Only months after allowing women to serve in frontline combat units, Australia has promoted Commodore Robyn Walker to Rear Admiral, the nation’s first female admiral. Admiral Walker will also serve as the Australian Defence Force surgeon-general.
Admiral and surgeon general? Rear Admiral Walker has quite an impressive resume. From the Australian Navy’s Health Services – Profiles (which has not yet been updated to reflect her announced promotion) :
Commodore Robyn Walker, RAN qualified as a medical practitioner in 1982 and spent the next nine years working in the public health system in Queensland, Australia. Prior to joining the Royal Australian Navy her final position was the Director of Hyperbaric Medicine at Townsville General Hospital. CDRE Walker joined the RAN as a direct entry medical graduate in 1991 with the intent to continue her career in diving medicine.
Early postings in the Royal Australian Navy included the Naval Air Station HMAS Albatross and the Submarine Escape Training Facility at HMAS Stirling before posting to the Submarine & Underwater Medicine Unit (SUMU) at HMAS Penguin in 1992. She spent five months deployed with the HMAS Westralia Task Group in 1993 as the Task Group Medical Officer before returning to SUMU in 1994.
In January 1996 LCDR Walker assumed the position of Officer in Charge of the Submarine & Underwater Medicine Unit and remained there until her promotion to CMDR in July 2000. On promotion she posted to Maritime Headquarters as the Deputy Fleet Medical Officer which included significant Sea Training Group responsibilities.
In July 2002 CMDR Walker posted to Defence Health Service Branch in Canberra as Director of Preventive Health prior to her posting on promotion in January 2003 to CAPT as Chief Staff Officer Health (J07) at Headquarters Joint Operations Command in 2004.
On 04 July 2005 she took up, on promotion, her current position as Director General Strategic Health Policy and Plans in the Defence Health Services Division. CDRE Walker was posted to the position of Director General Garrison Health Support within Joint Health Command on 11 August 2008.
CDRE Walker is a qualified medical practitioner, has a Diploma in Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is the author of a number of scientific publications relating to diving medicine and is co-author of a major international diving medicine textbook. She has recently completed a six-year term as President of the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society. Robyn continues to dive recreationally.