Board Members

Professor Lyle is a public health physician who has worked in senior positions in the NSW public health system and university sector since 1990. He has a track record of achievement in teaching, research and health services development.

He established and is currently head of the University Department of Rural Health at Broken Hill. Previously he worked as a medical epidemiologist with the NSW Health Department and contributed to the establishment of a number of state-wide programs across the spectrum of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation services, including taking a leadership role in the development and evaluation of the NSW Injury Prevention Program, Rural Critical Care Plan and State Trauma Plan.

His current research is focused on rural health issues and includes the development and evaluation of the NSW Lead Management Program in Broken Hill and the evaluation of innovative service delivery models in vascular disease prevention and treatment and mental health services in isolated rural and remote communities.

Professor Lesley Barclay took up the role of Professor and Director of the Northern Rivers University Department of Rural Health for Sydney University in early 2009. Prior to this she was the foundation Professor of Health Services Development at Charles Darwin University and led the Graduate School for Health Practice. Lesley is a maternal child health researcher and health system reformer whose projects have improved maternity services in Australia and internationally.

Lesley has led over 30 competitive research projects in the last decade, and has been or is a CI on 13 funded by NHMRC or ARC in this period, leading 8 of these. In the last 10 years she has supervised 27 doctoral students, published an international prize winning book with another being published this year in the United States. Since 2004 she has ;published 39 refereed research based journal articles and over 5 major reports for governments.

Lesley has worked in international development for nearly 20 years with AusAID, World Bank and WHO, providing advice in primary health care, maternal infant/child health and capacity building in health worker education systems in Asia, Melanesia and the Pacific Islands. She was awarded an AO in 2004 in recognition of her contribution to professional and international development and child health.

Tony Barnett trained as a nurse in Whyalla in South Australia and has worked in a number of hospitals in both South Australia and Victoria. He has held senior positions at Monash and Deakin University (Warrnambool) and moved to the UDRH in Launceston, Tasmania in 2010. His research interests and activities include: clinical practice, rural health and older adults. He has attracted project and research grants from AusAID; the Rural Health Support Education and Training (RHSET) program, the Commonwealth Government, the Nurses Board of Victoria and the Victorian Government Department of Health (DHS). He is currently working on projects investigating Advance Care Planning in rural residential aged care facilities and the role of IPL in the clinical education of health care professionals.

Associate Professor Tony Smith is diagnostic radiographer with over 30 years of clinical experience, having worked in the public and private health care systems in both metropolitan and rural areas in NSW.

In his current position he also heads the Public Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development program at the Northern NSW UDRH. In addition to extensive teaching experience, Tony has also been involved in research in medical radiation dosimetry and medical imaging in lower back pain in the past. However, his main research interests are now in health workforce issues, particularly those related to interprofessional rural clinical practice in medical imaging. He is the coordinator of the NSW remote x-ray operators licensing course, which aims to educate and provide support to nurse and GPs who perform radiography in locations where no radiographer is available.

He also maintains a strong research interest in other areas of rural and remote clinical practice and in allied health workforce profiling. His key skill set includes both quantitative and qualitative research methods, interprofessional education and practice, questionnaire development, advanced clinical practice in medical imaging, development of flexible, on-line teaching and learning.

Professor Judi Walker took up the position of Professor and Head, School of Rural Health, and Director of the University Department of Rural and Indigenous Health at Monash University in November 2010. She comes to Monash from the University of Tasmania (UTAS) where she held the inaugural Chair of Rural Health which acknowledged the significant contribution she has made to the development of academic rural health in Australia. Her background and achievements exemplify the multidisciplinary and interprofessional nature of rural health.

Judi was the Chief Executive of the UTAS Rural Clinical School – a conjoint appointment with the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for the past 10 years. Concurrently she was co-Executive Director, Partners in Health, the unique partnership between UTAS and DHHS which drives strategic health services workforce education reform. Judi played a key role in university affairs as Deputy/Acting Chair of Academic Senate and Deputy/Acting Dean Faculty of Health Science over a number of years. She was responsible for the establishment of the UTAS University Department of Rural Health and appointed inaugural Director in 1998; the first Associate Dean Teaching and Learning for the Faculty of Health Science – a position she held for 5 years; and founding Director of the UTAS Rural Clinical School.

Judi is Chair of the Federation of Rural Australian Medical Educators (FRAME) and represents Monash University on the Board of the Australian Rural Health Education Network (ARHEN).

Professor James Dunbar has 20 years experience of quality improvement in health care and 25 years experience in General Practice. His research area has been the evaluation of changes in health care including cost effectiveness. His research spans diabetes, cardiovascular disease and depression; from prevention through to better management in primary care. He currently holds two NHMRC Grants studying diabetes prevention as well as a Peers for Progress grant looking at peer support for people with diabetes. He is just completing a trial of collaborative care for people with diabetes and depression based in general practices in Adelaide and northern New South Wales. He also has special expertise in leadership for improvement, measuring quality and benchmarking, change management, improving health systems including patient safety, evaluating the evidence of quality improvement, and process redesign. Previous projects have included the redesign of services for cardiovascular disease, stroke, mental health, prescribing, disease management systems.

His previous post was Medical Director, Borders Primary Care NHS Trust in UK. He won the Institute for Health Care Management prize for the best integrated primary and secondary prevention project for cardiovascular disease in Scotland. Previous awards include the Golden Helix Award for Quality Improvement in Health Care (the premier award in UK) the Medical Royal Colleges Award for Communication with Patients, Doctor of the Year award for Coronary Heart Disease prevention, and Doctor of the Year award for Innovations.

