Professor Sanchia Aranda AM

Professor Sanchia Aranda AM is the Chair of City Cancer Challenge, the former CEO of Cancer Council Australia and the immediate Past President for Union for International Cancer Control and inaugural Board Chair of the Cancer City Challenge Foundation. She is regarded as one of the world’s pre-eminent experts in cancer control with 40 years’ experience as a clinician, researcher, educator and health-system administrator.

From her early career as a Registered Nurse in New Zealand, Professor Aranda specialised in cancer treatment and palliative care, completing a Bachelor of Applied Science, a Master of Nursing and a doctoral thesis in the nurse-patient relationship and psychosocial issues in palliative care. She has extensive experience in health-system administration and prior to joining Cancer Council Australia was Director of Cancer Services and Information and Deputy CEO at the Cancer Institute NSW.

Widely published in Australian and international health literature, Professor Aranda holds adjunct Professorial appointments at the School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Sydney, the School of Nursing at the University of Technology, Sydney and at Monash University.

In 2013 she was named the 4th Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Distinguished Fellow for her contributions to cancer nursing and in 2019 was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to community health, particularly cancer control and nursing.

Professor Aranda is highly experienced in all fields of cancer from prevention through to survivorship and has a particular professional interest in improved ways to care for and support people with cancer. Her passion is to improve outcomes for all Australians with cancer and reduce the inequalities experienced by Australians who are Indigenous, have a lower socio-economic background, live in regional or remote areas or have a cancer type with typically poor survival.