Assistant Minister Ged Kearney

Assistant Minister for Health

Ged Kearney is the Federal Member for Cooper and the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care. Ged has served in the parliament since March 2018, when she was elected in a by-election. She is the first woman to hold the seat.

Ged started her working life as a nurse and rose to become Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing Federation. From 2010, Ged served as the president of the ACTU – the peak body of Australia’s union movement – where she fought for better conditions for Australian workers.

Ged was born and raised in Melbourne and lived in Cooper for over 25 years. Ged has four children, two stepdaughters and five much loved grandchildren.

Prof Jon Emery

Herman Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research

Director of PC4

Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) Primary Care Research and Education Lead

University of Melbourne

Jon Emery is the inaugural Herman Professor of Primary Care Cancer Research at the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Primary Care Research and Education Lead. He is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Director of the Cancer Australia Primary Care Collaborative Cancer Clinical Trials Group (PC4). 

Following his medical training at Cambridge and Oxford, he has pursued a career in academic primary care, initially at Oxford, where he obtained his DPhil on cancer risk assessment tools, then as a Cancer Research UK Clinician Scientist at Cambridge before taking up the Chair of General Practice at the University of Western Australia. His research has focused on the application of advances in genetic medicine, primary care oncology and the development and evaluation of complex interventions including computer decision support systems, and new cancer diagnostic and screening technologies.

He has published over 350 papers and in the last 5 years been awarded over $35 million in competitive grant funding.

He is currently leading the development of the PARTNER national rural trials network, funded by the MRFF, and the establishment of the Melbourne Primary Care Trials Unit.

Prof Nicolette Sheridan

Tribal affiliations
Ngāpuhi, Te Hikutu, Te Māhurehure, Ngāti Pākau, and Ngāti Rauwawe

Professor, Head of School Nursing, Director of the Centre for Nursing & Health Research

College of Health Te Kura Hauora Tangata,
Massey University

Nicolette Sheridan is Professor and Head of the School of Nursing at Massey University in Aotearoa New Zealand. She has a PhD and Master of Public Health from the University of Auckland and is a registered nurse with 30+ years in clinical practice, education, and research. She is the principal investigator of a national study investigating patient health outcomes in different models of general practice with co-investigators from five universities including Cambridge University (UK) and the Karolinska Institute (Sweden). She has led or been a co-investigator in 40+ studies; chaired government expert advisory groups, Health Research Council funding panels, is a member of the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery Australia and New Zealand and is an industry monitor of nursing programmes.

Dr Michael Green

Brian Hennen Chair and Head, Department of Family Medicine

Professor, Departments of Family Medicine, Public Health Sciences and Policy Studies

Member, Health Services and Policy Research Institute

Queen’s University

Clinical Head, Family Medicine, Kingston Health Sciences Centre and Providence Care Hospital, Kingston

Senior Adjunct Scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Dr. Michael Green was appointed as the Brian Hennen Chair and Head of the Department of Family Medicine on July 1, 2017.

He is Professor of Family Medicine Public Health Sciences, and Policy Studies at Queen’s University and a Senior Adjunct Scientist at the ICES. In 2018 he was elected as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. In Nov 2022 he was elected as President-Elect of the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

He has served on many professional and government expert committees including the AMS Healthcare Board of Directors, the Provincial Primary Care Advisory Committee on COVID-19, the Ontario Premier’s Council Working Group on Primary Care, the Ontario Expert Panel on Wait Times in Primary Care, the Advisory Committee on Ontario’s Immunization System Review, the College of Family Physicians of Canada Indigenous Health Working Group and Patient’s Medical Home Steering Committees.

A/Prof Liz Sturgiss

Associate Professor (Research) in the School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Monash University

A/Prof Liz Sturgiss is a clinical general practitioner, NHMRC Investigator and primary care researcher.

Liz has experience in implementation research in primary care with expertise in the complex area of obesity management.

Liz leads an emerging research program on the management of complex and stigmatised health issues in primary care focusing on translating guidelines into real-world practice. Her research is based on theoretical principles from behaviour change and implementation science.

She is a practising GP caring for people with substance dependence and complex multi-morbidity. As a clinician-researcher, she has extensive networks with clinical primary care colleagues and in her representative roles with primary care organisations.