Secretariat
Based primarily at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, the SHP Secretariat is responsible for grant and project management, communications, administrative and financial support to facilitate activity across the program of work
Executive Director
Professor Don Nutbeam
Don Nutbeam is a Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney and, prior to his appointment at Executive Director in 2020, served Sydney Health Partners as interim ED (2016-2017) and then Special Advisor.
As a social scientist, Professor Nutbeam’s research interests are the social and behavioural determinants of health, and the development and evaluation of public health interventions. Over more than 40 years, he has made a substantial international impact on the theory, science and practice of health promotion, and contributed to health policy at national and international levels.
Professor Nutbeam has worked as an external advisor and consultant on public health issues to the World Health Organization (WHO) for more than 30 years, and as consultant and team leader in health system capacity development projects for the World Bank.
Between 2000-2003, he was the Head of Public Health at the UK Department of Health, where he drove a cross-government programme to tackle health inequality in Britain.
Professor Nutbeam was Academic Provost at the University of Sydney between 2006-2009 and then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton in the UK until 2015.
More recently, he was Principal Senior Advisor at the Sax Institute and is editor-in-chief of the Institute’s journal Public Health Research and Practice.
Professor Nutbeam serves on the boards of Western Sydney Local Health District and Suicide Prevention Australia.
Associate Professor Angela Todd
Research Director
Learn moreof Associate Professor Angela ToddAngela has worked extensively across the health sector in Australia and Canada, in health research, research funding, service development, service evaluation, policy development, and strategic planning. She has worked for government, public hospitals, universities and not-for-profit organisations.
As well as being Research Director at Sydney Health Partners, Angela is a researcher with Women and Babies Research (WOMB) at the Kolling Institute, a joint venture between the Northern Sydney Local Health District and the University of Sydney.
Associate Professor Nicole Rankin
Director, Implementation Science Program
Learn moreof Associate Professor Nicole RankinNicole is Director, Implementation Science for Sydney Health Partners and a Senior Research Fellow in Implementation Science at the University of Sydney, with research expertise is in lung cancer and psycho-oncology. She has a passion about empowering the Australian community to directly benefit from research and ensuring its translation into health outcomes.
Associate Professor Rankin is principal investigator on a National Health and Medical Research Council-funded Ideas Grant that is investigating the acceptability and feasibility of implementing a lung cancer screening program in Australian communities.
Aisling Forrest
Chief Operating Officer
Vanessa Williams
Executive Officer
Maria McDougal
Executive Assistant
Andria Ratchford
Program Manager
Joan Torony
Clinical Trials Manager
Linda Komarek
Project Manager
Tess Aungles
Project Manager - Implementation Science
Mark Mathot
Media & Communications Manager
Helen Hughes
Media & Communications Officer
Senior Advisor
Professor Garry Jennings AO
Professor Garry Jennings AO was the inaugural Executive Director of Sydney Health Partners 2017 – 2020. Prior to that he was CEO of the National Heart Foundation in 2016, and Director and CEO of the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute from 2001-2015, having previously been Director of Cardiovascular Medicine and Chair, Division of Medicine at The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. He is currently Chief Medical Advisor to the Heart Foundation.
He has a distinguished career in clinical and academic cardiology, the latter including well over 500 research publications, and is Associate Editor of the American Heart Association journal, Hypertension. He has reported discoveries on the mechanisms, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease including exercise, hypertension and on the sympathetic pathophysiology. Professor Jennings remains active in clinical practice, having published books on heart disease for the general public and is a regular media commentator on health and policy issues.
Professor Jennings is Past President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI), and of the High Blood Pressure Research Council of Australia and Head, WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Training in Cardiovascular Health. He served on the Boards of National Heart Foundation of Australia, Research Australia, CSANZ, St Vincent’s Institute and AAMRI, as Trustee of the Asia Pacific Society of Hypertension, the Baker Foundation and of the Foundation for High Blood Pressure Research. During his time as Director of the Baker Institute he founded Nucleus Network, a premier early stage clinical trials facility. The Medical Research Commercialisation Fund Australasia’s largest life sciences investment fund was fledged at the Baker during that time.
