cohealth welcomes Kate MacRae as Board Chair

As we welcome Kate, we acknowledge Kerry Thompson, who has concluded an incredible full term of nine years on the cohealth Board, most recently as Board Chair. Kerry’s compassionate, values-led approach has guided cohealth through significant growth and change, while maintaining a deep commitment to community and equity.

We are grateful for the strong foundations Kerry has nurtured, which Kate will now carry forward as she guides cohealth and its communities into the next chapter.

Kate’s leadership journey across health, disability and community sectors, including as CEO of Scope, reflects a lifelong commitment to care, dignity and the wellbeing of others. Learn more below.

Welcoming Kate – guiding cohealth with care and commitment to community

Incoming Board chair, Kate MacRae, shares how her roots in community have set the direction for a career dedicated to bringing greater inclusiveness in healthcare.

“Community is the sense that if you fall, there will be someone there to catch you. Knowing that sometimes you’ll be the catcher and sometimes you’ll be the one being caught.”

For Kate MacRae, this perspective, passed down from her father, has guided her life, her career, and the way she leads. It has shaped her understanding of community, of care and support, and of what it means to create spaces where people look out for one another.

Growing up in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, Kate experienced community as something lived, not just defined. In a small tight knit community, her mother was the district nurse and midwife, caring for people at all stages of life, while her father was a local councillor, often helping families with housing, aged care, and disability support. From healthcare and meals on wheels, to weddings and wakes, their family home, in this village, was the heart of the community.

“We didn’t have community health, but we had community. And a lot of it came out of our home,” Kate says. “My sense was that this strong connection to community helped people feel safe and well.”

As Kate begins her role as Board Chair of cohealth, she remains deeply committed to placing people and communities at the centre and nurturing an environment where staff, clients, and communities feel safe and supported, as the organisation continues to evolve.

Kate’s career has always been shaped by a focus on inclusion, equity and caring for others. Working in America as a teenager opened her eyes to inequity and discrimination and motivated her to think about how she could contribute to a fairer, more inclusive world.

Her early professional experience reinforced this thinking. While working as an au pair for a child with special needs, she saw firsthand the impact of coordinated, multidisciplinary care

“I hadn’t seen physios or Occupational Therapists before, and I thought, this makes a real difference. I can see this little person developing and growing. That changed everything for me.”

Kate’s first role in Australia was an occupational therapist at the organisation now known as Scope, where forty years later, she returned to become CEO.

In her clinical and executive work, she has carried those lessons about how the power of collaboration transforms lives,

Throughout her career, Kate has worked across health, disability, and community sectors, embedding inclusion, driving reform, and strengthening outcomes for those most in need.

Kate’s leadership has always been grounded in partnership, shaped by the sense of community she grew up with.

“If you go alone, you can go fast. But if we go together, we can go far”.

Now, as she steps into her role as Board Chair of cohealth, Kate brings that same commitment to sector collaboration, which she sees as essential to strengthening the health and social system and improving outcomes for communities.

A long-time admirer of cohealth, she says she was drawn to the Board Chair role because she truly believes in the power of community-based care, in settings where people feel safe and respected.

Kate’s hope is for cohealth to continue to be known as a place where, as her father says, there’s always someone there to catch you when you fall.

“I want every staff member and community member to feel heard, and to understand what cohealth can provide. Kate says. “It’s important that we continue to look after each other and the communities we support.”

To the Board, she brings deep sector experience, a lifelong commitment to equity and inclusion, and a steady guiding hand to ensure that as the organisation evolves, it never loses sight of the people at its heart.