SARRAH Squawk Award 2023

SARRAH congratulates Dr Ed Johnson and acknowledges the significant service he has provided to SARRAH and rural and remote allied health. The SARRAH Board presented the award to Ed during our Annual General Meeting on 21 November 2023. Ed has demonstrated dedication and unwavering commitment to the evolution and sustainability of SARRAH.


The next round of applications opens in 2024.

The SARRAH SQUAWK Award is a prestigious award, established to recognise SARRAH members for making significant service to the organisation or an outstanding contribution to Australia’s rural and remote allied health through:

• Exemplary professional standards of excellence to the community and public that goes above and beyond the regular standards of service.
• Leadership, guidance, mentoring, and governance; in a team or for a group.
• Implementation of a process or system to achieve more efficacy, higher efficiency, improved productivity, or better service delivery.
• Innovation in research, a program, project or policy development

Conditions of entry

• The nominee and the nominator should be SARRAH financial members at the time of nomination.
• Award is open to any individual who operates in any allied health profession in rural and remote Australia classified as per the Modified Monash Model as MM3 – MM7.
• Nominations can be made by anyone, but nominators and nominees should be existing SARRAH members respectively, or become one before nomination.
• Self-nominations by members will not be accepted.
• Nominations must fulfill all the required information and documentation, including corroborated evidence of the contribution being nominated for and signed references from authoritative sources.
• Nominations must be accompanied by a recent, updated CV and a high-resolution, electronic photograph of the nominee that can be used for publicity purposes.
• Nominations must be submitted before or by the stated closing date.
• The board reserves the right to not award a SQUAWK Award in any given year.

Nomination process and submission guidelines:

• All nominators have to complete and submit a nomination form, attaching all relevant supporting documentation.

The list of suggested documentation to consider and include in the award nomination.

• A cover letter from the nominator clearly stating the name, organisation, and contact details of the nominee and the nominator.
• A statement of the contribution category he/she is being nominated for and why he/she is deserving of the award.
• A description of how the nominee has proven results in the category he/she is being nominated for or how recommendations have been implemented to produce results.
• A description of the nominee’s background, including their career history, achievements, principles, and demonstrated reputation for integrity and ethical behavior.
• A description of how the nominee has demonstrated personal commitment to achieving positive results through consistent and enduring actions including demonstration of a selfless attitude that may have incurred personal cost.
• Demonstration of long-term participation and commitment to the allied health profession and industry as a whole in rural and remote Australia
• Demonstration of ongoing commitment and dedication to raising awareness and an appreciation of allied health professionals and allied health challenges and constraints in rural and remote Australia with a variety of industry stakeholders as well as government and community
• Demonstration of a selfless attitude and fortitude in pursuing causes for the benefit of the future of allied health professionals, the industry, and the communities in rural and remote Australia
• Inclusion of any supplementary information such as recognition and awards already held by the nominee, an endorsement from an organisation or establishment or individual stating the benefits derived from the contribution made by the nominee.
• Supporting documentation to evidence any of the claims stated in the submission.

Assessment process

• Nominations are reviewed for fulfilling all required conditions of entry and then forwarded to the SARRAH CEO in the first instance.
• The SARRAH CEO will refer all accepted nominations to the SARRAH board for consideration.
• Selection and entry decisions are final and remain at the discretion of SARRAH, the board, and any judges or judging panel engaged.
• The SARRAH SQUAWK recipient is determined by a two-thirds majority vote of Board members involved in the award selection process.
• All nominations and matters related to nominees are confidential with only the final decision announced publicly.
• SQUAWK awards are typically awarded to recipients at the SARRAH national conference, Annual General Meeting, or the SARRAH summit.