Congratulations to our new Honoraries

The Department of Paediatrics is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Nigel Crawford and Dr Katie Allen as our two new Honoraries.

Honorary appointments are awarded to recognise individuals who make significant ongoing contributions through world-class, values-based teaching, research, research training, engagement, enterprise, leadership and service.

Dr Nigel Crawford has been awarded the title of Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics.

Nigel is a consultant paediatrician in General Medicine and the Medical Head of RCH Immunisation service. He is also the Director of SAEFVIC, the Victorian Vaccine Safety Service, based at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Parkville.
In 2021, Nigel was appointed the Chair of the Australian Therapeutic Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI). This role allows him to advocate along with the team of experts and advisors for the timely consideration of vaccines to be used in a safe and effective way to protect the population against vaccine-preventable diseases. It also allows him to work with others to continue to strengthen Australia’s national immunisation systems and to build on the platform developed by the Commonwealth in partnership with the states as part of the National Immunisation Program.
Nigel is part of the Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre (MVEC) editorial board  where he contributes to developing factual, up-to-date and digestible immunisation-related content. This has now reached an audience of over 1.1 million users from 222 countries over the past 18 months.

Dr Katie Allen has been awarded the title of Honorary Enterprise Professor in the Department of Paediatrics.

Katie is returning to academic research and leadership on return from her career in the federal parliament recently.  She has a highly successful track record in paediatric allergy research.

Katie has advocated for a preventive health approach to food allergies, against genetic discrimination, and led the national standardization of Infant Feeding Guidelines in Australia.

Her broad knowledge of the health and health research sectors combined with her more recent experience as a member of parliament make her ideally placed to provide strategic advice to the University, Department and Melbourne Children’s Campus on health and research advocacy and influencing government policy in relation to child and adolescent health issues.