High-profile nurses supporting next round of ACN leadership programs

Having published over 200 research papers, Christine was named in Mendeley’s Top 100,000 Cited Researchers of the World in 2020. Christine is also the Associate Editor for the International Journal of Nursing Studies, the most highly ranked international nursing journal. 

Christine led the development of the first five industry funded Chairs of Nursing in Australia and has been instrumental in establishing key institutions including the Centre for Graduate Nursing Studies (1989) and the Centre for Health Services Management (1999). 

Christine has held numerous senior University roles on Academic and Graduate Students Committees and has made a significant impact to the nursing profession by attracting over $14M in research funding as Chief Investigator, supervised 30+ research students and examined 30+ research theses. 

Christine is an experienced Board Director who has established and chaired Clinical Governance Committees for two aged care Boards. 

As the President/Chair of the Australian College of Nursing (ACN), she has led the review of the ACN Constitution, governance policies and procedures and assisted in moving to a skills-based Board. 

A skilled leader, Christine has been a member of State and Commonwealth Committees including Health Workforce Australia; Grants Committee Rosemary Bryant Centre; NHMRC and ARC expert review panels; Australian Commission on Safety and Quality Advisory Committee – Recognising and Responding to Clinical Deterioration and has represented Australia on panels for the International Council of Nurses. 

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As a passionate humanitarian and fighter for equality, Kylie is inspired to increase the recognition of nurses and women in society, ensuring they have a major seat at the table to develop health and social policy. 

She holds honorary academic appointments with five leading Australian universities and an Honorary Fellowship with the Australasian College of Health Service Management. She has Fellowships with several other organisations including a Wharton Fellowship from the USA. 

She is a multiple award winner recognised for her transformational leadership and business acumen, including in the past 5 years Telstra Business Woman of the Year in ACT for social purpose and enterprise, WSU’s Professional Excellence Award, a finalist in the CEO of the Year Awards, ACT winner for Woman and Leadership Australia, a finalist for ACT Woman of the Year and Leadership HQ’s Overall national winner for Outstanding Leadership in Australia in 2022. 

Along with her CEO roles she is a Board Director of three national organisations – The Australian Digital Health Agency, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare and Australian Nursing and Midwifery Accreditation Council, as well as being ministerially appointed to multiple national steering committees. 

She is an author, media personality, keynote speaker and highly sought after as a voice of authority on Women’s empowerment, leadership, workforce, culture and change. 

She is a woman determined to see positive changes and she is renowned for investing in those around her to achieve their best. 

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Belynda has held nursing leadership roles including Nurse Educator, Nurse Manager and Nurse Unit Manager within the Australian health care system working in the Northern Territory and Queensland.

Belynda has held the position of Assistant Director of Nursing in the Metro South Health Emergency Operations Centre supporting the COVID-19 response operationalising the COVID-19 screening clinics and hotel quarantine.

Belynda has co-authored a textbook on Monitoring and Administration of Intravenous medications for Enrolled Nurses through Cengage publishing. Belynda held the position of Board Director for Australian College of Nursing (ACN), ACN Chair for the Queensland, Emerging Nurse Leader mentor and member of the New Generation of Nurses Faculty. Belynda has presented at the International Council of Nurses Symposium with the ACN New Generation of Nurses Faculty in 2013, and was awarded a Fellow of ACN in 2014.

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Mark’s exceptional skills in workforce modelling, skills mix analysis and understanding of the industrial framework underpinning acute, aged care and primary and community health settings has advanced him as a sought-after expert in the workplace, as well as lecturing in the tertiary sector.  

Mark has an innate understanding of using data to support decision making, and financial management of health care with a focus on case-mix and activity-based funding models. 

Mark’s contribution to the nursing profession in Australia extends to his appointment as a Non-Executive Director on the Nurses and Midwives Health Insurance Board and a Council Member of the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. 

Mark has been a trailblazer in his areas of expertise throughout his career. He was the first Nursing Unit Manager in NSW to trial unit-based budgeting and the first nurse within the heath service to have a dual role of a Nursing Director and Business Manager within a clinical stream across a number of facilities, paving the way for nurses in NSW to be respected as dual professionals. 

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Having worked on several local, state and national health informatics activities, she is not only committed to supporting data driven decision making at the local level but also major health reform through innovation and digital health initiatives at a state and national level. Jen was the inaugural Director of Digital Health & Innovation at the UTS Faculty of Health, and has co-authored chapters addressing health informatics in nursing texts.  

