Jill enjoyed ‘having a go’ at Fintona, with school work, sport, social activities and friendships. She has continued that style throughout her life, taking up opportunities that came her way.
She studied medicine at the University of Melbourne, became a developmental behavioural paediatrician, then saw the value of understanding the health system as a whole, both to enrich her field of early childhood health and development, and to raise standards across the health profession. She was the second woman and second paediatrician to become President of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, has influenced workforce flexibility for medical women, has served on state and national bodies for quality improvement of health service delivery, was a director of Alfred Health for 9 years, and has recently been elected as President of the Australian Medical Council.
She has always maintained her clinical interest in children with developmental, behavioural and learning difficulties and is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s Hospital where she has overview responsibility for the developmental and behavioural speciality clinics. She is also a Clinical Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Bioethics Centre.
Jill was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2005 for services to child health. In 2013 she was honoured to receive an Honorary Doctorate of Medical Science from the University of Melbourne.
In 2019, Jill took part in the largest all female expedition to Antarctica as part of the Homeward Bound Women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) Leadership Program that supports women to develop skills to move into leadership roles.