Monique Marie Ryan (born 20 January 1967) is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

paediatric

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

and politician. She is currently the

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for the federal seat of Kooyong after defeating

Josh Frydenberg Joshua Anthony Frydenberg () (born 17 July 1971) is an Australian former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2018 to 2022. He also served as a member of parliament (MP) for the divisio ...

at the

2022 Australian federal election The 2022 Australian federal election was held on Saturday 21 May 2022 to elect members of the 47th Parliament of Australia. The incumbent Liberal/National Coalition government, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison, sought to win a fourth conse ...

Medical career

Ryan graduated in medicine at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

in 1991. Ryan then completed her pediatric training in Sydney, Australia and a

neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

residency at the

Children's Hospital Boston Boston Children's Hospital formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2012 is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children's hospital located in Boston, Massachusetts, adjacent both to its teaching affiliate, Harvard Medical Sch ...

, in Boston, Massachusetts. Ryan also completed a

neurophysiology Neurophysiology is a branch of physiology and neuroscience that studies nervous system function rather than nervous system architecture. This area aids in the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological diseases. Historically, it has been dominated b ...

fellowship at the

Lahey Clinic The Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, formerly known as the Lahey Clinic, is a physician-led nonprofit teaching hospital of Tufts University School of Medicine based in Burlington, Massachusetts. The hospital was founded in Boston in 1923 by sur ...

in Boston, Massachusetts."Professor Monique Ryan"
''The Royal Children's Hospital.'' Retrieved 20 Jan 2022 Prior to becoming a Member of Parliament, Ryan was the Director of the Neurology at the Royal Children's Hospital,

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Ryan has over 150 peer-reviewed publications and has been a principal investigator on a number of

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel vaccines, drugs, dietar ...

s. She is joint editor of ''Neuromuscular Disorders of Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence'', now in its second edition.

Publications

Ryan's publications have over 10,000 citations, and she has an

H index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 50, which is a measure of the impact of her research. Select publications include the following: * Nemaline myopathy: a clinical study of 143 cases (2001) MM Ryan, C Schnell, CD Strickland, LK Shield, G Morgan, ST Iannaccone, ''et al.'' ''Annals of Neurology: Official Journal of the American Neurological.'' 50:3. 312–320. * Clinical course correlates poorly with muscle pathology in nemaline myopathy (2003) MM Ryan, B Ilkovski, CD Strickland, C Schnell, D Sanoudou, C Midgett, ... Neurology 60 (4), 665-673. * Guillain–Barré syndrome in childhood (2005) MM Ryan. ''Journal of paediatrics and child health'' 41 (5‐6), 237-241. * Mobile arm supports in Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a pilot study of user experience and outcomes (2021) A Cruz, L Callaway, M Randall, M Ryan. ''Disability and Rehabilitation: Assistive Technology'' 16 (8), 880–889. *McDonald CM, Henricson EK, Abresch RT, Duong T, Joyce NC, Hu F, Clemens PR, Hoffman EP, Cnaan A, Gordish-Dressman H; CINRG Investigators. Long-term effects of glucocorticoids on function, quality of life, and survival in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a prospective cohort study. ''Lancet''. 2017 Nov 22. pii: S0140-6736(17)32160-8. * Finkel RS, Mercuri E, Darras BT, Connolly AM, Kuntz NL, Kirschner J, Chiriboga CA, Saito K, Servais L, Tizzano E, Topaloglu H, Tulinius M, Montes J, Glanzman AM, Bishop K, Zhong ZJ, Gheuens S, Bennett CF, Schneider E, Farwell W, De Vivo DC; ENDEAR Study Group. Nusinersen versus Sham Control in Infantile-Onset Spinal Muscular Atrophy. ''N Engl J Med.'' 2017;377:1723–1732.

Political career

Ryan was announced as the independent candidate to run in the 2022 federal election in the seat of Kooyong. Her candidacy came about after she responded to an advertisement in ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' calling for an independent to unseat

, after he had previously received an 8% swing against him in the previous election. Ryan was one of a number of centrist "

teal independents The teal independents, sometimes simply referred to as teals, are a loosely-aligned group of independent and minor party politicians in Australian politics. They have been characterised as strongly advocating for increased action to mitigate cl ...

" who campaigned to unseat "

moderate Moderate is an ideological category which designates a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. A moderate is considered someone occupying any mainstream position avoiding extreme views. In American ...

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

MPs on the basis of a lack of action on

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, amongst other policies Her campaign was backed by Voices of Kooyong and was reported to have 1500 volunteers and more than 2000 donors, as of April 2022.

Media

Her policies, campaign and comments have been reported in ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' both for Kooyong and the 2022 federal election. Her calls for action on climate change have been reported in

Seven News ''7NEWS'' is the television news service of the Seven Network and, as of 2021, the highest-rating in Australia. National bulletins are presented from Seven's high-definition television, high definition studios in Martin Place, Sydney, while f ...

and ''The Age''. The top concerns for the electorate of Kooyong were reportedly climate change and the environment. Polling in April suggested that she was leading one of the 'high profile' seats in the 2022 election. Ryan won Kooyong at the 2022 election, receiving 52.9% of the two-candidate vote, subsequently defeating federal treasurer

. Ryan stated she "was still getting used" to the idea of becoming a federal member of parliament and that her result indicates "there is a momentum for change in the Australian political system". Ryan indicated her first priority would be action on climate change. In August 2022, while asking a question on the management of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

during parliamentary

question time A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers (including the prime minister), which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be ca ...

, Ryan's response to hecklers from the Liberal Party, telling them to "put your masks on," was widely circulated online.

Controversies

On 25 January 2023, Monique Ryan's chief of staff,

Sally Rugg Sally Rugg is a Melbourne-based LGBTIQ activist, feminist and political staffer. Rugg was the GetUp creative and campaigns director between 2013 – 2018. Rugg was one of the many public faces of the "YES" campaign in the Australian Marriage L ...

, launched a Federal Court action against Ryan in relation to a "breach of general protections under the Fair Work Act". In documents filed with the court action, an affidavit from Rugg claimed that Ryan said that she has ambitions "to be the prime minister one day" and she also claims that Ryan trivialised issues pertaining to Rugg's health when she "rolled her eyes and said ‘yeah right, stress leave’ and made air quotes with her hands" in relation to sick leave Rugg had took the preceding week. On 7 March 2023, a Federal Court judge dismissed an interlocutory application by Rugg to continue working for Ryan.

Political views

Ryan is a self-described

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...

. She campaigned on a platform of action on

, political integrity, and

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing d ...

. Ryan was previously a member of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also simply known as Labor, is the major centre-left political party in Australia, one of two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia. The party forms the f ...

between 2007 and 2010.

Awards

Ryan has been awarded prizes for her research in neurology, in International Congress and Societies. * 2000 – Child Neurology Society (USA) * 2022 – American Academy of Neurologists * 2006 – XIth International Congress on Neuromuscular Disorders

Personal life

Ryan is one of seven children and was raised in the Kooyong electorate. She lives in

Hawthorn Hawthorn or Hawthorns may refer to: Plants * '' Crataegus'' (hawthorn), a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae * ''Rhaphiolepis'' (hawthorn), a genus of about 15 species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosace ...

with her husband Peter, two step-children and a son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Monique Living people 1960s births Australian neurologists Pediatric neurologists Independent members of the Parliament of Australia Medical doctors from Melbourne Members of the Australian House of Representatives Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Kooyong University of Melbourne alumni doctors Women members of the Australian House of Representatives Women neurologists Year of birth missing (living people) People from Hawthorn, Victoria University of Melbourne alumni politicians