Assoc Prof Michelle Telfer

Associate Professor Michelle Telfer is a paediatrician and Adolescent Medicine Specialist. She is currently the Director of Adolescent Medicine at The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Melbourne. She is also the Director of the RCH Gender Service, being instrumental in the expansion of the service with rising demand for transmedicine in children and adolescents.

Michelle was awarded the 2017 GLOBE Community Award for Ally of the year. In 2015 and 2018, the RCH Gender Service was awarded the Minister for Mental Health’s Award for excellence in consumer leadership and advocacy at the Victorian Public Healthcare Awards.

In addition to improving medical and mental health services for the transgender population, Michelle played a major role in successfully advocating for legal reform, with transgender young people now able to access hormone and surgical treatment without the need for approval by the Family Court of Australia.

She is also the lead author of the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for trans and gender diverse children and adolescents which was recently endorsed through an editorial in The Lancet.