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Dr Clare Morgan is a well-respected and experienced medical administrator with more than 20 years’ senior management experience in the private and public sectors. As Medical Director, she is consulting to leaders around the world on healthcare quality and improvement and supporting organisations to establish systematic and continuous steps to make measurable advancements in healthcare services and patient outcomes.
Dr Morgan possesses extensive experience in senior leadership roles, with specialty expertise in clinical risk management and governance, complex system restructure, safety and quality outcomes, medical workforce management and professionalism, clinical leadership and organisational development. She previously held the positions of Chief Medical Officer, Mater Health Queensland and Medical Director Safety and Quality, Wesley Hospital, Brisbane, Australia.
Dr Morgan holds an MBA – with a special interest in leadership, organisational development and entrepreneurship – and trained with the Harvard Business School and School of Public Health in leading consumer focused high performing healthcare organisations. She is a trained medical surveyor with the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS) and has delivered private organisational consultancy work focusing on clinical services redesign.
As a medical graduate of the University of Queensland, Dr Morgan practiced in the private sector as a consulting Haematologist before transitioning to medical administration leadership roles. She is an Associate Fellow with the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.
Dr Morgan is passionate about the role of clinician leadership in the future of healthcare and the opportunity for innovation and collaboration in achieving the very best outcomes for patients, clinicians and healthcare organisations.
Dr Mark O’Brien is the International Education Consultant for Cognitive Institute. He was a co-founder of the Institute and served as Medical Director until March 2021.
Dr O’Brien is a well-regarded consultant and expert trainer in the areas of clinical leadership, risk management and quality and safety within the Asia-Pacific region. He is also a published author and regular international speaker across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and North America with a passion for supporting clinicians to address the challenges they face in delivering the highest quality care to their patients.
In 2016 he was awarded the President’s Award from the Queensland Branch of the Australasian College of Health Service Management for his services to healthcare.
Dr O’Brien is also an Associate Fellow and Programme Director of the Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme at the Said Business School at Oxford University; an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Queensland; and serves as a Non-Executive Director of St John of God Healthcare – a large private hospital group in Australia.
Dr Stephen Walker is the Associate Medical Director of
Cognitive Institute.
Prior to joining Cognitive Institute Dr Walker held the positions of Director of Clinical Training, Deputy Director of Medical Management and Emergency Physician at Mater Health Services Brisbane.
His previous appointments have included Deputy Director and Director of Emergency Medicine at Mater Hospital, Deputy Director and Director of the Emergency Department at Ballarat Health Services and Emergency Department Director at St John of God Hospital Ballarat.
He has previously held the position of Senior Lecturer in the Department of Anaesthesia and Critical Care, University of Queensland, and has served on the Primary and Fellowship Examination Committees of the Australian College for Emergency Medicine.
He has published on trauma care efficacy and patient communication. He holds post graduate qualifications in clinical education and health management, and is a certified organisational coach.
In 2013 Dr Walker was named 2013 Queensland Clinical Educator of the Year. In 2004 he was the recipient of the Mater Health Services Excellence in Clinical Teaching Award.
Dr Stephen Priestley is a specialist in Emergency Medicine with broad experience at the Director level in public hospitals across both Victoria and Queensland. He is currently a Senior Staff Specialist in Emergency Medicine in the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service, having previously held the position of Director of Emergency Medicine to March 2017. In this role he provided leadership to three emergency departments within the Health Service for 11 years.
Dr Priestley has a particular interest in patient safety and quality care as evidenced by his appointments within health services and the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM). He is immediate past Chair of the ACEM Patient Safety Working Group, a member of the ACEM Quality Sub-Committee and a member of the ACEM Senior Court of Examiners.
In 2014 Dr Priestley received a Leadership in Patient Safety scholarship to complete the Institute of Healthcare Improvement Patient Safety Executive Program in Cambridge, MA. In March 2016 he co-convened an Accelerated Patient Safety Program for senior emergency medicine physicians and nursing staff, with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Faculty.
