The ARONAH Board has been selected by an independent Selection Committee of eminent Australians in accordance with the process outlined by the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.
Under this scheme the Board most compose of:
- One practitioner from each of the larger jurisdictions (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia), one of which must be from a regional area.
- One practitioner from one of the smaller jurisdictions (Australian Capital Territory, Northern Territory or Tasmania)
- Three community members (members who have not been practicing naturopaths or herbalists)
- Information about joining the board can be found at http://www.aronah.org/board-nominations/
The members of the Board of the Australian Register of Naturopaths are:
Practitioner members
- Dr Amie Steel (Queensland), Deputy chair
- Ms Lisa McDonald (New South Wales)
- Ms Jackie Arbuckle (Victoria), Chair
- Ms Marion Volk (Western Australia), Treasurer
- Ms Jennifer Driscoll (New South Wales)
- Vacant (South Australia)
- Vacant (ACT, Tasmania and NT)
Community members
- Ms Karen Malcolm
- Ms Deidre Bryson, Secretary
- Vacant 3rd position
Practitioner members
Jackie Arbuckle is a naturopath practicing in Melbourne, and previously rurally in Benalla, Victoria. She is a degree-qualified, graduating from Southern School of Natural Therapies in 2007. Jackie also has an Applied Science Degree (Human Biology) and a Graduate Diploma in Psychology, both from RMIT.
Jackie’s practice focuses in treating people with digestive problems as well as stress and fatigue. She has a special interest in iridology and uses it extensively in her practice. Jackie also lecturers at one of the Melbourne based colleges in nutrition and iridology.
Previously, she worked in scientific research at Melbourne University and the Cancer Council Victoria, mainly in the area of cancer prevention.
Lisa is a qualified naturopath and passionate about our naturopathy and western herbal medicine profession continuing to be a well educated and a respected health care provider in the Australian health system.
In additional to her Naturopathy qualifications, Lisa has a Bachelor of Arts (psychology) degree and a Masters of Management. Lisa is a member of the NHAA and an Associate Member of AIMA and ACNEM. Lisa currently practices in a clinic in Sydney and has a special interest in mental health, gut health, nutrigenomics and CIRS (biotoxin illness).
Amie is a naturopath who worked as a clinician and educator for almost 20 years before undertaking her PhD through the Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney where she examined complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use amongst pregnant women. She now works in a full-time research position with dual appointments to the UTS and Endeavour College of Natural Health. Amie is a Board Member of the Evidence, Research and Policy in Complementary Medicine Special Interest Group at the Public Health Association of Australia as well as a member of the World Naturopathic Federation Research Committee. Amie is widely published both in text books and peer-reviewed journals, has given invited talks at international research conferences and is on the editorial board for multiple international peer-reviewed journals related to complementary and alternative medicine.
Marion has a background in sociology, education, naturopathy, herbal medicine and homeopathy. She is a naturopath and herbalist in clinical practice with over 16 years experience and fellow of the Australian Natural Therapists Association, and a practising member of the National Herbalists Association of Australia, the Australian Register of Homoeopaths and the Australian Homoeopathy Association.
She has a strong interest in supporting the Western herbal medicine and naturopathic professions to improve and maintain their high standards by working in academic and clinical training, and mentoring graduates in clinical practice. She is committed to working towards registration of the profession. Her goal is to contribute to make prudent use of complementary health more accessible to the whole community to promote public health and wellbeing.
She has been lecturing in herbal medicine, naturopathy and clinical practice since 2003 and was an academic manager at Paramount College in Perth.
She has completed a Masters degree in Education, Masters of Health Science degree in complementary medicine and graduated from Bachelor degrees in each Sociology (Hon), Education, Naturopathy, and Bachelor of Health Science degrees in Complementary Medicine and Western Herbal Medicine.
Community members
Deidre Bryson (QLD)
Deidre is an information management professional with 25 years of data management and project management experience.
Her particular passion is in data integrity, process improvement and making information systems work for end users. Deidre has worked in a variety of sectors including government, community, private industry and has been self-employed.
Deidre has held national and international roles in IT, ensuring legal and marketing compliance, training and data integrity and travelled extensively around Australia, Asia and the United States in several positions. Her work in data and information management has been published in academic journals, she has spoken at national and international conferences and implemented an industry leading research project in online repository work involving 7 regional universities.
Her personal interest in natural health and alternative medicine started more than 10 years after experiencing infertility and chronic fatigue. She works in the Educational Pathways division of Endeavour College of Natural Health. She was elected as a community member on the Australian Register of Naturopaths and Herbalists (ARONAH) in 2016.
In her capacity as a Pathways Assessor for Endeavour College, Deidre is keen to ensure student outcomes are well matched to the skills they require for participating successfully in business after graduation. As well as her day job, she assists others in their personal and professional development as a Team Leader in a personal growth and development organisation. She has two beautiful children that she credits to her pursuit of natural therapies.
Karen holds a Masters degree in Science and is a qualified trainer and assessor and remedial massage therapist. The majority of her career has been spent in Medical Research and Development, holding positions at Australian and British Universities prior to taking a side-step whilst raising her family. During this time, she followed another passion and entered complementary therapies through training as a remedial massage therapist. She now has Allied Health clinics in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and is engaged as Science/Health Communicator for a Veteran Health Research Foundation.
Karen has utilised her scientific background to represent her industry, including the successful presentation of evidence to support the inclusion of massage in the Federal Government’s review of private health insurance funding. She has most recently lectured Naturopathic and Western Herbal Medicine courses and rewritten the science component of these courses to ensure training is current and backed by peer-reviewed research. Karen is committee to assisting the transition of natural therapies to a place where traditional knowledge sits alongside empirical research to allow safe and effective treatment plan design.
Karen has been on the ARONAH Board since 2012 where she has held the roles of application manager, secretary and community member.