Alison Margaret Creagh AM CSC (born 1962) is a retired Australian Army officer. After seeing active service with the Australian Army in Cambodia, East Timor, Iraq and Afghanistan, she was involved in the creation of the Australian Peacekeeping Memorial on Anzac Parade, Canberra. She was appointed president of the Australian Paralympic Committee in September 2023.
Alison Creagh | |
|---|---|
 Creagh in September 2024 | |
| Born | 1962 (age 61–62) |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Service | Australian Army Signal Corps |
| Years of service |
|
| Rank | Brigadier |
| Commands | 145 Signal Squadron |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | |
| Other work | President of Paralympics Australia |
Biography
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Alison Margaret Creagh was born in 1962.[1] She moved to Canberra a few years later after when her father became a member of the academic staff at the Royal Military College, Duntroon.[2] She was educated at Canberra Girls Grammar School and the Australian National University.[1] Creagh joined the Australian Army Reserve in 1981, followed by the Australian Regular Army four years later. She graduated from the Officer Cadet School, Portsea, in Victoria, and was commissioned into the Australian Army Signal Corps.[1][3] She served in Cambodia in 1993 as the quartermaster of the Force Communications Unit with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), for which she was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross.[3]
In 1999, Creagh became the second-in-command of the 1st Joint Support Unit and commanded the 145th Signal Squadron in East Timor as part of the International Force East Timor (INTERFET). She served in Iraq in 2006 and with the headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan for nine months in 2008 and 2009, for which she was awarded the NATO Meritorious Service Medal.[2][4] She was the Director-General of Public Affairs in 2010, the Director-General, Strategic Communication, from 2011 to 2013, and the Director-General, Australian Defence Force (ADF) Theatre Project, from 2013 to 2014.[3] She retired from the Australian Regular Army with the rank of brigadier in 2015, and became a reservist once more.[2][5]
Creagh became a non-executive director and chair of the board of governors of The Road Home, Veterans' organisation, in 2014. She was a council member of the Australian War Memorial from 2015 to 2018, and the executive director of the Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience in 2015. She was vice-chair of the Australian Peacekeeping Memorial Project from 2016 to 2019, which resulted in the creation of the Australian Peacekeeping Memorial on Anzac Parade, Canberra, which was inaugurated in 2017. She was chair of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Committee for Veterans and their Families and was a Defence Ambassador for the ACT Government. She was a strategic adviser at the Defence Research Institute at the University of New South Wales in Canberra from 2018 to 2019, and has been an adjunct lecturer there since 2017.[2][3]
A founding member of the ADF Rowing Association, Creagh became president of Rowing ACT in 2019, and was the ACT councillor for Rowing Australia. She was the assistant indoor rowing coach of the Australian Team at the 2018 Invictus Games. She is a Level 1 rowing coach and an accredited national and international para-rowing classifier.[3][6] She became a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2020 Queen's Birthday Honours "for significant service to veterans and their families, and to rowing."[7] In June 2022, she was appointed to the board of Paralympics Australia,[5] and became its president in September 2023.[8][9]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Q+A - Brigadier Alison Creagh". ABC News. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d "Creagh, Alison Margaret – ACT Memorial". www.memorial.act.gov.au. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Creagh, Alison M." Australian Rowing History. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "'It felt like you were moving through a ghost town'". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ a b "Our Board". Paralympics Australia. September 2015. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Alison Creagh". rowingaustralia.com.au. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Queen's Birthday 2020 Honours List" (PDF). Governor General of Australia. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ "Paralympics Australia Announces New President". Paralympics Australia. 11 September 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
- ^ Mackay, Duncan (13 September 2023). "Paralympics Australia appoints new President after voting out O'Callaghan". www.insidethegames.biz. Retrieved 16 October 2024.