WELCOME TO COUNTRY:
JADE KENNEDY
YUIN MAN
ILLAWARRA AND SOUTH COAST OF NSW

BIOGRAPHY:
Jade Kennedy has been privileged with the intimate Knowledges of his peoples customs, culture and Country, and for the past 18 years, Jade has worked within various roles, both professional and academic, at the University of Wollongong. Through his experiences and learnings, Jade has worked consistently to bring together these two worlds by focusing on building knowledge-based relationships between Aboriginal Knowledges and perspectives and tertiary education curriculum.

Over his time employed at UOW, Jade has led numerous projects that have been aimed at creating space for local Aboriginal people, their Knowledges and perspectives, such as:

- The Aboriginal Employment Development Program
- The Koori-Murri Cross-Cultural Exchange
- The UOW Faculty of Commerce Indigenous Strategy
- The Koori Kids Fun day initiative
- The Yuin Community Cultural Camps
- The Digital Acknowledgement of Dharawal Country
- The Koori STEM Camp, and
- The K-STEM engagement days 

Jade is currently an Academic Developer and lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges who is leading and facilitating the internationally acclaimed Educational Development Grants Program Jindaola. Through this work interdisciplinary teams of UOW staff are walked through an 18 month de-colonial Journey moving them towards an emerging conceptual theory of ‘curriculum reconciliation’. Jindaola is moving into its fourth cohort and continues to engage a flourishing community of staff, Aboriginal Elders and community members.

Jade is also highly involved in the cultural protection, heritage preservation and Aboriginal advancement of the Illawarra and South Coast region. He currently holds the following community roles:

- Chairperson of the Illawarra Local Aboriginal Lands Council
- Director of Warra Binge Nunda Gurri
- Spokesperson for the Sandon Point Aboriginal Tent Embassy (SPATE) Custodian Illawarra Region       

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
MS MARGOT MAINS
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
ILLAWARRA SHOALHAVEN LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT

BIOGRAPHY:
Ms Mains has extensive health executive leadership and management experience at both hospital.

Her previous roles include Chief Executive Officer, Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, and prior to that she held senior leadership roles in the New Zealand Health system, as Chief Executive Officer, Capital and Coast District Health Board and Chief Executive Officer, Mid Central Health.

Ms Mains is a registered nurse, and holds the following qualifications: Certificate in Community Health (Christchurch Polytechnic); Graduate Diploma of Nursing (Massey University); Bachelor of Laws (University of Otago). Ms Mains has completed the New Zealand Institute of Company Directors' course.

Margot was admitted as a Fellow of the University of Wollongong in October 2021 for her significant and continued contribution to the health and wellbeing of the Illawarra and Shoalhaven community.
       

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR KIM MANLEY BA, PROFESSOR PRACTICE DEVELOPMENT AND CO-DIRECTOR IMPACT RESEARCH GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA, NORWICH, UK; EMERITUS PROFESSOR CANTERBURY CHRIST CHURCH UNIVERSITY, CANTERBURY UK

BIOGRAPHY:
Kim integrates research and scholarly inquiry, practice development, workplace learning and leadership development to develop and sustain effective workplace cultures that are person centred, safe, effective and good places to work.

She is committed to whole systems integrated working, is passionate about helping staff to develop their potential and flourish, and for patients and service users to experience excellence. In 2000, she was awarded the CBE for quality patient services, in 2015, identified as one of the Nursing Times top 50 leaders and in 2018, recognised as one of seventy nurses having most impact on the National Health Service (NHS) since its inception in the NHS 70 year celebrations.

As a passionate nurse, Kim launched and established Nursing in Critical Care Journal as co-editor and established the first Nursing Development Unit in critical care, pioneering the use of primary nursing and the consultant nurse role.

Whilst at the Royal College of Nursing, Kim was a key partner in establishing the International Practice Development Collaborative, led the development of the Principles of Nursing Practice, and was a founding director of the Health Care Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) with the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges and National Voices (Service Users).

She currently leads the development of a multi-professional consultant capability and impact framework for Health Education England, aligned to advanced practice and systems leadership. She has over 165 publications, six edited books and has examined many doctoral studies internationally.
       

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
VIC McEWAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, THE CAD FACTORY

BIOGRAPHY:
Vic McEwan is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Cad Factory, an artist-led organisation creating an international program of new, immersive and experimental work guided by authentic exchange, ethical principles, people and place, Vic has led this regionally based arts organisation to work with over 500 artists, to engage an in-person audience of over 100,000 people, while delivering more than 60 artistic outcomes and over 150 workshops.

Vic’s artistic practice involves working with sound, video, installation, performance and site-specific locations. He is interested in creating new dynamics by working with diverse partners in areas such as health, business, the environment and education to explore difficult themes within the lived experience of communities.

