Sydney Health Partners' Annual Forum 2024

Louise Baur holds the Chair of Child & Adolescent Health and is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney. She is a consultant paediatrician in Weight Management Services at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network. Louise has made research contributions in many aspects of the treatment and the prevention of child and adolescent obesity and in paediatric nutrition. She is currently is President of the World Obesity Federation (2022-2024) and President of the Australian Academy of Health & Medical Sciences (2023-2026). Within Sydney Health Partners, Louise is Co-Director of the Diabetes & Obesity Clinical Academic Group.

Dr Paula Bray is the Director of Research for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network. Paula started her career as an occupational therapist and clinical-researcher who completed her PhD and post-doctoral studies in measurement science and improving clinical care through development and implementation of international clinical practice guidelines for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Paula is committed to advancing healthcare delivery through unlocking value by implementing research-enabled care.

Cathryn Cox PSM was appointed Chief Executive of Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network in August 2020. Cathryn has many years of experience as an Executive within NSW Health with responsibility for a range of health policy, planning, infrastructure and strategic reform programs. Cathryn is passionate about the role of Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network in providing world-class patient-centred care for children and young people, and their families, as well as ground breaking health research and its translation into clinical practice. Cathryn is a member of a number of Boards and has recently become an Adjunct Associate Professor of the University of Sydney.

Dr Ruth Griffiths is a Principal Research Scientist and Director of Patients and Infrastructure in the Department of Health and Aged Care. She manages six of the MRFF Initiatives. Ruth has a background in research with a particular interest in improving cardiovascular risk management in primary care.

Professor Hennessy is an awarded leader in the fields of women’s health and medical education and an experienced medical clinician with detailed knowledge in remote and rural medicine, high-risk medicine and clinical research.

Dr Jean-Frédéric Levesque is the Deputy Secretary, Clinical Innovation and Research at the NSW Ministry of Health, and Chief Executive of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity at the University of New South Wales. He has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and his seminal research on healthcare access and inequity has been cited more than 2,000 times. Jean-Frédéric Levesque has a Medical Degree, a Masters in Community Health and a Doctorate in Public Health from the Université de Montréal, Canada. He brings extensive leadership in healthcare systems analysis and improvement, combining experience in clinical practice in refugee health and tropical medicine, in clinical governance and in academic research.

Dr Alan Ma is a Research Translation Fellow, Sydney Health Partners and a clinician researcher based at Sydney Children's Hospitals Network -Westmead. He specialises in clinical genetics and sees patients with genetic conditions and rare diseases in urban and rural NSW. His research interests are in genomics, and the implementation of genomics and precision medicine into the healthcare system.

Professor Andrew McLachlan AM is a pharmacist, academic and researcher with experience in clinical pharmacology and the quality use of medicines. He is currently Head of School and Dean at the Sydney Pharmacy School, The University of Sydney. Andrew worked at Concord Hospital for over 12 years, actively involved in the research ethics, placements, research, and medication safety. Andrew currently serves on committees related to human research ethics, medicines safety, medicines evaluation and international antidoping.

Don Nutbeam is the Executive Director of Sydney Health Partners and a Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney. Sydney Health Partners is a NHMRC accredited Advanced Health and Research Translation Centre.

Don Nutbeam’s career has spanned senior leadership positions in universities, government, health services and international organisations including WHO and the World Bank. He was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton, UK, Provost of the University of Sydney, and Head of Public Health for the UK Government.

He is a public health scientist with research interests in the social and behavioural determinants of health, and in the development and evaluation of public health interventions. His current research focusses on the development and testing of interventions to improve health literacy in different populations.

Mary O’Kane is Chair of Sydney Health Partners, the Australian Energy Market Operator, and Business Events Sydney and Executive Chair of O’Kane Associates, a company specialising in major reviews.

She is also Chair of the advisory boards of the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania and the Australian Centre of Excellence in Antarctic Science. She was Chair of the Independent Planning Commission of NSW from 2018-2024; NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer from 2008-2018; and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Adelaide from 1996-2001.

For the last 25 years, Mary has served on many Australian and overseas boards and committees in the public and private sectors, especially related to research, engineering, ICT, energy, and international development.

Andria leads the Clinical Academic Groups program at Sydney Health Partners. She has worked in public health and medical research for over 20 years managing public health registries, clinical trials and large research studies across cancer, cardiovascular, diabetes, and developmental disabilities.  Andria holds a Master of Science in Public Health and has worked with state health agencies, universities and clinical research organisations in the U.S. and Australia.

Roger Reddel is the Executive Director of Children’s Medical Research Institute and the Lorimer Dods Professor of The University of Sydney. Trained as a medical oncologist, his research interests include the molecular biology of cancer cell immortalisation and personalisation of cancer treatment decisions using proteogenomic analysis. He has a long-standing commitment to many collaborative translational research endeavours, and is a founding member of the University of Sydney Cancer Research Network and Sydney Cancer Partners, board member of Sydney Health Partners and Luminesce Alliance, and chair of the Executive Committee of Westmead Research Hub.

Dr Mitchell Sarkies is a Senior Lecturer, Sydney Horizon Fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the Sydney School of Health Sciences. Mitchell leads the Innovation and Methods Stream for the Sydney Health Partners Implementation Science Academy and is a member of the Academic Implementation Science Network, which supports advancements in the science of implementation in health. Dr Sarkies is a health services researcher and implementation scientist with a clinical background in physiotherapy. He leads multiple research translation projects to enhance evidence-informed models of care.

Associate Professor Angela Todd joined Sydney Health Partners in 2016 and is now Research Director.  She works with our partners on programs that make it easier to health research including promoting and supporting consumer involvement in research, supporting staff working in clinical trials, and harmonising research governance and data sharing approval processes,.   Angela has previously worked for government, public hospitals, and non-government organisations both in Australia and Canada, in various health research and health policy roles.

Professor White leads collaborative research efforts, driving translational strategies for impactful outcomes. With medical and research backgrounds from Sydney University and UNSW, he's held executive roles including SESLHD Director of Research and Medical Co-Director of the ESCM program at Prince of Wales Hospital. He serves on boards at Neurosciences Research Australia (NeuRA) and Health Science Alliance at Randwick, integrating research into practice. Leading teams in software development and contributing to diabetes management and survivorship research, he practices as a physician and endocrinologist, mentoring young professionals and is committed to bringing innovation to life.

Professor Sue Woolfenden is the Director of Community Paediatrics at SLHD, and Professor of Community Paediatrics at the University of Sydney. She co-leads the Sydney Health Partners Child and Adolescent clinical academic group, and is the co-chair of the Sydney Institute for Women, Children and their Families at SLHD. In her health and academic roles she aims to address child health and health care inequities through innovative integrated health-social service models including Hubs, social prescribing and care navigation. Sue is an investigator on multiple collaborative and interdisciplinary grants in these areas with >$15 M funding, and has 153 peer-reviewed papers.