Ambassadors

Sarah's work on the Board and her external advocacy is invaluable, helping to increase awareness and support of the work and impact of MCRI. Sarah continues to play a key role in connecting US and other international leaders with the institute. Sarah has received numerous awards for her work in the not-for-profit sector, including being awarded the Celebrity Advocacy Award by Research Australia. 

At the 2020 MCRI Annual Showcase, Sarah and Lachlan Murdoch announced a $5 million Fellowship to attract the brightest research minds to MCRI in transformative research fields such as stem cell technologies and genomics. As a perpetual endowment, the Fellowship will make a meaningful difference to future generations of researchers. 

Sarah’s decades of philanthropic work have focused on children, education, medical research, and the arts. Sarah served on the board of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth (ARACY), working with government for better efficiency and efficacy in services to Australia’s most vulnerable children. Sarah also served on the board of the Global Access Partners (GAP) Taskforce on Early Childhood Education and the Federal Government’s National Body Image Advisory Group.

In the arts, Sarah served as a Board Director of New York’s Public Theater and founded and chaired its young patron program. Sarah was a Board Director of The Australian Ballet for over a decade and founded and chaired The Australian Ballet’s Ambassador program to attract younger audiences to the arts. Sarah is currently Global Ambassador of The Australian Ballet and President of the Global Ambassador Network. Sarah was also a member of the Global Council of the American Ballet Theater. 

Sarah has served on the Harvard-Westlake School and Carlthorp School Board of Trustees. In 2007, Sarah co-authored Birth Skills, a book that provides education for new mothers around labour and birth. 

Sarah holds an MBA from The University of Technology Sydney and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). 

Sarah is passionate about the importance of medical research to answer some of the most complex issues facing our children, both in Australia and throughout the world. She especially enjoys visiting researchers at MCRI and meeting the children who benefit from our research discoveries. 

Suzi has been a strong supporter and advocate of MCRI for nearly 20 years. In addition to her membership on the MCRI Board, in 2003 she was invited to join the Development Board (which she subsequently chaired from 2006-2011), and in 2006 she joined the MCRI Board of Directors.

In 2016 Suzi became MCRI's first female Board Chair, a successor hand-picked by Leigh Clifford (Qantas Chair from 2007-2018) following his retirement as Chair of the MCRI Board, where she championed people and initiatives that transform medicine, taking big, bold ideas and promptly translating them into real world solutions for patients, their families and the community.

In honour and recognition of Suzi’s remarkable contribution to MCRI, in 2021 the Suzi Carp Scholarship was created. The endowed scholarship will be awarded in perpetuity to the most promising students and early-career researchers at MCRI. This vital support will enable them to focus on their research and achieve their full potential, fostering our nation’s brightest young scientists in child health research for generations to come.