Professor Helen Milroy AM is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia and was born and educated in Perth. She studied medicine at the University of Western Australia, worked as a general practitioner and consultant in childhood sexual abuse at Princess Margaret Hospital for several years before completing specialist training in child and adolescent psychiatry. She is Australia's first recognised Indigenous medical doctor.
Prof Milroy is a Winthrop professor and director of the Centre for Aboriginal Medical and Dental Health at the University of Western Australia.
In 2013 she was appointed one of the six commissioners for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In 2018, she became the AFL's first indigenous commissioner and received the Australian Indigenous Doctor of the Year Award.
In 2020, Prof Milroy became Western Australia's Australian of the Year. In 2023, she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to public health, and to the Indigenous community.
