Board Members 2023-24

The Board establishes the Commission’s strategic direction, including directing and approving its strategic plan and monitoring management’s implementation of the plan. The Board also oversees the Commission’s operations. It ensures that appropriate systems and processes are in place so that the Commission operates in a safe, responsible and ethical manner, consistent with its regulatory requirements.

Board membership

The Australian Government Minister for Health and Aged Care appoints the Commission’s Board, in consultation with all state and territory health ministers. The Board includes members who have extensive experience and knowledge in the fields of healthcare administration, provision of health services, law, management, primary health care, corporate governance and improvement of safety and quality.

The Board is established and governed by the provisions of the National Health Reform Act 2011 and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.

Professor Christine Kilpatrick AO (Chair)

Professor Kilpatrick has been a member of the Commission Board since 17 July 2023 and was officially appointed as Commission Board Chair on 1 April 2024. Professor Kilpatrick brings to the Board her extensive clinical experience as a neurologist, as well as experience in academia and hospital administration, working in both the public and private sectors. She is an experienced leader noted for building strong clinical governance and a safety culture. 

Professor Kilpatrick’s previous roles include Chief Executive, Royal Melbourne Hospital; Chief Medical Officer, Royal Melbourne Hospital; and Chief Executive, Royal Children’s Hospital. Professor Kilpatrick holds other board appointments: she sits on the Healthdirect Australia, Central Adelaide Local Health Network and Florey Institute boards. In 2019, Christine was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for service to medicine and to the promotion of quality in healthcare.

Qualifications: MBBS, MBA, MD, FRACP, FRACMA, FAICD, FAHMS, FCHSM (Hon), DMedSci (Hon)

Professor Jeffrey Braithwaite

Professor Braithwaite is a leading health services and systems researcher. His work on systems reform involves 152 countries and has been used by many international bodies, including the World Health Organization, the United Nations, the International Society for Quality in Health Care, the World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. He is Founding Director of the Australian Institute of Health Innovation and Director of the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science at Macquarie University. 

Professor Braithwaite has five professorial appointments in the UK, Denmark and Norway and teaches in two programs for Harvard Medical School on patient safety and climate change. Professor Braithwaite shares his cutting-edge knowledge on safer, high-quality care, particularly in creating an innovative, improvement-led culture.

Qualifications: BA, DipLR, MBA, MIR (Hons), PhD, FIML, FCHSM, FFPHRCP (UK), FAcSS (UK), Hon FRACMA, FAAHMS

Dr David Filby PSM

Dr David Filby has worked extensively across the Australian healthcare landscape in several significant policy and executive roles. He has held senior national health policy roles and senior executive positions in Queensland and South Australia. In July 2016, he completed a term of six and a half years as Executive Consultant for SA Health and the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council. 

Dr Filby was a board member of the National Health Performance Authority until June 2016 and a board member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for 14 years. In August 2016, he finished a nine-year term, including six as Chair, with Helping Hand Aged Care. In 2008, he was awarded a Public Service Medal, and in 2007 was awarded the Sidney Sax Medal by the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association. 

Previously, he sat on the board of South Australia’s Child Health Research Institute Council.

Qualifications: PhD

Ms Christine Gee AM

Ms Christine Gee brings to the Board extensive experience in private hospital administration, having held executive management positions for more than 30 years. She is Chair of the Commission’s Private Hospital Sector Committee. Ms Gee is the CEO of Toowong Private Hospital, an authorised mental health service in Queensland. She is involved in a number of state and national boards and committees, including as the National President of the Australian Private Hospitals Association and President of the Private Hospitals Association of Queensland. 

Ms Gee is a community member of the Queensland Board of the Medical Board of Australia and is the Chair of the Medical Board of Australia’s National Special Issues Committee (Sexual boundaries and family violence). She concluded her term as a board member of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in December 2023. Ms Gee was the 2021 recipient of the Gold Medal of the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. She was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia (General Division) on 12 June 2023.

Qualifications: MBA

The Hon Peter McClellan AM KC

The Hon Peter McClellan was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1975 and appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1985. He practised in many areas of the law, in particular environmental law. He was Counsel Assisting the Royal Commission into British Nuclear Tests in Australia (“Maralinga”) and was an Assistant Commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption. He also appeared in and conducted a number of other government inquiries, including the Sydney Water Inquiry, which examined the safety of Sydney’s water supply. 