She is currently a Board Director and Secretary for the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH), Chair of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Network, and Vice President Special Affairs for the International Medical Informatics Association. Jen is a Fellow of both the AIDH and the Australian College of Nursing, and an Associate Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Service management. 

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Lynette is a member of the International Collaboration on Occupational Resilience (ICOR) and has been involved in developing models of workplace resilience for nurses/midwives. Lynette provides practice-based research support to nurses and midwives at a major metropolitan hospital in South Australia. Other teaching and research contributions include leadership and management, professional practice development and disaster response. 

Lynette previously worked in a range of community health settings, including home nursing, community health centres and in an executive role in drug and alcohol services. Lynette also has many years of experience in nursing and midwifery regulation. 

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She has extensive experience in designing and delivering Q&S training programs in the Asia Pacific region. Her training in quality improvement and patient safety occurred in the USA in 2001 and 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar. S 

he has extensive experience in health care system redesign and has published a Breakthrough Collaborative (Harrison et al Vox Sanguinis 2014) in improving red cell transfusion in the elective surgical setting. She co-authored the Quality in Australian Health Care Study (MJA 1995), the most cited paper in the journal’s 100yr history. 

Her previous positions include: Executive Director of Hospital Performance for the National Health Performance Authority and Director in the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission. Her clinical experience as a registered nurse and midwife in the UK and Australia: maternity and child health, intensive care, aged care and mental health. 

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Sue is a leader of change and committed to the development of others. She regularly supports emerging leaders in coaching and teaching. Sue enjoys collaborating with health staff to solve wicked problems that deliver improvements to service delivery.  

Sue is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD). 

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Tony moved into leadership and management roles, working as a NUM and as a Manager of Nursing Education teams at both Cabrini Health and Austin Health. In 2014 Tony was seconded to the Victorian government in a senior policy advisor role which segued into the Manager of the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce branch. He then went to La Trobe University as Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing Practice where he also looked after the Diploma/Bachelor transition degree in Singapore. 

Tony has completed a Bachelor of Education and a Master of Health Administration and currently holds adjunct positions at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University. His current role at Western Health has a significant focus on the leadership development of our senior nurses and midwives and the role of good leadership in mitigating risks of the clinical governance failures we have seen in the past.  

Tony enjoys his advocacy role with the College and has mentored several mid-career and emerging nurse leaders to maximise their potential. 

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She has a clinical background in critical care and over 30 years’ experience in health professional education. Previously, she worked at Monash University as Director of Academic Programs (Middle East) and Head of Department Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice. 

Leanne holds post graduate qualifications in Education and Critical Care from Monash University and a Masters in Tertiary Education Management from Melbourne University. Her PhD investigated health program evaluation models. She is about to complete a Masters in Business Administration and supervises six PhD students. 

Current priorities include university recognition of industry based learning and teaching and innovative models of care that are centred around the patient/carer and their community with a focus on safety and high quality care. 

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She is a Fellow with the Australian College of Nursing (ACN), and her strengths are demonstrated in developing others and ensuring that the voice of the profession is ever present and valued for its contribution to shaping health. 

Linda is a passionate nurse that started as a 4yr old’s dream and progressed to reality with over 48yrs experience in nursing, midwifery, and senior nurse/midwifery leadership. During the COVID-19 pandemic response, she observed first-hand how nursing took the reins of leadership, care, compassion, and the voice for humanity in delivering services to patients and the community. Linda is inspired by the extensive reach of the roles that nurses undertake and the pivotal value they bring to health care outcomes. 

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Naomi has had an extensive clinical nursing career primarily in General Medicine and held many senior leadership roles including as the Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Operations of Angliss Hospital Eastern Health and as a Deputy Director of Nursing Strategy at Monash Health. She is also a skilled regulator and board member who chaired the Victorian Board of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia for five years until June 2020 and was a board member for a further 5 years prior to that. 

Naomi is currently a Board Member of the Victorian Nurses and Midwives Trust. Naomi is the longest tenured Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Officer in Australia with a national and international profile. She is the CNMIO representative on the Victorian Department of Health, Clinical Informatics Council.  

Naomi Chairs the ACN Nursing Informatics and Digital Health Faculty and is a member of the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Office Faculty. She represents the Australian College of Nursing on many national advisory groups, including on the National Nursing and Midwifery Digital Health Capability Framework which was published in October 2020. 

