Professor Lesley Forster has been awarded a prestigious accolade in the Queen's Birthday 2020 Honours List for her service to tertiary education, rural public health, and medical administration.
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Professor Forster is the inaugural dean for the Charles Sturt School of Rural Medicine in Orange and has been announced as a Member for the Order of Australia.
She is able to put an AM after her name from Monday.
Jennifer Coleman of Orange will also receive a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to community mental health.
She started the position at the university in November last year and previously worked with the University of New South Wales Rural Clinical School.
"I have to say I feel that I've been very lucky to be able to work in positions which have enabled me to contribute to something I feel very passionate about," Professor Forster said.
"I am a doctor, I think from when I was a little girl I wanted to be a doctor.
"I remember saying it to my parents, they bought me a watch when I was about 10 years old and it had a second hand ... so you can time the pulse.
I'm really honoured that anyone should feel I should receive such a special award for doing something I love.
- Professor Lesley Forster
"It was what I always planned to do."
After working in a number of roles including emergency and general practice, Professor Forster found her calling as a medical administrator.
During her career, Professor Forster has also worked at St Vincent's Hospital Darlinghurst and held a variety of other medical roles and was a co-founder of the Australian Association of Community Physicians.
"I was working at St Vincent's and the university asked if I would help, they were recruiting for their medical program and I was very interested," she said.
Professor Forster said she was particularly interested in rural health.
"Giving rural kids the opportunity to study medicine in the country, close to their families and friends for support and where they can afford to study and become rural doctors, is a cause I am passionate about," she said.
"I am really looking forward to further strengthening that cause when Charles Sturt University welcomes its first cohort of students into its School of Rural Medicine in Orange next year."
"The Doctor of Medicine program will provide Orange and regional Australia with the kinds of highly-skilled medical professionals I and many others have been hoping for for a long time."
"I'm really honoured that anyone should feel I should receive such a special award for doing something I love."
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Tanya Marschke
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
I am based at Orange and cover a wide range of subjects as well as the weekly business column. I've worked consistently in the the media industry since 2006 including the past seven years at the Central Western Daily. Before moving to Orange, I worked as a journalist at weekly newspapers the Beaudesert Times and the Gold Coast Sun in Queensland, as well as the Scone Advocate in the Hunter Valley. I started my career at the Ridge News in Lightning Ridge while I completed my journalism studies remotely at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst.
