Madonna McGahan
Board Director
Madonna has worked in a professional capacity in healthcare for more than 40 years. She commenced a career in nursing in 1980 to 1983 at Mater Brisbane and then worked in a rural hospital, residential aged care and disability support service prior to returning to Mater to complete midwifery training in 1987. She completed a degree in Business Administration before various senior policy and program management positions in the Commonwealth Department of Health, Housing and Ageing from 1990 to 1997.
She was Director of Policy and Research at Catholic Health Australia between 1997 and 2004, and the National Director of Mission Strategy for Little Company of Mary Health Care from 2004 to 2008. She completed a Master of Arts (Theology) at Sydney College of Divinity in 2006.
Madonna returned to Mater Brisbane in 2008 to the role of Executive Director Mission with strategic and operational responsibilities at various times in the areas of mission integration, pastoral care, clinical ethics, archives and heritage, language services, community benefit investment, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Liaison.
Madonna was a member of the Mater Human Research Ethics Committee from 2008 to 2020. She has served on the Qld Bioethics Centre Governance Reference Group and the Boards of Catholic Health Australia and Pregnancy Counselling Link. She took up the role of Chief of Mission in 2019 with the merger of Mater across Queensland, finishing up in that role in August 2021 to enjoy a semi-retirement in land care and farming.
