Donnella Mills is a proud Torres Strait Islander woman with ancestral and family links to Masig and Nagir. 

She was elected Deputy Chair of NACCHO in 2017 and then served as Chair since 2018. In those eight years, the sector’s caseload has grown by 40 per cent, and funding has increased substantially. She has been the driving force of improved governance arrangements within NACCHO and the delivery of 19 governance workshops for the sector and its 146 boards as well as an intensive developmental program for new and emerging CEOs.

She serves on the Council of James Cook University, her alma mater. From 2014 to 2021, she managed an innovative Health Justice Partnership in Cairns with LawRight and, in 2020-21, she served as the Partnerships Director at Health Justice Australia. In August 2021, as a lawyer she was appointed Senior Associate, First Nations Lead at international law firm, King & Wood Mallesons.

From when it was established in June 2021, she was on the Advisory Group on the development of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children and was also the Deputy Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. 

She has a long history supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health services in Cairns and is currently a Skills Based Director of the Board of Kambu Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Health. 

Donnella signed the Uluru Statement from the Heart and also has a deep personal commitment to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. She has been involved in the work of the Coalition of Peaks since its inception, attending the Joint Council, the Justice Policy Partnership, the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership, and the Priority Reform 3 Advisory Group and a member of the Steering Committee tasked with designing the inaugural First Nations Assembly. 

She has worked with stakeholders in all jurisdictions and regularly presents to senior leaders of the Public Service at ANZSOG and NIAA/PM&C events, focussing on the implementation of the National Agreement.