Vic was the 2015 Artist in Residence at the National Museum of Australia and the recipient of the inaugural Arts NSW Regional Fellowship in 2014. Between 2015 and 2018, he created ‘The Harmonic Oscillator’, which explored the effects of noise within hospital spaces and received the Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (CHASS) 2019 Award for Distinctive Australian Work. He has shared the outcomes of ‘The Harmonic Oscillator’ at Tate Liverpool, the National Gallery of Lithuania and the Big Anxiety Festival, with the Director of the National Institute for Experimental Arts, Jill Bennet, declaring it as ‘field defining work’ and ‘arguably one of the most adventurous and profound arts-health interventions to date, both intensely moving and inspirational’.

Vic sits on the Arts and Health Network NSW/ACT and is a board member of MusicNSW. He holds a first-class Honours of Creative Practice (Fine Arts) for which he received the university medal, and a Master of Arts Practice with High Distinction. He is currently the first contemporary artist to be enrolled in an arts-practice led PhD in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.
                         
            

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
EMMA GEE
CONSUMER
INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER & AUTHOR

This keynote presentation is sponsored by the Network of Practice Development Units of the University Hospitals Basel - Berne - Zurich, Switzerland.

BIOGRAPHY:
Emma Gee is one of Australia’s acclaimed Inspirational Speakers, offering her thoughts and solutions on person-centred care and resilience through her keynote presentations, workshops and consultancy. With a background in Occupational Therapy and as a Stroke Survivor, Emma is a renowned expert and a living example of what it takes to step in another’s shoes and truly bounce back in life. Through her inspiring presentations, Emma is able to both captivate and challenge her audiences to consider what IS possible in their own lives.

Learning to speak again post-stroke, and realising the importance of sharing her story to help others, were the catalysts for Emma taking on speaking professionally. Today, and thousands of presentations later, Emma as an Inspirational Speaker has incredibly broad client group: from healthcare (associations, hospitals and rehabilitation facilities); businesses & corporate events; community organisations; through to educational facilities. She has also just published her first book entitled Reinventing Emma.

Emma is passionate about enhancing person-centred service delivery and resilience in the lives of all she works with and promises to leave her audiences inspired to bounce back and step up. Emma Gee’s signature phrase is “that it’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you choose to deal with it!” will see her audiences moving past life’s hurdles to what’s possible.

            

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
DR DUNCAN MCKELLAR, CLINICAL ADVISOR, OLDER PERSONS’ MENTAL HEALTH, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF PSYCHIATRIST, SA HEALTH

This keynote presentation is sponsored by the NSW Health Education & Training Institute.

BIOGRAPHY:
Duncan McKellar is a psychiatrist specialising in the care of older people. He is the Clinical Advisor, Older Persons’ Mental Health in the Office of the Chief Psychiatrist, SA Health. He is also the Head of Unit for the older persons’ mental health service in the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network.

Duncan was a co-author of the Chief Psychiatrist’s Oakden Report in 2017, a landmark document in Australian health and aged care and the trigger for the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. He had a lead role in the reform process after the Oakden Report, including chairing the statewide working groups for the development of new models of care, as well as co-authoring the South Australian Older Persons’ Mental Health Culture Framework.

He led the development and commissioning of Northgate House, which has developed as an exemplar of new ways of working with people with dementia in South Australian public health services. In November 2018, Northgate House won the SA Health Excellence Award for improving safety and quality.

He remains committed to rethinking the way health organisations work, to deliver compassionate relationship-centred care through growth oriented inter-disciplinary teams that place people, their families, and carers at the centre of activity and service development.

PANEL HOST:
KAREN TUQIRI, A/SOUTH EASTERN SYDNEY LOCAL HEALTH DISTRICT DIRECTOR OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY

BIOGRAPHY:
Karen Tuqiri is currently acting in the role of South Eastern Sydney Local Health District Director of Nursing and Midwifery with her substantiative role the Director of Nursing Prince of Wales Hospital. Having worked within the public health system at both hospital and Local Health District level Karen has a broad understanding of operational and strategic priorities within the New South Wales Healthcare system.

Within the role of Director of Nursing and Midwifery Karen is responsible for planning, developing, implementing, evaluating and governing the implementation of nursing and midwifery initiatives involving the development of professional nursing and midwifery practice, workforce development, research capability, translation of evidence in practice and workplace culture related to local and state strategic priorities.

Using the person centred practice framework as a foundation, programs of work Karen leads focus on quality improvement, patient safety and implementing evidence based practice change whilst developing a deeper understanding of the influence of leadership on person centred care and workplace culture. Her interests focus on the use of person centred approaches to support the ongoing development of capacity and capability of the nursing and midwifery workforce and she has skills in coaching, mentoring and facilitation of learning.

