Dr Penelope Burns is a General Practitioner and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of General Practice at the University of Western Sydney. She is a PhD Candidate at the Australian National University, looking at the ways in which General Practitioners contribute to patient and community recovery in disasters. Reflecting her interests, Dr Burns has appointments as: the NSW & ACT Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) Disaster Response Representative; RACGP representative on the National General Practice Round Table; the Deputy Chair of the Disaster Management Special Interest Group of the RACGP; the GP member of the NSW Mental Health Disaster Advisory Committee; RACGP representative on the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine Disaster Subcommittee. She is a committee member of the Oceania Chapter of the World Association for Disaster & Emergency Medicine (WADEM), and on the steering committee of the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma Loss and Grief Network at the Australian National University. She is an instructor with the NSW Faculty in Major Incident Medical Management Support training for Medical Command, and in EMERGO Train System of disaster exercises. She is involved in teaching and researching disasters including animal management in disasters and human behaviour in road tunnel emergency evacuations.