australian Ambassador for Chromodiversity Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting families affected by genetic and developmental differences. Holding a Bachelor of Health Science / Public Health (Hons), Paul is a frequent speaker on the topic of sex chromosome variations and intersex, presenting to government, corporate and health organisations, and at several annual conferences. When Paul isn’t participating in formal advocacy and peer support, he is a Radio Broadcaster and Host of “The I in US” – the only radio show in Australia about the intersex community, by the intersex community, on JOY94.9. Paul stepped down in 2022 before rejoining the board in 2024.
Associate Professor Morgan Carpenter – Executive Director
Morgan Carpenter, PhD, is an intersex man, bioethicist and our executive director (a part-time role) who lives on Bundjalung Country in northern NSW. He is also an Associate Professor at Sydney Health Ethics in the University of Sydney School of Public Health. In 2023, Morgan’s “tireless work” was singled out for particular recognition, by Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr, in introducing Australian-first legislation to protect the rights of people with innate variations of sex characteristics in medical settings. He has been named as a significant contributor to a 2021 Australian Human Rights Commission report on the health and human rights of people born with variations in characteristics. Morgan has also changed the global and local face of intersex advocacy: in 2013 he designed and shared the intersex flag, now used across the world, framed around concepts of bodily integrity and autonomy. Morgan wrote our submissions to Senate inquiries on involuntary or coerced sterilisation, and anti-discrimination legislation, and also participated in hearings on those inquiries. He participated in the first intersex expert meeting, organised by the UN. He was an expert and drafting committee member for the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 and has also consulted or been a reference group member for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the ACT government, Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, NSW Health, and other bodies. A director since IHRA registered as a not-for-profit company in 2010, Morgan Carpenter has served in numerous board positions, including president.
Dr Alice de Jonge – Director
Alice de Jonge SJD, PhD is a senior lecturer in law at Monash Business School, Monash University, where she lectures on aspects of public and private international law. Alice is a long term member of the Faculty Equity, Diversity and Social Inclusion Committee, and the Monash NTEU Branch Committee. Alice has travelled extensively throughout Asia and speaks Mandarin and Chinese. She lived and studied in Shanghai (Fudan University), and was a visiting scholar at Nanjing University. In 1998, she worked for two months as investigative lawyer for the Ombudsman Commission of Papua New Guinea. She has provided written advice for the Central and East European Law Initiative of the American Bar Association, and provided advice in cases before the Refugee Review Tribunal. Alice was awarded the LawAsia Research Award in 1998, and has also been the recipient of a number of travelling scholarships and research grants. She has also taught at university institutions in Southeast Asia, Europe and South Africa. She has published extensively on topics of international law, human rights, women in business and intersex rights, and she volunteers as a lawyer for Refugee Legal, Victoria. Alice joined the board at the 2021 AGM.
Bonnie Hart – Deputy Executive Director
Bonnie Hart is an intersex woman, peer worker and systemic advocate working with and within the intersex community to advocate for legislative protections and improved access to affirmative, rights-based health and mental health services. Bonnie nurtures intersex community connections and a burgeoning intersex peer workforce. Bonnie lives on Gubbi Gubbi country. She is the designer of InterLink, a peer-led and community-based intersex psychosocial support program and is an original signatory of the Darlington Statement, an Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australian intersex community consensus statement. Bonnie has a long time relationship with Intersex Peer Support Australia, having held several leadership roles and drafted multiple submissions informing Australian legislative and human rights reform on behalf of the group. Bonnie has participated in expert multiple advisory groups informing government and NGOs on intersex issues and is an intersex educator, developing affirmative practice resources and regularly providing sector-specific training through the Yellow Tick initiative. Bonnie is a PhD candidate at the University of Southern Queensland, investigating affirmative healthcare. Bonnie Hart was elected a director at the 2024 AGM.
Dr Aileen Kennedy – Director
Dr Aileen Kennedy is a leading scholar on Australian law relating to sex and gender, with particular focus on intersex human rights. Aileen chaired Intersex Human Rights Australia between 2022 and 2024. She is a member of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights LGBTIQ Sub-committee. She was recently appointed as a national director of Pride in Law. Aileen joined UTS Faculty of Law in the Law Health Justice Research Centre in April 2023 as a Chancellor’s Post-doctoral Research Fellow. Her post-doctoral project is to provide an analysis of Australian law as it impacts on the intersex population, and comprehensive recommendations for law reform. Aileen completed her PhD at UTS, and her thesis considered the impact of neurological theories of binary gender on judicial decision-making for transgender and intersex minors in Australia, Aileen has an extensive record of research and advocacy on intersex human rights law. Her forthcoming book ‘Law, Gender Identity and the Brain’ published by Routledge Press, sits at the cutting edge of law and medicine’s engagement with sex and gender to argue that law must develop greater acceptance of dynamic complexity and diversity in the domain of sex/gender. Law must retreat from its determination to create, define, and regulate artificially bounded sex categories of male and female which can lead to violations of embodied integrity and a betrayal of autonomous rights of intersex minors. Aileen is currently investigating Australian privacy laws in relation to the history and ethics of medical photography of intersex minors. She is researching fertility issues in the context of intersex variations. In her previous academic job Aileen was a Senior Lecturer at University of New England in Armidale NSW.
Michelle McGrath – Co-Chair
Michelle is an intersex woman, volunteer intersex peer support representative and advocate. She is a member of the WA LGBTQIA+ Inclusion Strategy Reference Group and the Medical Research Futures Fund Project (MRFF) Community Reference Group, on models of care for people with innate variations of sex characteristics (IVSC). She was the President of Intersex Peer Support Australia between 2023 – 2024 and was elected a Co-Chair of InterAction at the 2024 AGM. She is a current WA peer support representative for Intersex Peer Support Australia (IPSA). Michelle was part of the InterLink+ Resources Co-design Working Group and the Victorian Intersex Health and Wellbeing Centre Co-Design Project, both in 2024. Michelle is passionate about ensuring that all intersex people and their families a given the opportunity to receive peer support from those with lived experience. Michelle McGrath was elected co-chair at the AGM in December 2024.
Patricia Waghorn – Director
Patricia Waghorn serves as a peer support co-representative for NSW. With a background as a professional communicator and personal experiences as an intersex individual, Patricia is deeply committed to helping others overcome the loneliness and stigma often faced by people with sex variations. Patricia’s focus is on fostering meaningful connections and bridging gaps to support others. Patricia Waghorn was elected a director at the AGM in December 2024.
You must be logged in to post a comment.