Don't miss your chance to hear from our amazing line-up of speakers! Get in the know about your industry and secure your spot at our A Voice to Lead Conference now!
Prof Robyn Aitken
Elizabeth Bennett
Annie Butler
Uncle David 'Tarnda' Copley
Megan Corlis
Adj Assoc Prof Elizabeth Dabars AM
Prof Marion Eckert
Prof Sue Gordon
Prof Carol Grech
Prof Jeroen Hendricks
Bernadette King
Prof Jill Maben OBE
Rachael Yates
Prof Robyn Aitken
Professor Robyn Aitken is the Dean of Rural & Remote Health in the College of Medicine & Public Health at Flinders University. In this role she oversees the education, research and partnerships across Flinders rural and remote footprint along the entire central corridor of Australia.
She is a PhD prepared Nurse with a distinguished record of achievement, influencing nursing, midwifery, and health care more broadly. She has held senior academic and health services positions in the Northern Territory for the last 15 years, including the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer.
She has been an active researcher and a voice for equity, access and quality of rural and remote health services at a national level during this time, with a long association with the NRHA and CRANAplus. Robyn was a senior Executive at the time of Gayle Woodford’s tragic death and was closely involved with the review of Remote Area Nurse safety and security in the Northern Territory.
In November, 2020 she was commissioned by the South Australian Minister for Health and Wellbeing to undertake a review of Gayle’s Law and associated regulations, and now presents the findings of this research, which have national implications for remote health services delivery.
Elizabeth Bennett
Liz Bennett’s nursing and midwifery career is coming into its 38th year, seeing her present for 1050 births.
She has worked in Metropolitan, Rural and Remote services, interstate and in SA. Her passion to get out of bed every day is knowing that we have opportunities, in our LHNs to ensure women and families have a known, trusted midwifery relationship on their journey to parenthood. Supporting/ managing Midwifery Group Practice development has been by substantive part of her role for the past 12 years and she currently working in an Advanced Practice role in the Nursing and Midwifery Office.
Annie Butler
Annie Butler is the Federal Secretary for the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Annie was formally appointed to the role in June 2018, having served as the Assistant Federal Secretary since March 2014, and following years of experience in the clinical, professional and industrial areas of nursing.
Annie is a registered nurse with more than a decade’s experience working in public hospitals, the community and on health education projects, and a further decade working in research and education.
Uncle David 'Tarnda' Copley
David is an Aboriginal man of Kaurna and Peramangk decent and is a recognised Elder of the Kaurna Nation of South Australia.
David has a long association with the ANMF(SA) branch.
He was the 1st Aboriginal person to obtain a Diploma of Applied Science (Developmental Disabilities) –South Australian College of Advanced Education. He was also the 3rd Aboriginal man in South Australia to graduate from University with a Bachelor of Nursing (Flinders University) He is also the first male Aboriginal Registered Nurse in South Australia to hold Post Graduate qualifications in Mental Health Nursing (Flinders University). David is the only Aboriginal person in South Australia to hold all three qualifications.
Uncle David will be starting the proceedings with a Welcome to Country.
Megan Corlis
As the Director Aged Care & Research at the ANMF (SA Branch) Megan’s role is to work with the aged care sector and other stakeholders establishing partnerships and seeking synergy related to projects and research including the critical work related to campaigning to improve the quality of care for older people through building workforce capability and capacity.
Megan has worked in a diverse range of nursing roles across the acute and aged care sector – including the Executive Manager of Research & Development in a large, aged care organisation.
Adj Assoc Prof Elizabeth Dabars AM
Elizabeth is passionate about promoting and advancing the professional and industrial interests of nurses, midwives and personal care assistants.
CEO/Secretary since March 2008, Elizabeth works tirelessly to achieve the goals of ANMF (SA Branch) and to create a future that our members seek and so justly deserve. She holds qualifications in nursing, education, leadership, management and law, and worked as a solicitor at DBH immediately prior to taking up her current role.
Professor Marion Eckert
Professor Marion Eckert is the Foundation Director of the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre (RBRC), University of South Australia established in partnership with the ANMF (SA Branch) in September 2016 and the Inaugural Professor of Cancer Nursing in SA at UniSA and Adjunct Professor at Flinders University.
Marion brings more than 30 years’ experience in health care; she does not have a traditional academic background, but one that has been embedded in direct health service delivery, strategy, implementation science and translational research.
Professor Sue Gordon
Professor Sue Gordon recently led the successful application for the Aged Care Centre for Growth and Translational Research (CGTR) and is the Research Director of the Centre, as well as the lead for the Workforce Capability workstream.
In this role and in her previous role, a cofunded position with ACH Group an aged care provider in South Australia, she has completed work with aged care providers and the community to optimise ageing, aged care and the effective use of technology through research translation.
Professor Carol Grech
Emeritus Professor Carol Grech’s professional and academic career spans well over 40 years as a critical care nurse, educator, academic and researcher.
She was the Pro Vice Chancellor: Student Engagement and Equity (2019-2021) at the University of South Australia (UniSA), having previously held the position of Head of School, Nursing and Midwifery (2012-2019). During her role as the Head of School at UniSA, Carol led the development and implementation of undergraduate and postgraduate nursing curricula.
Professor Jeroen Hendriks
Dr Hendriks, RN, MSc, PhD, FESC, FCSANZ, holds the inaugural Leo J Mahar Cardiovascular Nursing Chair at the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Flinders University and the Department of Cardiology, Royal Adelaide Hospital.
He is also affiliated with the Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders, University of Adelaide. In his clinical academic role, he aims to develop a collaborative of academic and clinical excellence to support joint research endeavours between Flinders University and the Central Adelaide Local Health Network (CALHN).
Bernadette King
Bernadette King is the Principal Lead, System Safety Culture at the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC).
Bernadette is an experienced project and change manager with a proven track record in leading state-wide program development and successful large-scale implementation.
Her current role includes the development, implementation and evaluation of state-wide quality and safety improvement priorities with an emphasis on team effectiveness, communication and safety culture while continuing to maintain a lead role at the state level around end of life.
Professor Jill Maben
Jill Maben is Professor of Health Services Research and Nursing at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom.
She is a nurse and social scientist and her research focuses on supporting staff to care well. She undertook one of the first studies to demonstrate relationships between staff wellbeing and patient experience at the team and individual level: Staff wellbeing is an important antecedent of patient care performance. She also completed the first UK national evaluation of Schwartz Centre Rounds in the UK: “A Longitudinal National Evaluation of Schwartz Centre Rounds®: an intervention to enhance compassion in relationships between staff and patients through providing support for staff and promoting their wellbeing”. She is currently studying poor mental health in nurses, midwives and paramedics as well as the Impact of Covid-19 on Nurses.
Jill was awarded an OBE in June 2014 for services to nursing and healthcare. In 2013 she was in the Health Services Journal ‘Top 100 leaders’ and was also included on Health Service Journal’s inaugural list of Most Inspirational Women in Healthcare the same year.
Rachael Yates
Rachael Yates is currently working for SA Health Nursing and Midwifery Office (NMO) as the Statewide Midwifery Director and the Acting Deputy Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer.
Prior to commencing in the NMO, she worked as the Operations Project Director at WCHN as was a driver in the Paediatric ED virtual Assessment service. Some of her achievements include establishing platforms for rural SA midwives to connect, communicate and collaborate and more recently initiated the Statewide Midwifery Network across SA Health.
Rachael lives in regional SA and has worked there for the majority of her career (since 1998).