The National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation board has today announced Jason B King as the Interim CEO of NACCHO, until such time as a permanent appointment is made to the position.
Mr Justin Mohamed, Chair of NACCHO said, “Jason will commence on the 7th May 2012 to enable an adequate handover prior to the departure of the current CEO Donna Ah Chee who will be departing on 1st June 2012. Jason is currently the Chairperson of VACCHO and CEO of the Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Cooperative (GEGAC). Until his appointment as interim NACCHO CEO Jason was also a Director of the NACCHO Board so he has excellent corporate and governance knowledge of our organisation.”
“Our plan is to have a permanent appointment made by the August Board meeting given a formal recruitment process can take some months to finalise.” Mr Mohamed said.
Background Information:
Jason King Interim CEO of NACCHO
Jason King has worked in Aboriginal health and affairs since 2002. He is 40 years old and a proud Aboriginal man – his father’s parent’s ancestry comes from the Gunditjmara people of Western Victoria and Ngargio people of Southern NSW. And Jason’s mother has Scottish and Irish heritage. He identifies with his grandfather’s people of Lake Condah the Gunditjmara. He is married and has 2 children. He also has 3 siblings and lost his father aged 41 in 1991.
He was born and bred in East Gippsland growing up in Buchan and Bairnsdale. Jason has worked for VACCA, Ramahyuck Aboriginal District Corp and Dept. of Justice Victoria.Jason’s first taste of Aboriginal Health employment was at GEGAC in 2002 as the HACC Coordinator. This position was hard going as those 12 months he had 17 deaths in the community. He felt that this was a calling to assist his community to move through grief and loss.
He found that he needed to broaden his view of aboriginal services and worked at VACCA as caseworker advocating for the rights of Aboriginal children under DHS Children Protection orders. He then moved across to Ramahyuck learning more about the protection of Victorian Aboriginal Cultural Heritage sites and artefacts before moving on to the Justice Department as the Executive officer of RAJAC for Gippsland.
Jason has been the CEO of GEGAC since April of 2008. GEGAC has grown from a $6m organization to a $10m organization
Jason sees VACCHO as the organization that will create a better future for Victorian Aboriginal people now and the future, its membership of 24 ACCHO’s is its strength. These members have people with a vast array of skills and attributes that enhances ACCHO’s to move forward. VACCHO is the tool for moving policy of government forward to caring for its first nation peoples of Victoria. VACCHO is the lead state peak body of Aboriginal Health in Victoria and is an affiliate of NACCHO..
He is very passionate about Governance and strengthening all Aboriginal community controlled organizations to better serve their communities and lead generic services in providing care for all community members and providing the best of health care.
Jason looks forward to his 3 months in Canberra learning more about the policy area of Aboriginal Health
Jason can be contacted via ceo@naccho.org.au or tel 02 6246 9300
For media enquires media@naccho.org.au or tel 02 6246 9309