Dr Rhonda Louise Galbally - Infinite Women

Born: 1948, Australia
Died: NA
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: NA

The following is republished with permission from the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

For decades, Dr Rhonda Galbally AC has been working to find new ways of understanding and supporting communities.

As a CEO for 23 years in the business, public, philanthropy and community sectors, Rhonda has led the creation of a number of cutting edge organisations. These include the Australian International Health Institute at the University of Melbourne, the Australian Commission for the Future, and VicHealth – the world’s first organisation to use a dedicated tobacco tax for health promotion.

Her contribution to public health was recognised by an award from the World Health Organisation Award for Tobacco and Health in 1996. Rhonda was Chair of the first stage of the Australian Women’s Longitudinal Health Study and as a result of her involvement, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funded a major Asia Pacific hub for child vaccination at the University of Melbourne.

A defining feature of Rhonda’s work has been to look beyond just concentrating on individual behaviour change for health and wellbeing. As Executive Director of the Myer Foundation and Sidney Myer Foundation, Chair of Philanthropy Australia and a trustee of the Reichstein Foundation, she has helped direct large amounts of philanthropic funding into grass roots community organisations. For the past five years, as Founding CEO of Our Community Pty. Ltd. Rhonda has built a national gateway to resources, networks and support for Australia’s 700,000 community organisations.

Rhonda has been a passionate advocate for a ‘rights’ based approach to social justice and her stories from decades of campaigning are recorded in her recently published book by Pluto Press – Just Passions. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 1990, the Award of the Degree Doctor of Science (honoris causa) in 1998 and the Centenary Medal in 2003 in recognition of her service to the community. As Chair of the Disability Advisory Council, Rhonda believes that rights campaigns are now more important than ever.

Presenting the 2004 Victorian Human Rights Oration, Rhonda argued that “a fundamentally good and moral society overcomes its resistance to change when confronted with a notion that it considers true, just and universal. In the area of disability, however, there are unfortunately many people who regard rights simply as a list of social and legal concessions that they are required to make”.

This biography is republished from The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Written by Caitlin Stone, The University of Melbourne. See below for full attribution.

Rhonda Galbally was born and educated in Victoria. Living with a disability as a result of polio, she worked as a secondary school teacher in the early 1970s, before becoming senior policy officer at the Victorian Council of Social Services (1979 to 1982), executive director of the Myer Foundation (1982 to 1985) and chief executive officer of the Commission for the Future (1985 to 1988). In 1988, she was appointed chief executive officer of the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (or ‘VicHealth’) and, from 2000 to 2009, was founding chief executive officer of ‘Our Community’, an organisation providing support to not-for-profit community groups. In 2012, Rhonda Galbally was made co-chair of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Advisory Group on Eligibility and Assessment.
In addition to her work as a disability activist, Rhonda Galbally has been outspoken in health and social causes such as tobacco companies’ sponsorship of sport. In 2004, she resigned from the council of Monash University in protest at proposed increases to student fees. Rhonda Galbally has received a number of awards in recognition of her work in social and disability activism. In 1991, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia. In 2005, she was inducted on to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women. In 2012, she received the Prime Minister’s Outstanding Achievement Award at the National Disability Awards.