Rural Health International Place-based Education and Research (RHIPER) Conference

Register now for the Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Network’s (RMCLHN) Riverland Academy of Clinical Excellence (RACE) inaugural Rural Health International Place-based Education and Research (RHIPER) conference.

The three-day conference will be held in Murray Bridge, South Australia from Wednesday 29 to Friday 31 October 2025.

The conference theme is Place Matters: Transforming education and research to strengthen rural and remote healthcare. A place-based approach to improving healthcare access and outcomes through locally driven education and research.

The aim of the conference is to bring together national and international rural clinicians and researchers interested in clinical and non-clinical research, policy and/or education. It will also be a valuable opportunity to get together to network and discuss best practice and exciting opportunities relating to rural healthcare.

For more information, download a copy of the RHIPER Conference Program and Abstracts 2025

Conference agenda

Day one of the conference will be an opportunity to network and attend local experiences in the region, followed by canapés in the evening.

Day two of the conference will include research presentations and plenary sessions with guest speakers Professor Sonia Kumar, Founding Executive Dean of Medicine at St Mary’s University London on Community Engaged Medical Education and Professor Romy Lawson, Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor at Flinders University on Finding our Place: Flinders in rural and regional healthcare. A conference dinner will also be held on the Thursday evening at Bridgeport Hotel.

Day three of the conference will be a policy workshop co-hosted by the National Rural Health Commissioner, Professor jenny May AM and the Regional Education Commissioner Hon. Fiona Nash.

The policy workshop will focus on place-based education and training as an opportunity to boost the regional, rural and remote health workforce.

The workshops will have three streams with a variety of speakers, panels and discussions.

Stream 1: Optimising student-centred learning: opportunities and enablers to better support students undertaking education and training in rural and remote areas.

Stream 2: Operational lessons from the field: local and national learnings for end-to-end place-based health training with presentations on exemplars in allied health, nursing, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and health practitioners and medicine.

Stream 3: How can we deliver high quality education in small cohorts? Speakers and panel discussions on educational modalities and their fitness for local place-based learning, and opportunities to set up structures that enable place-based education and learning.

For more information, download a copy of the conference program (PDF 2MB).

Guest Speakers

Professor Sonia Kumar, Founding Executive Dean of Medicine at St Mary’s University (SMU), London

Professor Kumar is the Founding Executive Dean of Medicine at St Mary’s in London, leading their new School of Medicine, which will welcome its first cohort in September 2026. Professor Kumar has more than two decades experience as a GP and educationalist, specialising in community-based health and education for the benefit of society, which will be core to the new School.

Professor Kumar studied Medicine at King’s College London, where she also gained a Bachelor of Science and Master’s Degree (distinction) and holds a Fellowship with the Royal College of General Practitioners. Prior to this role, she was the Associate Dean in Community Engagement at the University of Leeds, where she led the university’s civic mission in the city and local region. She established CENTRE (community engagement network in research education and civic engagement) working with colleagues across the university and key stakeholders to maximise the university’s social impact, enabling students to gain key graduate attributes and citizenship skills needed for the future workforce and broader global change. 

Professor Kumar worked at the London Deanery and had a ten-year award-winning tenure as the Director of Undergraduate Primary Care Education at Imperial College London. Over this time, she won 19 awards for her team, including the Imperial President’s Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching Excellence and the CATE collaborative team award from AdvanceHE. At Imperial, she founded MEdIC (medical education innovation and research centre) a research centre focussed on aligning medical education with community priorities and workforce needs.

Professor Romy Lawson, Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor at Flinders University

Professor Romy Lawson is the Senior Deputy Vice Chancellor at Flinders University. She has been actively involved in teaching and learning development in higher education for over 20 years in both the United Kingdom (UK) and Australia.

In 2013 Romy was awarded a National OLT Teaching Fellowship for work on Curriculum Design for Assuring Learning. She is currently a member of Advance HE Leadership & Management Advisory Board; Chair of My eQuals Steering Committee; Chair of Universities Australia DVCA Executive; Co-Chair of UA Women; and a member of Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success Trials and Evaluation Projects Steering Committee.

Professor Jenny May AM, National Rural Health Commissioner

Professor Jenny May AM has been passionate about rural health since her first rural medical student placement in 1980 and then as a trainee rural doctor at Tamworth Hospital in 1985. 

Professor May’s vast and extensive knowledge working across Australia and internationally has provided multiple opportunities to contribute through research on health workforce matters. She now calls Tamworth home and has had the incredible privilege to live and work with her doctor husband and family in a number of remote and regional locations.

Professor May holds fellowships with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM) and has extensive experience in clinical practice, research, education and rural health advocacy. In 2016 she was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to community health in rural and regional areas, as a general practitioner, member of professional medical groups, and as an educator.

With over 35 years of working and supporting rural, regional and remote health care, her appointment as the third National Rural Health Commissioner has been widely welcomed. 

The Hon. Fiona Nash, Regional Education Commissioner

The Hon. Fiona Nash grew up in Sydney and has spent the last three decades living and working in regional Australia. For many years she was involved in a family farming enterprise in the central west of New South Wales (NSW), which her sons Will and Henry are now running.

Fiona spent 12 years in the federal parliament as a Senator for NSW, holding several ministerial positions including Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Regional Communications and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education. She also held the position of Deputy Leader of the Nationals. From 2018 to 2021 Fiona was the Strategic Adviser, Regional Engagement and Government Relations for Charles Sturt University.

Fiona was appointed by the Australian Government as the Regional Education Commissioner in December 2021.

Tickets

Attendees can opt to attend all three days of the conference or two days including the research presentations, policy workshop and conference dinner. 

Virtual tickets are available to participate online for the two days of presentations and policy workshops. 

Ticket options and pricing are as follows:

• Students, interns, volunteers and attendees from not-for-profit and community organisations - $350 incl. GST for the full conference or $300 incl. GST for two days
• General admission - $550 incl. GST for the full conference or $400 incl. GST for two days
• Virtual ticket - $120 incl. GST for two days.

All ticket prices are in Australian Dollars (AUD) and excludes Eventbrite service fees (6% of each ticket price).

Accommodation and transport

Attendees will need to arrange their own accommodation and transport. 

Accommodation is available in Murray Bridge at:

• Bridgeport Hotel. Use code RHPER10 for a 10% discount (please copy and paste the code to avoid errors).
• Adelaide Road Motor Lodge.

How to register

Register today at bit.ly/RHIPER2025Registration

Registrations close Tuesday 30 September2025.