Naomi is a dynamic and innovative leader who ensures the use of data and information to enable innovative digital health workflows and positive patient care outcomes. She can communicate, influence, and empower individuals and teams across all levels of complex health organisations and is passionate about the role of nursing and midwifery informatics and digital health at a local, state and national level. 

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Alanna completed her General Nursing Training in 1984, Midwifery in 1988, Bachelor of Nursing and a Master of Health Science in Infection Control obtained in 2001 from Griffith University. Alanna is a Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing and holds Adjunct Professor titles from University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University, Australian Catholic University, and the University of the Sunshine Coast.  

In July 2022, Alanna was awarded Outstanding Alumni – Healthcare Leadership by Griffith University and was a highly commended winner of UniSQ Health and Wellbeing Alumnus Award. Alanna has extensive healthcare leadership and management experience and is passionate about the role of nurses and midwives and healthcare professionals in the delivery of healthcare to provide contemporary models which support excellence in education and research. Additionally, she is committed to ensuring that healthcare providers from all disciplines are at the forefront of all healthcare matters and decision making.  

As a nurse and midwife, Alanna is keen to ensure that nurses and midwives lead and are actively involved in research and opportunities which are nurse-centric, and patient centred and has been instrumental in the development and promotion of research programs, educational opportunities and initiatives which support and enhance the roles of the profession. She is passionate about the collaborations that need to be ever present in healthcare and therefore believes that all healthcare professionals need to work together to ensure interdisciplinary, patient focussed, health service centric research and education.  

In doing this Alanna’s belief is that when healthcare professionals work cohesively with all partners the best possible outcomes are achieved for patients and staff alike. To that end she has been instrumental in the development of opportunities for staff, including research internships, educational programs, grant submissions and promotion of conjoint opportunity. Alanna is steadfast in her resolve to promote healthcare to provide excellence in clinical care. 

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Alison is a Registered Nurse and has held senior executive roles in government and health services within Victoria including the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, Director of Quality, Safety and Patient Experience and Director of Health Emergency Management. 

 Alison is a member of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee and chair of the Women Centred Care Senior Official Group, Stillbirth Implementation Oversight Group and National Breastfeeding Advisory Committee. 

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David has been an Executive for Eastern Health in Melbourne for a number of years where he provided professional leadership to the nurses and midwives within Eastern Health. 

He has a deep understanding of the need to manage and mitigate risk, scope, assess and implement improvements to performance – on any aspect of health service performance. 

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Robyn is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Health Science and a Master of Business Administration. Robyn was an Education consultant with the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards, presenting their workshops on Quality Management and Performance Indicators leading to Accreditation for eight years. 

Robyn is Chair of the NSW/Sydney Region and Vice Chair of the Chronic Disease Policy Chapter for ACN. She has been President of the Australasian Association for Quality in Healthcare for six years. 

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Jo has a background in health professional education and over 20 years’ experience working in public and private health services and the Vocational Education and Training sector. In these settings, Jo has been awarded two Masters qualifications and gained expertise in clinical nursing, education, leadership and workforce strategy.  

Jo’s commitment to workforce sustainability is evidenced through her active engagement in the Australian College of Nursing Workforce Sustainability Policy Chapter since 2018. During this time, Jo has led three major environmental scans and contributed to the development of scoping reviews and white papers to inform change and guide future workforce initiatives. 

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Her PhD focused on the moral complexities of the everyday practice of nurses, particularly considering the challenges facing nurses who find themselves in morally inhabitable workplaces. 

Over the last two decades Bec has worked as an Academic at several universities. While still engaged in academia, her focus is shifting to consultancy with its potential for organisation-wide impact. 

Away from professional commitments Bec is happiest being in, on or near the ocean with her family. 

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Georgina is currently Acting Head of Discipline in Nursing within the Institute of Health and wellbeing at Federation University. Her clinical interests are medical/surgical nursing, models of care, interprofessional practice/education Practice Development and Professional Identity. Her research interests include translational research into the areas of healthcare education, health care workforce, and the performance of professional identity in practice. 

Georgina has been an active member of ACN and the Royal College of Nursing for more than 15 years, she is involved in the ACN Policy Chapters and the Emerging Leaders program. Georgina is a Fellow of ACN and is a Board Director with ACN. 

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