APA | Pat Cosh Trust

^{Image: Geoffrey Maitland (left) being presented with his Fellowship of the Australian College of Physiotherapists by Pat Cosh (right).}

About The Pat Cosh Trust

The Pat Cosh Trust was established on 16 June 2010 with Settlor funds contributed by the Victorian Physiotherapists Registration Board under the auspices of the Victorian Government.

The Trust was named for Miss Pat Cosh in recognition of her outstanding leadership and vital contribution to the Physiotherapy Profession in Victoria. She was the first physiotherapist appointed as Chairman of the (then) Masseurs’ Registration Board in 1975, and she was instrumental in driving the change in name to the Physiotherapists Registration Board. She was appointed as the first head of the physiotherapy course in 1960 and, subsequently, Head of the School of Physiotherapy in Victoria at the Lincoln Institute in 1973, a position she held until she retired in 1986.

Funding for Victorian physiotherapy research

The purpose of the Trust is for the public charitable purpose of the advancement of education of physiotherapists and students of physiotherapy located, working or residing in Victoria by:

Initiating and supporting programs that improve the practitioners and students of physiotherapy’s ability to practice and
Funding research to improve the education standard of practitioners and physiotherapy students.

Since the Trust came into being, 28 research and project grants totaling approximately $72,9031 have been awarded.

The Trustees

Australian Physiotherapy Association

The APA is one of the three Trustees. The Pat Cosh Trust is administered by the APA.

Gaye Mason

Gaye is a finance and governance specialist who sat on the Physiotherapists Registration Board of Victoria (PRBV) from 2008 until APRA and the National Physiotherapists Board came into being. She has been a Trustee of the Pat Cost Trust since the Trust was settled in 2010 with funds provided by the PRBV. Gaye worked in the corporate arena for most of her professional life and followed that with time as a non-executive director and committee member of various statutory authorities and NFPs. She is a Fellow of CPA Australia, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Governance Institute of Australia and is a Chartered Secretary.

Fiona McKinnon

Fiona McKinnon, BAppSc (Physiotherapy), Masters in Business (Health Services Management) General
Manager, Allied Health and Pharmacy Services and Chief Allied Health Officer, St Vincent’s Hospital,
Melbourne.

Fiona McKinnon has a clinical background in Physiotherapy, and has worked in Public sector health in a
range of clinical and leadership positions in both metropolitan and regional health services in Victoria,
and in the UK. Fiona is responsible for approximately 400 staff across Allied Health and Pharmacy services
at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. She is a past National President of the Australian Physiotherapy
Association and is the previous Chair of the Registrations and Notifications Committee of the
Physiotherapy Board of Australia (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency-AHPRA). Fiona was a
member of the Physiotherapy Board of Victoria (PRBV) prior to the implementation of the National
Registration Scheme (AHPRA) and she has been a Trustee of the Pat Coash Trust since the Trust was
founded in 2010. She is a member of the Safer Care Victoria Clinical Advisory Group.