Professor Jonathan Newbury has held the position of Professor of Rural Health and Head of Spencer Gulf Rural Health School (SGRHS) since February 2006. His previous academic responsibilities with the University of Adelaide have been the Rural Undergraduate Support and Coordination program (1997 to 2006) and the Rural Clinical School (2002-2006) and he continues in part time general practice at the Investigator Clinic, Port Lincoln.

Professor Newbury has been involved in a diverse range of research and research teaching; his MD thesis was a randomised controlled trial of preventive Health Assessment of the people aged 75 years and over . This research work included GP supervision of nurses providing home assessments was the Australian evidence base for the introduction of the Enhanced Primary Care policy and the Medicare item number for 75+HA. Internationally this evidence is included in the latest systematic review and meta-analysis of preventive aged care in primary health care.

Professor Newbury's decade of work in medical education for rural practice has been part of the Australian governments Rural Health Strategy. While this is starting to deliver a new rural health workforce this is no longer seen as the only solution to adequate health workforce for rural and indigenous Australia. Hence his future research is directed to rural stroke epidemiology (the SEARCH study) and models of health service delivery in communities www.linkinhealth.org.au

He is the immediate past Chair and Board member of the Australian Rural Health Education Network, and current Chair of the Management Committee for the International Journal of Rural and Remote Health, as well as a member of the Board of Management of the Australian Journal of Rural Health. He is a member of the review panel for the above Journals as well as for the Medical Journal of Australia.

Through the development of these roles Professor Newbury brings an in-depth understanding of the relationships between clinical delivery of primary health care and primary health care policy, especially in the areas of multi disciplinary practice and training, and workforce planning and training.

Professor John Wakerman is a Public Health Medicine specialist and general practitioner, with a background in the provision of remote primary health care services, both as a medical practitioner and senior manager. He is the Inaugural Director of the Centre for Remote Health, Alice Springs, with interests in health services research and postgraduate management education. He is an active advocate fro remote and rural health, and works as a GP in Alice Springs.

Associate Professor David Pierce is a research fellow supported by a National Institute of Clinical Studies fellowship. He is looking at the barriers to clinical behaviour change, the development of an intervention to address such barriers, and his study addresses problem solving therapy as an evidence-based approach to the management of depression in primary care. David is a rural GP who also works with the School of Rural Health.

David has worked for 23 years as a vocationally registered GP in a large Ballarat general practice. This has involved the full range of general practice care, with special interest and experience in primary care psychiatry. For 10 years he managed and delivered his obstetric patients and has worked for many years in aged care medicine at a number of aged care facilities. He also has worked as a practice accreditation surveyor and is an active member of the Ballarat and District Division of General Practice. David is a past Chairman of this Division and currently manages the Division's mental health portfolio. He has also been involved in primary care mental health planning, research and teaching focused on upskilling of GPs in mental health.

Professor Sandra Thompson has worked in the health industry for over 20 years in a variety of roles - as a medical practitioner, laboratory-based researcher, public health researcher and epidemiologist, manager and public health practitioner. She has worked in cross-cultural settings including several remote areas of Australia and has a strong commitment to Indigenous health issues and to other vulnerable and underserved populations.

As a public health physician her interests and expertise include communicable disease control, prevention and management of chronic disease, Indigenous health, health services research, quality improvement, capacity building and partnership approaches, and mental health. She has been involved in teaching and research with a number of universities in Australia. She is currently an Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.

She took up the appointment as Winthrop Professor, Chair in Rural Health and the Director of the Combined Universities Centre for Rural Health in February 2010 and is based in Geraldton. This role provides opportunities for innovations around health education and capacity building, developing knowledge and skills through approaches that build trust and partnerships with communities, supporting the health workforce and improve the safety and quality of health care in rural and remote communities. CUCRH's efforts are directed at both inside and outside of clinical settings as essential elements of improving the health status of the population.

Professor Sabina Knight was recently appointed Director of the Mt Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health James Cook University (MICRRH) - one of a national network of federally funded University Departments of Rural Health from an extensive background in remote and Indigenous primary health care public health and education.

A recognised leader in nursing, rural and remote health and education, she came to MICRRH from the Centre for Remote Health in Alice Springs.

A Remote Area Nurse originally from NSW Professor Knight gained her Master of Tropical Health from the University of Queensland, and has held various remote health and academic roles. She has served on numerous national and regional committees and advisory councils and her leadership roles have included Council of Remote Area Nurses of Australia; the National Rural Health Alliance; CARPA editorial committee producing the internationally recognised best practice clinical guidelines for practitioners in remote and Indigenous health.

Sabina’s professional interests and activities have primarily focused on health inequalities - remote, isolated, vulnerable populations and rural health, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. A 2009 finalist of the NT Australian of the Year and Centenary Medallist she has also been recognised by the profession and the discipline of remote health. She is a Fellow of the Rural Leadership Australia, Fellow of CRANA plus, and of the Royal College of Nursing Australia and a director of the Rural Health Education Foundation. In 2008 Professor Knight also served on the Expert Panel on the Social Impacts of Drought and as a Commissioner on the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission. She is passionate about regional cultural vitality and vibrant sustainable communities.