            

PANEL SPEAKER:
PATRICIA BRADD, DIRECTOR PATIENT SAFETY, CLINICAL EXCELLENCE COMMISSION

BIOGRAPHY:
Dr Patricia (Trish) Bradd is the Director, Patient Safety at the Clinical Excellence Commission (CEC), a leadership and strategic role that leads and directs the NSW Patient Safety Program and provides strategic oversight for patient safety and quality across the NSW Health system.

Trish is also Executive lead supporting the CEC’s infection prevention and control COVID-19 response in NSW.

Prior to this, Trish held senior Executive positions involving building system-wide capacity and capability for safe, quality healthcare by improving systems and support for value-based change.

Her PhD was conferred in 2018 and explored allied health leadership in the provision of person-centred care.

            

PANEL SPEAKER:
ANNETTE SOLMAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, HEALTH EDUCATION AND TRAINING INSTITUTE (HETI)

BIOGRAPHY:
Annette is a senior health leader within NSW Health. Annette brings significant experience in areas including health management, multi-professional education, culture change, quality improvement and research. She is currently Chief Executive of the Health Education and Training Institute (HETI).

Annette is a people oriented Chief Executive, interested and actively involved in person centred care practices as well as leadership development to provide a person centred approach to healthcare and a workplace culture of effectiveness - Annette sees this as foundational to a highly skilled workforce.

Within her role at HETI, Annette is focused on strengthening relationships with health and academic partners, and creating an innovative environment in which excellence in education and training can be delivered to support the diverse NSW Health workforce to achieve improved health outcomes across our State.

            

PANEL SPEAKER:
JACQUI CROSS, CHIEF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY OFFICER, NURSING AND MIDWIFERY OFFICE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH

BIOGRAPHY:
Jacqui Cross commenced in the role of the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for NSW Health in July 2016. The role of the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer provides professional leadership and direction on a diverse range of nursing and midwifery issues across the system.

Jacqui brings a breadth of experience to the role having worked within the public health system at a hospital and Local Health District level, as well as within the Ministry of Health.

A registered nurse, Jacqui has held a variety of nursing roles within NSW Health including clinical nursing roles, as a Registered Nurse, Nursing Unit Manager and Nurse Manager.

Throughout her career Jacqui has been a strong advocate for nursing and midwifery leadership and practice development. Jacqui has wide ranging experience in facilitating and leading clinical leadership programs and has previously been the Project Manager for the Essentials of Care Program at a State level.

Jacqui held experience in senior nursing management positions as the Director of Nursing at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead from 2012-2015, and as the Director of Nursing and Midwifery at South Western Sydney LHD.

Jacqui is a highly experienced clinical leader, who is committed to person centred care, and the development of effective workplace cultures to support that care.

            

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR TANYA MCCANCE, DPhil, MSc, BSc (HONS.) RGN

BIOGRAPHY:
Professor Tanya McCance has an international reputation in the development of person-centred practice through the use of participatory research approaches, such as practice development and action research.

She has been a registered nurse since 1990 and throughout her career has held several joint posts between higher education institutions and health and social care providers demonstrating her commitment to the integration of practice, education, and research.

She leads a programme of research that is underpinned by the Person-centred Practice Framework, which she has developed with Professor Brendan McCormack over the last 15 years, and which is central to the impact of her research. Her most recent work focuses on the identification of a relevant and appropriate set of key performance indicators for nursing and midwifery that are indicative of person-centred care and the development of methods that will demonstration the unique contribution of nursing to the patient experience.

Tanya’s research activities reflect her passion for nursing and her commitment to the development of person-centred practice that will enhance the care experience for patients and their families. She has been recognised for her research contribution by inclusion in the Nursing Times Inspirational Nurse Leaders List (September 2015).

More recently, she was awarded the Royal College of Nursing, Nurse of the Year 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award, and in 2018 she was listed as one of 70 influential nurses and midwives in 70 years of the NHS.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
PROFESSOR VAL WILSON, RSCN RN BEdSt.MN

BIOGRAPHY:
Val holds a joint appointment as Professor of Nursing Research at Illawarra & Shoalhaven Local Health District and the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.

The focus of her role is on ‘working with’ clinicians to develop person centred approaches to care, that are both evidence based and take into account the needs of patients and their families.

She has considerable research experience in qualitative approaches, mixed methods, action research and realist evaluation and has extensively presented and published the outcomes of her work. She has been an active member of the International Practice Development Collaborative for over 15 years.

Her current research projects include for example an International study focusing on measurement of person centred KPI’s via an app, action research studies aimed at reducing falls, medication errors and pressure injuries, measuring safety attitudes of staff across a large acute care hospital, implementing a staff well-being program and developing compassionate leaders.

Her teaching focus is on person centred practice, leadership, reflection and facilitation of cultural change. She is currently supervising 12 HDR candidates.