Recipient of Member of the Order of Australia (AM) 2023, Professor Michelle Leech is Head of the Medical Course Monash University and Deputy Dean at the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Michelle is the Head of the Rheumatoid Arthritis Clinic at Monash Health. Michelle has been the chair of the Clinical Examination Committee of the RACP National Exam Panel of the College of Physicians. She is the President of MDANZ and a Board member of the PMCV.

She received her MBBS (Hons) from Monash University, and after residency training in Internal Medicine at Prince Henry’s Hospital, Melbourne, completed her advanced physician training at Monash Health. She undertook a PhD at the Monash University Centre for Inflammatory Diseases, which examined the role of the cytokine MIF in the neuroendocrine regulation of inflammation. Her research interests include cytokine biology, glucocorticoid action and cell cycle proteins in the context of rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis.

Michelle has held many teaching roles in Medicine at Monash Health including Director of Physician Training as well as teaching roles at Monash University. She has received a number of teaching awards including the Australian Medical Students Association National Teaching award in 2014. She was the recipient of Health Workforce Australia funding to develop Health Science Interprofessional Learning (IPL) opportunities across disciplines at Monash University and Monash Health.