Commander Joint Health and Surgeon General of the Australian Defence Force
Patron
Commander Joint Health and Surgeon General of the Australian Defence Force
Rear Admiral Sonya Bennett AM commenced her tenure as Commander Joint Health and Surgeon General of the Australian Defence Force on 1 December 2023. She is a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Sonya joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1991 in her final years as an undergraduate medical student, and subsequently served across a wide range of postings, including the submarine squadron at HMAS Platypus and the supply ship HMAS Success — highlights including time at sea aboard Oberon-class submarines and being embedded on a US aircraft carrier during RIMPAC 96.
Her later service included postings as Research Manager of the Army Malaria Institute during the UN mission in East Timor, and as inaugural Research Manager and Chief of Operations at the Centre for Military and Veterans Health, where she became passionate about public health. She transferred to Reserve service in 2009. As Executive Director Communicable Diseases in Queensland Health she led significant vaccination program reform, and chaired the Communicable Disease Network of Australia during the first 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. She later served as Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care.
In 2023 Sonya was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division for significant service to public health leadership roles.
Marie Curie once said, ‘I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.’ In many ways, that sums up my career journey with both Defence and the public service — progress that has always required collaborative efforts with others.
