The support of the Board requires considerable decision making, strategy direction and ensuring of outcomes in many different areas from education, seminars and conferences, media and marketing, membership issues, to governance, law and ethics, government liaison (at the state, federal and even international level) and industry cooperation.
Each Board member is an elected representative of the membership and works in a voluntary capacity. Elections take place at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association and all Full members of the NHAA are eligible to vote. To find out more about how the Board of Directors works please read here.
All board members also work on a series of committees
Hannah Boyd
PresidentHannah is a Naturopath and herbalist based in Sydney, New South Wales. She was first elected to the NHAA Board of Directors in 2018 and has led the Marketing and media subcommittees during her tenure.
Hannah established her own Naturopathic clinic after graduating from her studies in 2012. Her areas of interest include mental health, women’s health and fertility.
As well as practicing in her Marrickville clinic, Hannah has volunteered at the Leichhardt Women’s Community Health Centre as a research assistant. She has presented at various events including The Real Food Project and the Marrickville Business Association. In 2019 Hannah was asked to present at the Central & Eastern Sydney Primary Health network annual conference, Rethinking Mental Health as well as the 2021 National Symposium on Herbal and Naturopathic Medicine.
Sonya Byron
Vice PresidentSonya originally trained as a cultural anthropologist and lived and worked in Australia, Thailand, India and the USA before returning to Australia to pursue her love of herbal medicine. She completed her BHSc(Naturopathy) in 2019, and established her Blue Mountains based practice on graduation. She has growing clinical interests in mental health, preventative health care/healthy ageing, and chronic pain/neurodegenerative disease management, and she loves combining the best of naturopathy’s traditional knowledge with the latest scientific research. She has also recently joined the international team at Pukka Herbs as their Australian/NZ herbalist.
Sonya joined the NHAA as a student, and in 2017, co-founded the organisation’s Sydney chapter, SydHerbs. She is now looking forward to continuing her contribution to the NHAA, its members and her profession as a board member. She has six years’ experience serving on the boards of various not-for-profit organisations.
Sarah Christensen
DirectorSarah is a Naturopath in clinical practice in Brisbane, having graduated with Distinction from Endeavour with a BHSc Naturopathy, she has transformed her lifelong passion for health and wellness into her working profession.
Sarah comes with an expansive career in communications and technology, and in more recent years online collaboration expertise including online events, support, and training. With a passion for our profession and its future, she brings enthusiasm to be involved with making positive change for better integration of Naturopaths and Herbalists into public healthcare.
In her personal time, you will find Sarah enjoying her passion for good food, creating new meal ideas, cooking for her family or in the garden with her herbs.
Carolyn Ledowsky
DirectorCarolyn Ledowsky is a naturopath, herbalist and nutritionist and is currently undertaking her PhD at the University of Technology Sydney. Her research is focused on folate forms and infertility – specifically “The effectiveness of 5-methyltetrahyrofolate versus folic acid prenatal multivitamins in couples with a history of recurrent pregnancy loss: A feasibility randomised controlled trial”.
Carolyn is the founder of MTHFR Support Australia and is an educator of practitioners worldwide on how genetics has an influence on health and disease. She is a regular speaker worldwide on methylation and genetics and works tirelessly researching the nutrients and herbal medicines that epigenetically influence enzymes to make up for genetic susceptibility or environmental assaults that influence the way genes behave. She is a passionate advocate for the industry.
Carolyn started her career with a Bachelor of Economics and then spent the next 20 years in the advertising, marketing and event management positions with some of Australia’s leading advertising agencies and worked with Commonwealth Bank,Westpac and the NSW Government designing the strategy, marketing and execution of their major events. Her experience in the corporate sector means she has the ability to interact with fellow board members, management and stakeholders to further the objectives of the NHAA. She has strong skills in development of Educational programs, media, event management, with vast Government experience and is an early career researcher
Tracelee Shew
DirectorTracelee is a qualified naturopath and herbalist based in Sydney. She is a passionate naturopathic academic, working in Naturopathy and Western Herbal Medicine university programs for the past 12 years. Tracelee appreciates being able to support graduates entering the naturopathic profession with innovative skills to adapt to the current evolving health industry.
As a health practitioner in private practice, Tracelee combines her knowledge and discipline expertise as an educator in student-led clinics in Sydney. In 2021, Tracelee started her journey into a PhD at Torrens University and will explore herbal medicines prescribed by Naturopathic and Western Herbal Medicine student practitioners in patient anxiety.
Tracelee is a newly elected NHAA Board Director, and member of the NHAA Education committee. She is keen to promote education in our profession to reflect best practice and has a strong desire to keep supporting current and future association members.
Natalie Symkowiak
DirectorNatalie is an experienced marketing professional, with close to two decades of expertise in the marketing, communications & events fields, working within the finance and health industries. Several years ago, she followed her personal interest and passion for health and wellness completing her Naturopathy studies at ACNT in Sydney.
She has a growing appreciation of the naturopathic & herbal medicine landscape having worked as the Communications Officer for the Naturopaths & Herbalists Association of Australia during her naturopathic studies, and then as the Marketing Manager at Practitioner Only nutraceutical brand for two years. Whilst she works on her own naturopathic practice, she is working part time at a youth charity focussing on drug & alcohol prevention, education and health promotion. Through fundraising, community relations and program delivery the Service is making a difference in the life of our young people.
She has a vested interest in the sustainable future of the naturopathic & herbal medicine profession and was inspired after attending her first NHAA Conference a few years ago to collaborate with a fellow herbies and reinvigorated the Sydney based NHAA chapter, SydHerbs. She believes collaboration, inspiration and support are key to keeping us connected and well.
Kathleen Murphy
DirectorKathleen is a naturopath and acupuncturist. She has been an NHAA Board Director since 2017 and is Chair of the Events Subcommittee.
Kathleen has been in clinical practice since 2009. Over that time, she has worked in several large integrative clinics; first in Brisbane where she trained, then in Sydney where she worked for eight years, and is now based in beautiful Northern NSW. Kathleen has also been involved with a number of community and corporate healthcare programs over this time: she is passionate about sharing the value of preventative and holistic medicine. Kathleen also works as a lecturer and clinical tutor in naturopathic education. Prior to working in health, her background was in the arts, as a performer and researcher.
Outside of her work, Kathleen enjoys spending time with her family, reading, gardening, eating good food and practicing yoga.
Tristan Carter
DirectorTristan is a passionate Naturopath with a focus on research. As an advocate for natural health remedies and paternal health, Tristan is a PhD candidate with the University of Technology of Sydney; Tristan’s public health research focuses on prevention and preventive strategies, exploring Australian males in the preconception period to establish their influence on pregnancy and offspring-related outcomes. Tristan collaborates with professionals nationally and internationally, supporting working teams whilst maintaining a healthy balance
Board Member Advisory Committee
One of the major responsibilities of the BMAC relates to recruitment to the Board. It is the responsibility of NHAA members to elect the Board. However as the Board’s tasks change and become ever more complex, the NHAA also needs to ensure that procedures are in place that will enable it to access members with the right mix of experience, skills and interests for Board positions, both to fill interim vacancies and to stand for election at AGMs.