Carolyn Lindsey – President
Carolyn is mother to two children, Danielle born at 26 weeks in March 2007 due to oligohydramnios and spontaneous labour and Matthew who was born full term in June 2009. Carolyn has been a member of Lil Aussie Prems since late 2007 and has recently joined the committee as their fundraising volunteer. Carolyn joined the National Premmie Foundation in 2011.
Carolyn has a Bachelor of Civil Engineering with Honours and has worked in the Traffic and Transport field for almost 10 years. Carolyn currently works part time as a Senior Transport Integration Engineer for VicRoads.
Rebecca Aziz – Vice President
Rebecca gave birth to her first child at 41 weeks following a text book pregnancy. Her second child Yasminah was stillborn at 37 weeks and 4 days on the 26th March 2009 following a long and complicated pregnancy after being informed that her daughter had congenital abnormalities at their 21 week morphology scan. Aisha and and Aaliyah were born at 31 weeks and 5 days due to twin to twin transfusion syndrome. They spent 4 weeks in neonatal intensive care before coming home on Rebecca’s 29th birthday.
Rebecca is the Founder and President of Yasminaha’s Gift Of Hope which was founded in 2010 and is now a member group of the National Premmie Foundation. Rebecca became the Vice President of Operations for the National Premmie Foundation in 2012.
Rebecca has been recognised for her work within the premmie and bereavement community and has been nominated for awards such as Australian of The Year, Bernardo’s Mother of The Year, Telstra Business Women’s Award and won International Women’s Day Certificate and CHILD Raising Awareness Limb Deficiency.
Rebecca has over 12 years of experience in customer service, inventory management and retail management. Rebecca has worked for high profile Australian companies such as Telstra, Australian Geographic and The Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Danielle Siler – Secretary
Danielle gave birth to her only child, Harrison at 34 weeks in August 2006, due to chorioamnionitis and spontaneous premature labour. In 2008, Danielle joined L’il Aussie Prems as a regular forum member and then progressed onto being a moderator on the forum. Danielle then joined the National Premmie Foundation committee in April 2012.
Danielle has a Bachelor of Nursing and has worked in Paediatrics and Special Care. She currently works in Primary Health Care as a GP Practice Nurse.
Eileen Cooke – Treasurer
Eileen gave birth to her first son, William who was born 11 weeks early 16 years ago. Eileen has been an integral part of the National Premmie Foundation since its formation in 2007 as a founding committee member and played a key role in setting up the Foundation.
Eileen is the current Treasurer and Parent Support Officer of Preterm Infants Parent Association (PIPA) and joined the PIPA committee 16 years ago. Over the years she has worked tirelessly with regular visits to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH), organising and attending Ronald McDonald House monthly afternoon teas, hosting parent support coffee mornings in Brisbane and responding to individual requests from prem parents for information or assistance. Eileen organises PIPA’s annual prem in the park picnic and the Celebrating Queenslands Prems function. She also coordinates PIPA’s special day gifts program for Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Christmas for all the Brisbane and Queensland country hospitals, which can be over 350 gifts to individually wrap.
Eileen is active in PIPA’s community education program as well as its fundraising activities. She sits on a number of Queensland Health or hospital based committee as either a consumer representative or PIPA representative. These include the Statewide Maternity and Neonatal Clinical Network (SMNCH) Forum, the Queensland Neonatal Services Advisory Group, the RBWH Birthing Consumer Forum and the Gold Coast Hospital Neonatal Management Committee.
By profession, Eileen is an accountant holding a Bachelor of Business and a Master of Business Administration. She worked for many years in the taxation field including the not for profit sector. Since having to retire from work early due to ill health, she dedicates much of her time to supporting premmie families throughout Queensland.
Julia Toivonen – Media Relations
Julia gave birth to her first son at 27 weeks due to placental abruption in March 2006. She has been an integral part of the National Premmie Foundation since its formation in 2007 as a founding committee member. It was through the kind gesture of Life’s Little Treasures Foundation, of which she was a committee member for several years, that Julia was given the opportunity to attend the first (NPF) meeting in Sydney. Julia is the President & Founder of L’il Aussie Prems Foundation, an interactive online community & forum offering support & inspiration to families after the premature birth of a child which she created in 2007.
Julia held the position of website manager for the National Premmie Foundation for four years, in 2011 became our Vice President of Communications and she was re-elected onto the committee for a 6th year in 2013 taking up the position of Media Relations. Julia continues to volunteer her time working on our website & has recently completed the setting up our online store & the complete redesign of the website to reflect our new branding. Julia plays a key role in our social media on Facebook & Twitter alongside our other committee members.
Recognised for the support she provides to families, Julia won the `Local Hero` award from her local council of Knox, Victoria in 2008 & has been nominated for several awards.
Trish Campbell – General Member
Details coming soon…..
