Tanika Parker
Board Director
Tanika is a proud Guugu Yimidhirr Bama, from Hope Vale, Far North Queensland. While raised in Hope Vale, Tanika went to boarding school and then University in Townsville.
She’s completed a bachelor's degree in Nursing Science, majoring in Mental Health, and is in the final stages of completing a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine with James Cook University. In addition to this, Tanika is a Trauma Nurse by trade, with 11 years' experience.
Tanika is an experienced professional and has skills in areas of health service management, rural and remote health services delivery, and Indigenous and population health.
Her previous roles and experience include Acting CEO for the Northern Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Alliance (NATSIHA), Public Health Nurse Clinical Lead for the Young Person’s Check (YPC) program in Yarrabah, and Chief Operations Officer of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker and Practitioner Association (NATSIHWP) in Canberra.
Currently, Tanika is the Rheumatic Heart Disease Nurse Navigator for Torres and Cape Hospital and Health Service, and looks after both paediatric and adult patients throughout this region.
She has strong stakeholder relationship skills with experience in Canberra, Cairns, Cape and Torres, and hospitals and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOS), relaying clinical knowledge and facilitating patient transfers from Townsville through to the Torres Strait.
These engagements have been at national, state, and community levels, and have helped hone her great communications skills.
In line with her Masters in Public Health, Tanika completed a subject in disaster management in 2023, which was valuable when the floods came after Cyclone Jasper. Tanika, with the extensive help from the community on the ground and a local airline, sent seven planes of supplies and donations to Cooktown, Wujal Wujal, and the Hope Vale area for those in need.
This achievement has highlighted the importance of public health management, what a community is capable of, and outstanding local leadership on the ground.
Tanika remains actively involved in a national advisory committee with the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM), Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), and other national stakeholders.
These engagements have assisted her in obtaining extensive insight into the operations of federal, state, and local levels of government, and community-based organisations, along with the funding aspects that are attached to the three tiers of government.
