Grace McGowan Shines Bright as the 2023 Rising Star in Youth Health

We are proud to congratulate Grace McGowan on being recognised nationally as the 2023 Rising Star in Youth Health by the Australian Association for Adolescent Health (AAAH) Board. The award was announced at the 2023 AAAH Conference at Adelaide Convention Centre.

Grace is a lived-experience advocate for young people living with chronic illness. Based in NSW, she  serves as a Commissioner with the Wellbeing Health & Youth (WH&Y) Commission, hosted by Young & Resilient, and sits on the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network Youth Council. In her role with WH&Y she shapes research priorities, provides feedback to researchers within the WH&Y NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Adolescent Health, and represents the organisation in meetings with key decision makers at a Federal and State level (New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia).

Together with fellow Commissioner Emily Morrison, Grace was a driving force in creating the Chronic Illness resource within the WH&Y Guidebook. Grace and Emily also collaborated with Assoc Prof Claire Treadgold from Starlight Foundation to co-host a presentation on chronic illness for their peers and researchers.

Y&R is privileged to witness Grace’s commitment to creating and sharing knowledge about chronic illness and disability, from the 2022 AAAH Conference where she hosted the Youth Forum panel event alongside National Children's Commissioner, Anne Hollonds, to her participation on our youth panel at our Research Week 2023 event Storytelling: Measuring and evaluating with young people. Grace is also raising awareness of the importance of youth palliative care and access to Voluntary Assisted Dying, carrying on the work of her friend Lily Thai, who was the youngest person to access Voluntary Assisted Dying in South Australia earlier this year.

• Making a presentation to University of Sydney medical students at their Westmead Hospital campus with the support Prof Kate Steinbeck, Director of WH&Y.
• Meeting with the Hon Rose Jackson (NSW Minister for Mental Health and Minister for Youth), the Hon Sam Groth (Victoria’s Shadow Minister for Tourism, Sport and Events), and representatives from both the Victorian Office for Youth and South Australia Health.
• Co-hosting a workshop at the 2023 AAAH Conference, where she collaborated closely with AAAH’s new president Dr Cristyn Davies, to share her insights on using focus groups and interviews as research tools.

Image: From left to right, 2023 Rising Star Grace McGowan, AAAH President Dr Cristyn Davies and 2023 Outstanding Contributor to Youth Health Prof Rachel Skinner.