Scroll Down
Ms Julie Blackburn – Chair
RM, RN, GAICD
Chair, as elected by the Board November 2020
Primary Health Care Clinician Director, appointed 2019 AGM
Ms Julie Blackburn brings over 25 years combined experience as a Registered Nurse and Registered Midwife, with currency in both roles through employment with the Discipline of Nursing at University of Canberra and at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce. Julie is an experienced non-executive director. She is currently Deputy Chair of Karralika Programs, and spent eight years prior to joining CHN on the Board of Directors with Defence Health and the Defence Health Foundation. Julie has direct experience in reporting to Ministers at both local and federal levels, including as a member of the ACT Ministerial Advisory Council for Women 2014-2018.
Ms Darlene Cox
BA Dip Ed, Grad Dip AppEc, B Ed
Consumer Director, appointed to fill a casual vacancy 22/8/2017, subsequently elected 2017 AGM and reappointed at 2020 AGM.
Darlene has been involved in the consumer movement since the late 1990s. She is an eminent advocate for health consumers with an excellent knowledge of the health system, both locally and nationally. Darlene has a strong, practical understanding of community engagement principles. She has been the Executive Director of Health Care Consumers’ Association Incorporated since 2008. She is also a board member of Meridian. She has had a long standing interest in improving the quality and safety of heath care and has longstanding connections with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, Australian Medical Council, Australian Commission for the Safety and Quality of Health Care and the NPS MedicineWise.
Dr Mel Deery
MBBS (UNSW)
General Practice Director, elected 2017 AGM and reappointed at 2020 AGM.
Along with her husband John, Mel is a GP and practice owner at YourGP. She is passionate about developing YourGP to better fulfil the vision of ‘genuine care, clinical excellence’. She enjoys all areas of general practice with special interests in paediatrics, women’s health, pregnancy care and mental health.
Dr Niral Shah
MBBS, MS(Orthopaedic), MHSM, DCH, FRACGP
General Practice Director, appointed 2019 AGM
Dr Niral Shah is an overseas-trained doctor, obtaining his primary medical degree and specialist qualifications in Orthopedic Surgery from India. After six year of hospital experience in Australia, he joined general practice training in 2012. He completed his GP training in 2016 by working in rural as well urban general practice and an extended skills academic position at the ANU.
Niral is working part-time as a GP in a group practice in Gungahlin. He also is a senior medical educator with GP Synergy and has been actively involved in GP registrar training. He is also an ACT representative on the RACGP Faculty Board representing the ACT’s voice, advocating for local issues at the Federal and State level and developing various quality improvement and continuing professional development programs.
Mr Peter Quiggin PSM KC
LLB, BSC, Grad Dip Prof Accounting, FAICD
Appointed Board Director, March 2022
Peter is a highly experienced former Australian Government agency head and is a Commonwealth Queen’s Counsel. He led the highly respected Australian Office of Parliamentary Counsel for 17 years. As a former First Parliamentary Counsel, Peter has an outstanding understanding of legislation and legislative schemes and the operations of government.
Peter been on a number of Boards including the Board of Tax and not-for-profit Boards. He was President of an international association – the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Counsel – for a record three terms. He has also been on a range of Finance and Audit Committees in both the public and not-for-profit sectors. He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, was awarded a Public Service Medal for services to legislative drafting and recently awarded a Chief Minister’s Canberra Gold Award.
Steven Baker
BComm (Acctg), ICAA, MIIA, GAICD
Appointed Board Director, March 2021
Steven has served on numerous Boards, Committees, Audit and Finance Committees as a member and/or Chairperson, in addition to participating in many as an observer as either the internal or external audit provider. Steven has over 25 years in professional services delivery in Australia and has worked for Ernst & Young, WalterTurnbull Pty Ltd, PricewaterhouseCoopers and currently for global consulting business Protiviti Pty Ltd. Steven has many years’ experience providing professional consulting services, as well as board and committee experience within the health and education sectors.
Previous members
Professor Mark Cormack
MHM, BAppSc, GAICD
Appointed Board Director January 2021, resigned October 2021
Professor Mark Cormack was appointed Honorary Professor at the ANU College of Health and Medicine in 2020, following a long career in the Commonwealth, ACT and NSW Government services. His professional background covers early work as an allied health professional and health services manager. Mark has served as a Chief Executive (ACT Health and Health Workforce Australia) and Deputy Secretary (Commonwealth Departments of Health, Veterans’ Affairs and Home Affairs) and has had portfolio responsibilities covering a wide spectrum of public policy. These included national health policy on mental health, health financing, primary health care, public hospitals, health technology assessment, health and medical research, health provider compliance, health analytics and digital health.
Professor Peter Radoll
BIT, MIT, PhD
Deputy Chair, as elected by the Board November 2020
Appointed Board Director, November 2019, resigned February 2022
Professor Peter Radoll was Professor of Information Technology and the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous, and Director of the Ngunnawal Centre at the University of Canberra. Peter is a descendant of the Anaiwan People of northern New South Wales. Before taking up his current position, Peter held various roles in the university sector including Inaugural Dean and Director of the Wollotuka Institute at the University of Newcastle. Peter was a Director of the Tjabal Centre where he worked with the ANU Medical School with Indigenous students and associate lecturer in Information Systems at the ANU. He was Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre of Economic Policy Research at the ANU and is a director on the board of the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre and The Smith Family.