Kerryn Phelps

Professional life

Phelps graduated from the University of Sydney in 1981 and completed postgraduate training at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, and at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She started working in health communications in the mainstream media in 1985, bringing messages about healthy lifestyle to the attention of the general public. Her television credits include EveryBody, Good Morning Australia, the Today Show, a documentary on The Kokoda Campaign and Last Chance Surgery. She has been the subject of stories on 60 Minutes, Australian Story and This Is Your Life. Phelps has presented a variety of health and fitness programs on radio and has been a regular newspaper and magazine columnist. In 1992, she was a regular on the sex education program Sex on the Nine Network.

In 1999 Phelps was elected president of the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Medical Association (AMA).

The following year she was elected Federal President of the AMA, where she served the maximum term of three years. Some of her more significant successes involved working with Australian State and Federal Governments on resolving an emerging medical indemnity crisis. The unresolved medical insurance issue threatened obstetrics and neurosurgery in particular, and was exacerbated by escalating medical malpractice claims. She was also instrumental in establishing an advisory committee on Indigenous health in Australia, and promoting debate on the importance of the public health system in response to the bioterrorism threat. Phelps' major areas of interest included integrative medicine, public health, and human rights issues. As AMA President, she convened an expert advisory committee and pioneered the AMA's first position statement on complementary medicine. She also raised awareness of issues such as Aboriginal health problems, the medical workforce shortage and environmental health.

Her time as AMA president was marked by a public clash with the federal Minister for Health Dr Michael Wooldridge. He publicly claimed that she had no specialist medical qualifications. In rebuttal, Phelps contended that general practice is itself a medical specialty. The minister later issued a public apology.

Between 2009 and 2012 Phelps was President of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association. She is founder and principal clinician at Sydney Integrative Medicine and Cooper Street Clinic in Sydney, an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sydney and Conjoint Professor in the National Institute of Complementary Medicine at the Western Sydney University. She is a regular speaker to health professionals and the general public on health and well-being, as well as leadership and strategy for professional organisations. She has been the health writer for The Australian Women's Weekly since 1991. She is a regular commentator on general practice, public health, medical politics and human rights issues.

Phelps is the co-author, with Craig Hassad, of the textbook General Practice: The Integrative Approach published in 2010; and has published on general wellness, cancer and on a range of other general health and health communication issues.

Local government politics

Elected to the Council of the City of Sydney on 10 September 2016 as a member of the Clover Moore Independent Team, Phelps was elected Deputy Lord Mayor of the Council. However her term as a member of the Clover Moore team was short-lived, resigning to sit as an independent from 27 June 2017.

Personal life

Phelps was born at Manly Hospital on 14 December 1957 and grew up in the Pittwater region of Sydney. Her mother, Shirley, was a local government councillor and her father, George, a refrigeration mechanic.

She is married to Jackie Stricker, a former primary school teacher. Phelps and Stricker-Phelps were united in a religious ceremony in New York on 4 January 1998. They returned to New York City in 2011 for a legal marriage. Australian law does not recognise their same-sex marriage. From her first marriage with Michael Fronzek she has a daughter, Jaime Fronzek and a son, Carl Fronzek. The couple have a younger daughter, Gabrielle Stricker-Phelps. Phelps has a younger brother, Australian TV actor Peter Phelps.

In 2009, Phelps was named one of the 25 most influential lesbians in Australia by readers of the website samesame.com.au.

Phelps grew up in a liberal European Jewish household and her wife converted to Judaism.

Honours

Phelps was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2001 for service to Australian society and medicine. On 13 June 2011, she was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to medicine, particularly through leadership roles with the Australian Medical Association in education and community health, and as a general practitioner.

In 2008 Phelps was awarded a Bent Spoon Award by the Australian Skeptics.

Phelps and Stricker have been ambassadors for Barnardos Australia's Mother of the Year Award since 2013.

In 2014 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters honoris causa by the University of Western Sydney.

Selected published works