About me
My early career was spent working in acute care areas such as coronary care, cardiothoracics and surgical nursing followed by teaching in a broad range of areas including bioscience and critical care at the WA School of Nursing. My professional interests changed direction in 1992 when I qualified as a midwife and a lactation consultant. During the following 15 years I worked across the continuum of midwifery care, lactation consultancy and nursing, in a variety of clinical, teaching and management roles, whilst also undertaking HDR research into lactation mastitis. These research interests led to a post-doctoral appointment as a Nursing Research Fellow with Murdoch University in 2007. Since that time I have undertaken leadership roles within the University as Coordinator of the Master of Midwifery, Academic Chair of Postgraduate Research, Deputy Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Associate Dean Learning and Teaching in the School of Health Professions and as Head of Nursing from 2012 to 2021. As Head of Nursing I led a team of talented academics to extend the growth of the Discipline across two campuses from 524 students in 2013 to 1520 students in 2020, whilst also receiving outstanding results in the National Quality Indicators for Teaching and Learning.These roles have given me a broad range of experience in research, leadership and management in Nursing and Midwifery practice and University environments.