Dr Priestley is a member of the Digital Patient Safety Expert Advisory Group— established by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) to provide clinical safety advice and expert guidance to the Australian Digital Health Agency in relation to My Health record and other national health digital infrastructure.
Dr Priestley has taught widely across Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka as a volunteer instructor with Advanced Paediatric Life Support Australia.
In addition to his Leadership in Patient Safety scholarship, he has received several awards for his contribution to health service and research.
As Senior Medical Educator with Cognitive Institute, Dr Priestley continues his contribution to health care by working with healthcare professionals to maximise patient wellbeing.
Dr Lynne McKinlay is a Senior Medical Educator at Cognitive Institute.
In addition to her work for Cognitive Institute, Lynne is Medical Director, Learning and Workforce Children’s Health Queensland and continues practise as a specialist in paediatric rehabilitation medicine.
Dr McKinlay was Director, Queensland Paediatric Rehabilitation Service, Children’s Health Queensland from 2001 to 2014 before moving into medical administration and leadership in a full-time capacity.
Lynne holds the position of senior lecturer with the School of Medicine, University of Queensland and was the founding clinical director of the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre in the Faculty of Medicine at The University of Queensland.
In 2015 Dr McKinlay received the Children’s Health Queensland Australia Day Achievement Award for leadership and was a recipient of the Queensland Health Staff Excellence Silver Award for Leadership in 2004. She was a Churchill Fellow in 2002, investigating paediatric rehabilitation systems of care in North America, with this knowledge guiding ongoing development of the paediatric rehabilitation services in Queensland. She has published numerous papers in the area of childhood brain injury and has special interests in wellbeing, clinical informatics and provision of care for people with complex healthcare needs.
Lynne is driven to improve healthcare through her experience that a clinician is able to make a difference at both the individual patient and the health system levels through innovation, systems improvement and the development of communication and health leadership skills.
Kirsten Dyer is a Senior Clinical Educator with Cognitive Institute.
Kirsten’s leadership experience comprises senior and executive roles in both public and private health care. Prior to joining Cognitive Institute, Kirsten held the positions of Director of Program Management / Project Manager – Obstetrics and Gynaecology Task Group at Metro North Hospital and Health Service; Director of Clinical Governance at West Moreton Hospital and Health Service; and Executive Director of Safety, Quality and Risk at Queensland Health.
Kirsten’s extensive knowledge and expertise across clinical governance, change management, safety and reliability, and open disclosure has assisted organisations to overcome organisational boundaries, gain facility re-accreditation and credentialing, complete high-level clinical investigations, and has contributed to quality practice change and organisational reform.
Kirsten has contributed to the development of public policy, white papers, quality standards and position statements, as well as academic research into healthcare accreditation, and clinical decision making and documentation. Kirsten and her co-authors’ work was accepted for presentation at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists World Congress, 2016.
Kirsten applies motivational leadership to inspire teams to work together to achieve a shared vision.
Dr Kathryn Robertson has been a Medical Educator since 1988 and a faculty member of Cognitive Institute since 2007.
Her experience encompasses undergraduate, vocational training
and accreditation, remediation and continuing professional development for doctors, nurses and other health care professionals. This includes over 17 years as a Senior Lecturer with the University of Melbourne, where she holds an Honorary Fellowship, and contributes to the development and delivery of the Excellence in Clinical Teaching suite of programs.
Dr Robertson is a past winner of the University of Melbourne’s Norman Curry Award for Innovation and Excellence in Support of and Service to Teaching and Learning.
She received the Royal Women’s Hospital Award in Excellence in Education, and was a nominee for the Australian University Teaching Awards for Programs that Enhance Learning.
Dr Robertson was also a finalist for the Victorian Public Health Awards for Public Health Programs.
She has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and contributed chapters for textbooks, primarily in the areas of consulting and communication skills, as well as effective teaching and learning.
She holds a Masters of Education and continues to work part-time in General Practice in outer suburban Melbourne.
