Our Team
Professor Eugenie Kayak
Enterprise Professor, Sustainable Healthcare
Deputy Director of the Climate CATCH (Collaborative Action for Transformative Change in Health and Healthcare) Lab
Eugenie Kayak (FANZCA, MBBS, MSc, MPH, GAICD) is the Enterprise Professor of Sustainable Healthcare at the Melbourne Medical School (MMS), Deputy Director of the University of Melbourne’s Climate CATCH lab and consultant anaesthetist at Austin Health, Alfred Health and in private practice.
Since commencing at the University, Eugenie has led development of the MMS Sustainability, Climate & Health 2025-2030 Strategy and overseen the introduction and expansion of our Sustainability in Quality Improvement (SusQI) program.
Nationally and internationally Eugenie has led advocacy and action for over 15 years with Doctors for the Environment Australia (DEA), her own specialty, health organisations, governments, the WHO Alliance for Transformative Action on Health (ATACH) and the wider medical profession, to raise awareness of and influence policy and practices, to address the health impacts of climate change and environmental degradation – including the healthcare sector’s own impact.
She is a member of the Australian Government’s Chief Health Expert Advisory Group (CHEAG) for the National Health and Climate Strategy, Honorary Senior Clinical Advisor to the National Health, Sustainability and Climate Unit and convenor of DEA’s national Sustainable Health Care.
Professor Forbes McGain
Forbes is an anaesthetist and director of the Footscray Intensive Care Unit at Western Health, Melbourne, Australia, and the inaugural Associate Dean Healthcare Sustainability in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at The University of Melbourne.
Forbes is a founder of the study of healthcare environmental sustainability, including life cycle assessment (LCA). Forbes has pioneered international collaboration on research projects, editorials, and sustainability statements with individual colleagues, medical colleges, and high impact journals. Such sustainable healthcare research has led to: environmental and financial savings, and social benefits at the hospital workplace in Australia and internationally. Further, via such research and Forbes’ engagement, this has led to medical colleges and government policy changes to align with more environmentally sustainable practices.
Forbes is the ANZ College of Intensive Care Medicine’s co-lead of our environmental sustainability working party, an active member of the World Fed. Of Anaesthesiologists’ Sustainability Committee, and serves on the Lancet Commission for Sustainable Healthcare as the clinical care theme co-leader.
Forbes enjoys being involved in research, teaching and education at the hospital, university and beyond. Forbes remains passionate about making seemingly small environmental sustainability changes to how we practice medicine that become magnified through every nations’ hospitals. His love of nature affects everything he does at work, home, and well, anywhere…
Lindsay Scudder
Fellow, Sustainable Healthcare
Subject Coordinator Sustainability and Healthcare (POPH90304)
Lindsay Scudder (RN, MN) is a Fellow of Sustainable Healthcare in the Department of Critical Care at the Melbourne Medical School and a Clinical Nurse Consultant in haematology at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
Throughout her nursing career, Lindsay developed a strong passion for healthcare sustainability which led her to undertake the University of Melbourne’s Graduate Certificate in Climate Change and Health in its inaugural year. She also holds a Graduate Certificate in Cancer and Palliative Care Nursing, and a Master of Advanced Nursing Practice (Nurse Practitioner).
Lindsay is a member of the inaugural Climate and Sustainability Expert Advisory Group, convened by Climate Health Victoria (CHV), Department of Health. She previously served as Chair of the Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand (HSANZ) Victorian Nurses’ Group, where she led the organisation of the nurses’ program for the national haematology conference, BLOOD, held in Melbourne in 2023. Lindsay also contributes to community-level climate action as a Community Representative on the Climate Action Working Group for Your Community Health.
Lindsay assists with the coordination and delivery of the graduate subject Climate Change and Health (POPH90303) and is committed to educating students and clinicians about the health impacts of climate change. She enjoys empowering healthcare professionals to lead and implement meaningful, sustainable change
Dr Urvi Thanekar
Research Assistant – Climate CATCH Lab
Dr Urvi Thanekar (BDS, MHHM, PhD candidate) is a Research Assistant at the Climate CATCH Lab and a Research Fellow in Sustainable Healthcare at Deakin University. She is a clinically trained dentist, with a Master in Health Services Management and a PhD in Sustainable Healthcare.
Her clinical training and experience in health services research have shaped a multidisciplinary skillset spanning systems science, sustainable procurement, life cycle assessment interpretation and economic evaluation. Urvi’s doctoral research examined the decarbonisation of renewably powered health services with a focus on Scope 3 emissions.
Urvi’s work involves health service sustainability planning, NHMRC-funded hospital sustainability projects and state-level circular procurement efforts across healthcare. She works closely with Victorian health services, government partners and academic teams to advance applied sustainability initiatives.
Her motivation is shaped by her heritage as a member of the Indigenous Koli community of India, where land and sea are revered and fishing is both livelihood and sacred practice. This grounding informs her commitment to environmental stewardship and to building health systems that safeguard both population health and planetary health.
Sunny Nguyen
Research Assistant – Climate CATCH Lab
Sunny Nguyen (MSc, MPH) co-Leads the Intergenerational Justice stream at the Climate CATCH Lab and is a Research Officer in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. He is an epidemiologist, public health practitioner and a young person with lived experience of health equity impacts of environmental degradation with cross-sectoral experience across government, academia, health services, non-profits and consultancies.
His skillset includes mixed-methods evaluation, strategic planning, participatory action research, codesign and governance. His services are continually consulted by governments and local change organisations. He is active within advocacy and advisory groups, including the Climate and Health Alliance Youth Leadership Council.
Honorary Staff
Dr Jess Davies
Honorary Lecturer
Dr Jess Davies is an Honorary Lecturer in the Department of Critical Care at the Melbourne Medical School and an anaesthetist at Austin Health. Jess is co-founder of the TRA2SH Research Network, now part of the ANZCA Environmental Sustainability Network, to empower others to make real-world changes to reduce the carbon footprint of healthcare.
Jess is undertaking a PhD to explore how we can implement environmental sustainability into operating theatres, which are one of the highest carbon areas in hospitals. Extensive research exists about the environmental and financial benefits of reducing, reusing and recycling in operating theatres and her PhD will explore how we can overcome the barriers to deliver high quality healthcare that doesn’t cost the earth.