Mr McClellan was appointed a judge of the NSW Supreme Court in 2001. In 2003, he was appointed Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court. In 2005, he was appointed as the Chief Judge of the Common Law Division of the NSW Supreme Court. In that role, he was responsible for managing major criminal trials and appeals. He also had oversight of major civil cases, including medical negligence. 

In 2013, he was appointed a Judge of Appeal. In his various judicial roles, Mr McClellan has been responsible for bringing many changes to court procedures. He was responsible for introducing the process that allows experts to give evidence concurrently. Mr McClellan was Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which completed its work in December 2017. He is presently Chair of the NSW Sentencing Council.

Qualifications: BA, LLB

Dr Hannah Seymour

Dr Hannah Seymour is a practising clinician in geriatrics at Fiona Stanley Hospital in Western Australia, where she looks after older people in partnership with orthopaedic surgeons. Dr Seymour has experience in using data to improve care and has been involved with the Australian and New Zealand Hip Fracture Registry since its formation. Her passion is improving outcomes and experience for frail older people in hospitals. 

Dr Seymour has extensive experience in clinical leadership. She has held positions in the Western Australian Department of Health in falls prevention and aged care. She gained experience in transformation through the Four Hour Rule program at Royal Perth Hospital and led the clinical commissioning of Fiona Stanley Hospital, where she was a Medical Director until recently. Dr Seymour was the clinical nominee on the Sustainable Health Review and is currently the clinical lead of the Western Australian Electronic Medical Record Program.

Qualifications: BSc, MBBS (Hons), FRACP

Dr Alicia Veasey

Dr Alicia Veasey, a Torres Strait Islander woman who grew up on the mainland, is a regional obstetrician and gynaecologist with a subspeciality fellowship in Paediatric and Adolescent Gynaecology. As inaugural Co-Chair of the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Clinical Network, she provides leadership on systemic cultural safety and health system reform that centres Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s right to self-determination and cultural safety. 

Recognising the need for health system reform to address the racism and inequity in health care, Alicia has completed a Master of Public Health and a Master of Health Management. In 2023, Alicia was awarded a Fellowship with the prestigious Atlantic Fellows for Social Equity. Through the Fellowship, she completed a Master of (Indigenous) Social Change Leadership, where her mini-thesis explored mechanisms to embed Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty within clinical governance. 

Before qualifying in medicine, Alicia was a paediatric registered nurse. She has previously served on the board of the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, was a delegate to the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, and is currently on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Australian Health Review.

Qualifications: BNurs, MBBS, MPH, MHM, MSocChgLead, IFEPAG, FRANZCOG

Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward

Professor Ward previously served as CEO of the Australian College of Nursing (ACN). She led a program of transformation at the 
ACN, increasing revenue, tripling student numbers, raising awareness of the profession, and building a legacy of nursing leadership, policy, sponsorship and community. Professor Ward is inspired to increase the recognition of nurses and women in society by articulating and amplifying the professional voices of nurses and by ensuring they have a major seat at the table to develop health and social policy.

Professor Ward holds honorary academic appointments with five leading Australian universities. Before joining the ACN, Professor Ward ran a consultancy specialising in transformation, executive coaching, leadership and change management.

Qualifications: RN, MMgt, FACN, FCHSM (Hon), Wharton Fellow, MAICDD

Ms Leanne Wells

Ms Wells is a health advocate and is the former longstanding Chief Executive Officer of the Consumers Health Forum of Australia. Her appointment will bring a health consumer–advocacy perspective to the Board, as well as extensive governance experience. Ms Wells has been a member of various advisory groups, including the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce, the Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan, the National Preventive Health Strategy 2021–30, the Leadership Group for the Australian Ethical Healthcare Alliance and the Patient Advisory Group for the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care.

Qualifications: BA (Comms), Adv DipBus, MAICD, MAIML

Dr Helena Williams

Dr Helena Williams brings to the Board expertise as a registered specialist general practitioner, with 35 years of experience in family practice, and more recently, refugee health. She is currently the Executive Medical Director, South Australia/East Coast, for the SilverChain Group, working in both health and aged care spaces. 

Dr Williams’s governance experience includes six years as the Presiding Member (Chair) of the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network Governing Council, and she is currently a Director, and Deputy Chair, for the Barossa Hills Fleurieu Local Health Network Board, for which she also chairs the Clinical Governance Committee. 

Past directorships include the Southern Adelaide Health Service, the Cancer Council South Australia, Noarlunga Health Services, the South Australian Divisions of General Practice, and the Australian General Practice Network.

Qualifications: MBBS, FRACGP