Natalie Merida

Natalie is passionate about ensuring voices of families are heard and considered in the research and the delivery and delivery of health services. She believes that research into premature and sick babies is key to helping:
- understand the short to long term effects of prematurity; and
- how we can improve outcomes for these babies and their families.

Natalie is mum to ex 29 weeker twins and lives in Darwin. The twins, now 6 (and wild) experienced various medical challenges due to their prematurity and were in and out of hospital during their early years. As a result of her family’s experience, she is now dedicated to helping other families with high risk babies and the health professionals that care for these families.

Since 2015 she has worked part-time for the Miracle Babies Foundation providing peer to peer support to families of premature and sick newborns. She sits on several health advisory committees (local and national) as a consumer representative on the ANZNN, Co-Chair of the PSANZ Consumer Advisory Committee, and consumer representative on Top End Health Services (TEHS) Health Advisory Committee and TEHS Clinical Innovation and Research Committee. To complement her consumer work, she is studying part time a graduate diploma in Health Research at Charles Darwin University.

She also works as Snr Executive Officer, Policy and Governance in the NT Public Service and prior to that worked as an Exhibition Coordinator for an national art exhibition.