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CHUNG, Ms Yvonne: Past WONCA Manager

WONCA Honorary Life Direct member (Singapore)

Administrative Manager, WONCA, 2001 -2012

Yvonne was awarded Honorary Direct Life membership at Prague in 2013 in recognition of her many years of loyal and excellent service to WONCA.

Yvonne Chung was born in Hong Kong. At the age of 3 years, she emmigrated to England with her family. She grew up in Cheltenham where she received her primary and secondary education and went on to the University of London majoring in Social Policy. In 1995 she moved from England to Singapore with her husband, an international corporate lawyer. They have a 13 year old daughter.

Yvonne gained most of her 18 years of national and international working experience in the areas of research, health and public administration. In Singapore and prior to WONCA, she was a Project Officer at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, managing and coordinating a health care research project.

Her interest in medical administration continued in her role as Administrative Manager of the College of Family Physicians, Singapore, where she enjoyed five fruitful years (1996 – 2001) working well with its leadership and staff, with government departments, especially the Ministry of Health, the National University of Singapore, and other related professional bodies to organise and provide vocational training, continuing medical education, and scientific meetings and conferences to enhance and uplift Family Medicine and practice in Singapore.

It was through the international work portfolio at the Singapore College where she began her involvement with WONCA. Her first experience of WONCA was in 1998 where she was part of the Singapore delegation that attended the World Council Meeting in Killarney, Ireland, followed by the World Conference in Dublin. It was also in Ireland that an announcement for a global search for a new WONCA CEO and accompanying World Secretariat was made.

Yvonne was an integral member of the Singapore College team that successfully bid to host the WONCA World Secretariat in Singapore and she is privileged to have been able to contribute to and ensure a seamless transition by being offered the role of Administrative Manager of WONCA in 2001, which she duly accepted and since fulfilled.

During her 12 years at WONCA, Yvonne was responsible for managing, coordinating and maintaining the WONCA World Secretariat operations, and provided a full spectrum of secretariat functions and services to its CEO, Executive, World Council, Member Organizations, committees and Direct Members. She gained tremendous international exposure in this role, enabling her to work well with internal and external stakeholders, with a diverse array of dedicated clinical and academic leaders in Family Medicine, and with other professionals in related industries and global institutions on multiple priorities and across multi-cultural constituencies to project WONCA’s work and image globally and to achieve its mission.

She is privileged to have been able to assist and contribute to the Organization’s significant developments, including
• incorporation of its status as a legal entity;
• growth in membership when the World Secretariat moved to Singapore in 2001 from 66 member organisations to 126 member organisations in 2012 resulting in the creation of two new regions, East Mediterranean and Iberoamericana-CIMF, to join the existing five regions of Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and South Asia;
• promotion of new category of Academic Membership for Departments of Family Medicine/ General Practice in universities globally;
• promotion of closer collaborations between WONCA and the World Health Organization (WHO) as an NGO in official relations;
• development and streamlining of its administrative processes to improve the delivery of policy and operational aspects of a growing international medical organization.

Yvonne completed her tenure with WONCA in October 2012 when the then CEO retired and the Secretariat relocated to Thailand under the leadership of a new CEO.

Since WONCA, Yvonne has been keeping herself busy, enjoying her time travelling with her family to countries in South East Asia, spending time with her parents and siblings in England, catching up with old friends, making new friends, enhancing her cooking skills, widening her repertoire of western and Asian cuisines, and keeping fit through regular morning runs and exercise classes.

News October 2013