Dr Scott Clark has worked in clinical and administrative roles for more than three decades in both the United States and Australia. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of California, medical education at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, and medical internship and psychiatry specialist training at the St Vincent’s Medical Centre of New York City, the New York Medical College, and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, an International Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
He has long-standing interests in public health and psychiatry, quality and safety, and administrative and forensic medicine. He was the director of mental health services at the former South Western Sydney Area Health Service in NSW, and clinical director of the Rockland Psychiatric Centre in New York. He is currently clinical director of mental health and drug and alcohol services for the Western NSW Local Health District. In his current position he has developed expanded opportunities for specialist training in regional NSW and contributes to efforts to improve the rural medical workforce.
Dr Clark’s clinical work is in addiction and forensic psychiatry and he is an Accredited Member of the Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry of the RANZCP. He has held academic appointments in the US at Columbia and New York Universities, and in Australia at the University of New South Wales. He is currently Conjoint Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle Faculty of Health and Medicine.
Dr Carolyn Russell has been a Senior Medical Educator with the Cognitive Institute since its inception in 1998. She has presented more than 200 Cognitive Institute programmes in leadership, patient communication and risk management across Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
Dr Russell is an accredited small group facilitator for the Divisions of General Practice. She holds a Masters in Counselling and completed the UQ/Harvard Intensive Medical Educators Course in 2006.
Dr Russell is a practicing GP with 35 years experience. Previously she was principal of the Carseldine Medical Centre, and worked in a Complex Conditions Clinic with a local private hospital. She is now a medical educator with General Practice Training Queensland and works with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, social work therapists and counsellors in a multidisciplinary model in a counselling centre collocated with the medical centre.
Dr John Marwick has been a general practitioner for over 40 years. He is director of a company specialising in strategic health policy, evaluation, facilitation and problem solving.
Dr Marwick has presented nationally and internationally on primary healthcare, health practitioner regulation, the medical workforce, quality in healthcare and medical education.
He was the first national director of New Zealand’s general practitioner vocational training programme. He introduced regular communication skills training, GP teacher training, and a quality assurance programme. His work was recognised with two gold medals from the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners.
He was primary care advisor in the New Zealand Ministry of Health, first manager of the Ministry’s Health Workforce Team, Chair of the Quality Assurance Committee for the World Organisation of Family Doctors, and a World Health Organisation consultant to the Government of Samoa.
Dr Bronwyn Hartwig has worked with the Cognitive Institute since 2005. Her particular interest is the Institute’s remediation Clinical Communication Programme.
She was a general practitioner with more than 20 years’ experience working in regional and metropolitan centres.
Her special interests are GP psychiatry, counselling and doctors’ health.
Dr Hartwig has completed postgraduate courses in family medicine and GP psychiatry, as well as an internship in stress management at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
She currently tutors medical students in communication skills and was previously the Queensland Secretary of the Doctor’s Health Advisory Service.
Matthew O’Brien co-founded the Cognitive Institute and has been
its Managing Director since its inception in 1998.
He leads the Institute’s development and provision of education services in 6 countries delivering more than 500 programmes and workshops.
He has more than 20 years experience as a Managing Director, specialising in healthcare management, communication and marketing. He consults to healthcare organisations designing education strategies and implementation programmes.
Before the Cognitive Institute, Mr O’Brien was the founder and Managing Director of one of Australia’s largest marketing firms, consulting to national organisations.
Louise Cuskelly joined the Cognitive Institute in July 2013 as a project consultant introducing the Vanderbilt University Promoting Professional Accountability (PPA) Programme to healthcare organisations in Asia Pacific.
In April 2014 she accepted the position of Senior Education Consultant, working with healthcare organisations to introduce change programmes to achieve results in the areas of communication, risk management and patient safety.
Louise oversees Cognitive Institute’s commercial growth strategy and is responsible for identifying business growth opportunities, marketing strategy development and implementation and client engagement. She works closely with key stakeholders across the public and private healthcare sectors. She has a background in nursing and human resource management and extensive experience working at executive level in the public and private sector in marketing and business development, hospital management, education and training, project management and strategic planning.
