Board

Professor Wilson is the Co-Director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, and Professor of Public Health in the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney and Co-Director of the NHMRC Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (Sax Institute). He chairs the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee for the Australian Government. He has specialist qualifications in public health and clinical medicine, and a PhD in epidemiology.

His previous non-academic roles include Deputy Director-General Public Health and Chief Health Officer, NSW Health and Deputy Director, Policy, Planning and Resourcing, Queensland Health. His research interests include all aspects of the prevention and management of chronic disease and evaluation of the responsiveness and effectiveness of health care systems.

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.

Dr Bruce Hodge is a specialist general surgeon working in the public and private sectors. Located at Port Macquarie, he is the Director of Surgery for the Hastings Macleay, Mid North Coast Local Health District, and Deputy Director of Medical Services at Kempsey District Hospital. He has previously served on the NSW Council of the College of Surgeons and the North Coast Area Health Board. He is a current active member of the NSW Surgical Services Taskforce and was involved in the establishment of the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program into NSW, allowing benchmarking on surgical quality and outcomes. Dr Hodge has a fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and has worked in regional NSW for 30 years, having a broad understanding of the challenges’ faced in health for regional and rural NSW.

Professor Sandy Middleton is the Professor of Nursing, and Director of the Nursing Research Institute at St Vincent's Health Network Sydney, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne and Australian Catholic University. She is a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Leadership Fellow with an interest in stroke and implementation research and has obtained 105 grants totalling over $94 million.

Sandy is Director of the Maridulu Budyari Gumal (Sydney Partnership for Health Education, Research and Enterprise - SPHERE) Implementation Science platform; and Director of the Maridulu Budyari Gumal (SPHERE) Nursing and Midwifery Implementation Science Academy. She is also 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.

Melissa O’Brien is Executive Director of Clinical Governance at Hunter New England Local Health District (LHD). In this role, she is responsible for establishing, directing and managing the LHD’s clinical governance function; to promote and support patient safety and clinical excellence within health services. Melissa is a passionate and experienced nurse and has worked in a variety of clinical governance roles across NSW Health. She has a Master of Nursing (Clinical Leadership) and is a Clinical Fellow (University of Technology Sydney). She is highly skilled in leadership, motivation, and problem solving; and has proven experience in facilitating and leading multidisciplinary teams to improve patient care. Melissa is highly committed to supporting clinicians and engaging with consumers to deliver high quality, patient-centred care to our community.

Luke Sloane is the Coordinator-General for the Regional Health Division of the Ministry of Health. Born and raised in Orange, he began his career in nursing and has worked for NSW Health for more than 20 years. Luke has worked in a variety of senior nursing and midwifery, and safety and quality roles over the past 10 years. Most recently, he was NSW Health’s Executive Director for System Management, leading system performance, safety and quality, and COVID-19 pandemic response support at a system level. Luke also has a strong track record in clinical operations across the health system, including as Director of Clinical Governance and Associate Director, Clinical Practice and Strategy, Nursing and Midwifery at Western Sydney Local Health District.

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