Board

Professor Brian McCaughan is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Sydney and cardiothoracic surgeon at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. His major clinical interest is the management of lung cancer. He has held a number of positions with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and was President of the NSW Medical Board for five years.

Prior to his appointment as Group Chief Executive Officer of Adventist HealthCare in 2012, Dr Leon Clark FAICD was Chief Executive Officer of Sydney Adventist Hospital for ten years from April 2002. With a strong clinical background, as well as administrative expertise, he was originally an Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, and pioneer in his chosen sub-specialty of in vitro fertilisation. A past president of the Australian Private Hospitals Association, he currently serves on the boards of several not-for-profit organisations, including The Novus Foundation and Medi-Aid Centre Foundation Limited.

Professor Jacqui Close is a consultant in Orthogeriatrics at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney and Clinical Director of the Falls, Balance and Injury Research Centre at Neuroscience Research Australia. She trained in the UK and moved to Australia in 2005. Her research interests range from injury epidemiology, to intervention studies and implementation research. She has published over 150 papers and her research is currently focused on injury prevention in dementia, hip fracture care and care of older people in surgery. She sits on a number of State and National committees in relation to Older People, is the Co-Chair of the ANZ Hip Fracture Registry Steering Group.

Scott Griffiths is the current Chair of the Western NSW Local Health District Board. He is a former Regional Executive Director Western Region NSW Department of Family & Community Services, former Chair Western Region Justice & Human Services Manager Network, and a former Joint Chair of Murdi Paaki Regional Engagement Committee.

With over 25 years in senior sales & marketing roles in mostly large organisations across a range of diverse industries, Laila has commenced postgraduate research in understanding Patient-Centred Care. Laila also works with Sydney Local Health District to better understand patient and family needs and their place in their treatment. Her focus is to work with healthcare organisations to understand, recognise and facilitate the immense value and knowledge that patients and their families contribute to their own personal healthcare – for better health outcomes. Laila became an accidental advocate for her father over 10 years ago.  Tortured with a rapidly failing body, and losing his ability to speak, Laila took on her father's voice as he lost his.

Professor Sandy Middleton is Professor of Nursing and Director of the Nursing Research Institute a joint initiative between St Vincent’s Health Australia (Sydney) and Australian Catholic University.  She has been successful in obtaining funding as a chief investigator on 56 grants attracting funding of over $14.5M.  Her particular interest is in stroke and implementation research.  She is a member of the National Stroke Foundation Clinical Council, the NHMRC Translation Faculty, a Director of the St Vincent’s Clinic Board, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the Australian Stroke Clinical Registry.

Dr Michelle Mulligan is a Specialist Anaesthetist (FANZCA) at Royal North Shore Hospital and in the private sector. She has management responsibility at Royal North Shore as the Clinical Director of the Division of Surgery and Anaesthetics, and also Chairs the Surgery and Anaesthetic Clinical Network of Northern Sydney Local Health District.  Her qualifications include a Master of Business Administration, Fellowship of the Australian Institute of Company directors and Associate Fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. She has served on a number of Boards including the Council, Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists and the Northern Sydney Local Health District Board since 2017.

Susan is the Deputy Secretary of the System Purchasing and Performance Division at the Ministry of Health.  She is responsible for front-end system management across NSW and acts as the interface between the Ministry, local health districts, specialty health networks, and health organisations to support and monitor overall system performance.

Susan started her career as a registered nurse across rural, remote, and metropolitan areas of NSW.  She has held a number of senior executive positions in NSW Health including Director of Operations at Northern Sydney Local Health District and the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer at the Ministry of Health.  She has managed large portfolios, including:  acute health services, mental health, public health and health promotion, workforce, clinical training and education, and Aboriginal health.

Susan’s commitment to drive change in the public health system makes a positive difference to patients’ health outcomes and care.

Professor Wilson is Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy at the University of Sydney and leads the Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.  His research interests concern the application of epidemiology to informing decision making in clinical medicine, public health, and health service policy and planning. His specific areas of interest are chronic disease prevention and management.  His specific areas of interest are chronic disease prevention and management.  His previous non-academic roles include Deputy Director-General, Policy, Planning and Resourcing, Queensland Health, and Chief Health Officer, and Deputy Director-General, Public Health, NSW Health.

Dr Jean-Frédéric Levesque joined the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation as Chief Executive in June 2017.

He was previously Chief Executive of the Bureau of Health Information between 2013 and 2017. He brings to the ACI leadership in healthcare system analysis and improvement, combining experience in clinical practice in refugee health and tropical medicine, in clinical governance and in academic research. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity of the University of New South Wales.

Dr Levesque has a Medical Degree, a Masters in Community Health and a Doctorate in Public Health from the Université de Montréal, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada in Preventive Medicine and Public Health. He is a member of the Strategic Analytic Advisory Committee of the Canadian Institute of Health Information and a member of the HealthShare NSW Board.

Prior to joining NSW Health, he has held senior positions responsible for publicly reporting information about the Canadian health system at the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec and the Commissaire a la santé et au bien-etre du Québec and was a Visiting Academic at the University of Melbourne