Catherine Hughes AM is a consumer research leader, immunisation advocate and public health communicator. She founded the Immunisation Foundation of Australia (IFA) in 2016, following the death of her infant son Riley from whooping cough at 32 days old, before he was old enough to be vaccinated. At the time, pregnant women in most of Australia were not offered a funded whooping cough vaccine. Her Light for Riley campaign helped raise national awareness of the risk to newborns and the case for vaccinating in pregnancy. Funded maternal whooping cough vaccination is now available in every state and territory.

Catherine is a Consumer Investigator on more than a dozen NHMRC, MRFF and philanthropically funded immunisation studies, including maternal immunisation research. She chairs consumer advisory groups across several of Australia’s leading research institutions and is Honorary Community Co-Researcher at the Kids Research Institute Australia. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022 and named Patient Advocate of the Year at the 2025 Patients Australia Awards.