By Neena Bhandari
Growing up in suburban south Sydney, Rebecca Ivers and her siblings were always encouraged to strive for academic excellence and work towards making a positive difference in people’s lives. She got involved with a group called Student Initiatives in Community Health while doing her undergraduate degree in optometry at the University of New South Wales [UNSW]. It triggered her interest in population and public health and gave her an understanding and interest in inequality.
It was while practising as an optometrist in the Northern Territory that she discovered that few Aboriginal people would come to their clinics. She became keenly interested in the health of Australia’s first people and began working for the Northern Territory Aboriginal Eye Health Committee.