Marlene Kong is a Worimi doctor who grew up in Port Stephens, New South Wales. She credits her mother, Grace Kinsella, one of the first Indigenous registered nurses in Australia, for inspiring her and her two siblings, Marilyn (her twin sister) and Kelvin, to become doctors. Their father, Malaysian-Chinese Dr Kong Cheok Seng, is also a doctor, living in Malaysia. Marlene and Marilyn were the first Indigenous medical graduates from the University of Sydney and their younger brother Kelvin graduated from UNSW to become Australia's first Indigenous surgeon. After training in general practice, Marlene worked with Médecins Sans Frontières in South Sudan Sierra Leone. She completed an International Master of Public Health at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and returned home to work as a GP in Aboriginal communities. Marlene then became head of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program at UNSW's Kirby Institute and is currently working as a GP.
