The Board for AFCNA

I’m Gabrielle Macaulay and I have enjoyed nursing in critical care areas for most of my nursing career.  I now teach student nurses clinical skills in a practical setting and work casually in Emergency.  I recently serve on a medical mission ship after a hurricane disaster in the Caribbean with Samaritan’s Purse, where I worked with nurses from across the world.

I enjoy the beach which refreshes my heart and I am passionate about gardening, and spending time with friends over a long cup of tea!

I have served on AFCNA Board for several years and I am completing the ‘Foundations of FCN’ course and enjoying meeting others around Australia via Zoom as we enrich our understanding of the Faith Community Nurse role together. I love watching AFCNA grow despite a wild year in healthcare and I look forward to a wider, deeper reach into nursing and facilitating the FCN role as I can as 2021 unfolds.

Read about how Gabi put her faith into action in 'God-given nursing opportunities in the midst of disaster' and 'God is at work in the dark places'

Margaretha Van Eck is a retired Customer Service Officer with experience in the superannuation and wealth management sector as well as in the public service.  She and her husband have operated their own building/construction business for 30 years dealing with all the financials required, including project management, payroll, taxation, legal obligations and all government reporting necessary in an ever changing business environment.  She has been an active volunteer working as a church treasurer for 10 years and is in an ongoing capacity as treasurer for the Australian Faith Community Nurses Assoc Inc since 2019.  She continues to have a heart for helping people and is involved in pastoral care.

I’m Millie Davey, a Registered Nurse and Mental Health Nurse. I graduated from Australian Lutheran College with a Graduate Diploma in Theology (Faith Community Nursing and in my final semester of studies my late husband Peter, became a quadriplegic. I applied the Faith Community Nursing principles that I had learnt in a relevant and personal way enabling Peter to come home with the remarkable support of many volunteers.

My desire and passion is to make available individualised support that empowers people in a sustainable ways via caring Christian faith communities. This led me to starting ‘SHARE-doing life together’ where people with a passion to care are buddied with people in the community living with mental illness. They meet socially and this enables friendships to grow so everyone can flourish in a supportive community. I am AFCNA’s National Mentor and look forward to supporting and encouraging FCN’s in their ministry to improve health outcomes for Australians.

Dr. Antonia van Loon RN, CertIV(TrngAssmnt),CertIV(ChapPastCare), DipAppSc(CtyHlthNsg), BN, MN(Research), PhD

I retired from Baptist Care (SA) in early 2023 after a decade as the Senior Project Manager/ Consultant in Health and Wellbeing services. My role involved the development of strong and vibrant health and pastoral care ministries with the most vulnerable members in our community working with Baptist Churches in South Australia.

My professional background: I am a Registered Nurse with almost 50 years of work experience. I started in 1974 working in tertiary hospitals (Royal Adelaide Hospital and Flinders Medical Centre). I specialised in Accident & Emergency nursing (about 11 years), then worked in the tertiary education sector at University of South Australia and Flinders University (about 10 years) lecturing undergraduate and postgraduate nursing and health sciences students. I undertook a research based Masters at Flinders University with a focus on “Spirituality and Healthcare”, followed by a research-based Doctorate developing a model of Faith Community Nursing for Australian Christian churches. I consolidated my research career at RDNS (SA) a community nursing provider, as their Senior Researcher. Here I undertook a decade of research and program evaluation. The research worked with vulnerable clients (women survivors of child sexual abuse, the homeless, people living with addiction, mental illness, chronic conditions, disability and those requiring community palliative care). This background has led me to the realisation that Jesus’ church has so much to offer a hurting world by way of holistic health promotion, disease/injury/abuse prevention, and compassionate care giving that supports, empowers and enables people to transition back into fullness of life with Christ and his people. This is the catalyst and motivation for my continued involvement in AFCNA.

I am passionate about the opportunities faith community care ministries offers churches to engage with their community via outreach activities that promote health and wellbeing, and bring healing and transformation. I am actively involved in my local Christian church and continue to use my nursing skills in a range of volunteer and pro-bono roles.

Peter Heggie

I’m Peter Heggie. My main professional role is a Carer Peer Worker.  I’ve been working for 6 years with Northern Sydney Local Health District in the Mental Health Drug and Alcohol team.  I am a Carers Australia rep to the National Mental Health Consumer Carer Forum and a member on the National Register of Consumer and Carer Peers within Mental Health Australia.

I’m keen to serve with AFCNA in 2021 and beyond bringing advocacy skills (systemic and personal) honed over 11 years learning to care for my wife who travels with five forms of mental illness.  My strong faith has a place in my work and care of the people I work with. Eleven years of caring has shown me spiritual care, including pastoral care; need to be normalised in mental and physical health.

My work as a carer and mental health advocate can be demanding requiring self-care to re-charge the emotional tank.  

Joanne Rich

I’m Joanne Rich, a Registered Nurse working in the acute hospital sector. I’m an enthusiastic encourager of AFCNA and help where I can with planning, document preparation, checking emails, etc.

My hopes for AFCNA include continued progress of robust, contemporary supportive systems that enable FCNs to be well equipped to move into the next decade with relevance and passion. I truly believe FCNs offer what everyone in the community wants and the government needs! The church wants to utilise its people’s gifts effectively and nurses want to be used for God’s kingdom work. Clients benefit more than anyone, because they experience Christ’s love through the FCNs caring service. My hope is that with God’s guiding hand, AFCNA can become firmly established as an integral part of Australia’s caring community

Vicky Legge RN, Cert IV TAE, Cert IV CPC, Cert IV Youth Work, DipAppSci(P&O), GradCert(NgComHlth&Dev),  GradCert(ChronicCondMgmt)

I am an RN with 30 years experience with a focus on chronic condition management for the past 20 years. I currently work at Baptist Care SA in the role of Health Navigator project coordinator overseeing the implementation of a Pastoral Care Nurse role and Health Navigator volunteers to support people experiencing homelessness in managing their health.

I also work as a Chronic Condition Management Consultant drawing on my experience and additional qualifications as a health professional and as a person living with chronic illness.  I am accredited in the Flinders Chronic Condition Management Program^TM  . I am passionate to see system changes so I have started studying a Masters in Public Health (Chronic Condition Management) at Flinders University.

My passion for AFCNA is to see churches build faith community care ministries and nurses embrace Faith Community Nursing because it has such potential to help people with chronic conditions to self-manage and live abundant lives! (It will also save our health system a lot of money!) I’m responsible for AFCNA’s Digital Strategy.