Our board
Karen Fogarty
Director and Board Chairperson
Karen lives in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, where she has been the managing principal of a legal practice for 30 years. Her diverse legal practice has a focus on commercial law, reflecting Karen’s passion and skill in advising on and optimising corporate structures. A long-term friend of Rose’s, Karen is passionate about using her expertise to assist in raising funds for the important work that Rose and her team are doing to improve the wellbeing of mothers and babies during their first 1000 days of life. Karen’s commitment to supporting the establishment of the Dr Rose McGready Foundation is reinforced by her visits to Myanmar, where she saw the scale of the poverty families faced, the amazing vitality of the people, as well as the enormous contribution Rose was making to improving their lives.
Read the 2023 Chairperson’s report >
Helen Shephard
Director and Secretary
Helen lives in Sydney, New South Wales, and has worked in the corporate sector for more than 25 years in corporate governance and human resources. Having lived in places as diverse as the United Kingdom and Papua New Guinea, Helen has seen vastly different experiences for women and their children in the first 1000 days of life, particularly the dramatic effect of poverty. She has known Rose McGready for more than 40 years and realises the impact of her health clinics on the Thai-Myanmar border, directly addressing risks to mothers and children. Recognising the need for sustainable financial support for Rose’s life-saving work, Helen committed to using her skills and experience to establish the Dr Rose McGready Foundation with three other founding directors. Together, they will raise awareness and crucial funding in Australia.
Sarah Carter
Director and Public Officer
Sarah lives in Orange, New South Wales, and is a licensed financial planner. She has also been a Board Member of Orange Regional Conservatorium Management Committee since April 2020. Having been friends with Rose since university, Sarah visited her in Mae Sot, Thailand, in December 2019 and quickly realised the need for an Australian-based charity to help raise life-saving funds. She strongly believes the Dr Rose McGready Foundation will be able to support and expand the provision of maternal care to Karen and Burmese women, and their babies. The displaced women who do not readily have access to healthcare – a basic human right – are close to Sarah’s heart. She wants to be part of a foundation dedicated to ensuring they can find high-quality care when they need it.
Adrienne White
Board Member
Adrienne lives in Melbourne, Victoria and is a recently retired midwifery teacher, clinical researcher and academic who has always had a passion for social justice and equity of access to maternity care. In 2009, on assignment with Australian Volunteers International, she spent two years in MaeSot working with Rose at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit. Together with the local and expatriate staff they developed a curriculum to train 79 local women to become skilled birth attendants and five skilled birth attendant teachers, demonstrating that safe maternity care is possible in this resource limited setting. Read more about her published work here.
This updated curriculum is currently being used to train skilled birth attendants in the refugee camps and clinics.
Adrienne is keen to use her understanding of the local conditions along the Thai-Myanmar border to contribute to the foundation and the tireless work that Rose does to ensure safe care of mothers and babies.
Judith Dahl Taylor
Board Member
Judith lives in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory and she has extensive communications experience working in public relations for financial institutions, and marketing management roles in the government cultural sector.
With a keen interest in travel and experiencing other cultures, Judith has lived in the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Malaria was rife when Judith, pregnant with her second child, arrived in the Solomons. She experienced firsthand how important access to healthcare was, and the diversity of experiences women had in gaining this access.
Judith has a passion for social justice and volunteers with the Red Cross. She wants to use her skills to support the valuable work of the Dr Rose McGready Foundation in providing a network of clinics focused on preventing infectious diseases and maternal and child health.