cognitive institute logo 2x
  • Australia 1800957888
  • International +61735115000
  • Home
  • Programmes & Courses
    • Accountability and Professionalism
    • Clinical Leadership
    • Communication in Challenging Situations
    • Safety and Reliability Culture
    • Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience
    • Individual Performance
  • Case Studies
  • Insights & News
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Our Team
    • Our Partners
  • Contact

Our Team

Cognitive Institute > Our Team

Meet our faculty

Would you like to work with us? If you are suitably qualified
and interested in joining our faculty, please contact us.

  • Dr Stephen Walker

    Associate Medical Director
    MBBS, FACEM, AFRACMA, GCClinEd, GCHlthMgt
    Video Profile

    Dr Stephen Walker

    Associate Medical Director MBBS, FACEM, AFRACMA, GCClinEd, GCHlthMgt

    Dr Stephen Walker is the Associate Medical Director at
    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

    A/Prof Stephen Priestley

    Senior Medical Educator
    MBBS, FACEM
    Video Profile
    Dr. Stephen Priestley

    A/Prof Stephen Priestley

    Senior Medical Educator MBBS, FACEM

    A/Prof 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.

    A/Prof 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 A/Prof 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.

    A/Prof 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.

    A/Prof 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, A/Prof Priestley continues his contribution to health care by working with healthcare professionals to maximise patient wellbeing.

  • Dr Lynne McKinlay

    Senior Medical Educator
    BMedSc, MBBS(Hons), FRACP, FAFRM, FRACMA
    Video Profile

    Dr Lynne McKinlay

    Senior Medical Educator BMedSc, MBBS(Hons), FRACP, FAFRM, FRACMA

    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

    Senior Clinical Educator
    RN, M.ECH, FAAQHC, FCHSM
    Video Profile

    Kirsten Dyer

    Senior Clinical Educator RN, M.ECH, FAAQHC, FCHSM

    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 Najeeb Rahman

    Senior Medical Educator
    MBChB, DHA, MRCP, FRCEM, MPH
    Video Profile

    Dr Najeeb Rahman

    Senior Medical Educator MBChB, DHA, MRCP, FRCEM, MPH

    Dr Najeeb Rahman studied, trained and worked in the UK, obtaining his primary medical degree from the University of Leeds. 

    He holds a Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance, a Masters in Public Health, and has a special interest in global emergency medicine and health improvement. He currently works as a Consultant in Emergency Medicine in Leeds, and is additionally a Trustee of Doctors Worldwide, a UK-based international medical charity.

    He is additionally a member of the Royal College’s Global Emergency Medicine Committee as well as the Emergency Medicine and Public Health Special Interest Group.

  • Dr Kathryn Robertson

    Medical Educator
    MBBS, FRACGP, MEd

    Dr Kathryn Robertson

    Medical Educator MBBS, FRACGP, MEd

    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 brings over 35 years of clinical experience as a General Practitioner to her work as an educator.

  • Dr Scott Clark

    Medical Educator
    AB (San Diego), MD (Newark), FPubPsych (New York), FRANZCP, IFAPA
    Video Profile

    Dr Scott Clark

    Medical Educator AB (San Diego), MD (Newark), FPubPsych (New York), FRANZCP, IFAPA

    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

    Dr Carolyn Russell

    Medical Educator
    MBBS, DipRACOG, RACGP, MCounselling
    Video Profile
    Dr. Carolyn Russell

    Dr Carolyn Russell

    Medical Educator MBBS, DipRACOG, RACGP, MCounselling

    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 web

    Dr John Marwick

    Medical Educator
    MBChB, DipObst, FRNZCGP
    Video Profile
    Dr John Marwick web

    Dr John Marwick

    Medical Educator MBChB, DipObst, FRNZCGP

    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

    Dr Bronwyn Hartwig

    Medical Educator
    MBBS, DipGPPsych, DipFamMed
    Dr. Bronwyn Hartwig

    Dr Bronwyn Hartwig

    Medical Educator MBBS, DipGPPsych, DipFamMed

    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.

Meet our consultants

  • Shannon Harbinson

    Client Manager
    MBA(Dist), MA(Aud), BA(Sp&H Th)
    Video Profile

    Shannon Harbinson

    Client Manager MBA(Dist), MA(Aud), BA(Sp&H Th)

    Shannon works closely with Cognitive Institute and MPS Partnerships’ stakeholders and clients to support healthcare organisations to successfully embed our transformational risk prevention programmes within, and across, their services. Based in Brisbane, Shannon helps our clients across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong to navigate their journey towards high performance and the delivery of safer, more reliable and kinder healthcare.

    Shannon’s healthcare career spans more than 15 years, commencing in allied health working clinically as an audiologist and speech pathologist before completing a Master’s in Audiology. Prior to joining Cognitive Institute, Shannon worked in the corporate audiology space supporting clinical audiologists working in the field. She is passionate about safety and reliability in healthcare and has extensive experience in strategy planning, project management and learning and development. Shannon holds an MBA with a special interest in change management and leadership.

  • Natalie Doran

    Client Manager
    BSc Hons (Gen and Mol Cell Bio)
    Video Profile

    Natalie Doran

    Client Manager BSc Hons (Gen and Mol Cell Bio)

    Natalie works closely with Cognitive Institute and MPS Partnerships’ stakeholders and clients to support healthcare organisations to successfully embed our transformational risk prevention programmes within, and across, their services. Based in Ireland, Natalie helps our clients across the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa and Caribbean and Bermuda to navigate their journey towards high performance and the delivery of safer, more reliable and kinder healthcare.

    Natalie’s healthcare career spans more than 20 years, with experience across the medical device, capital equipment and the pharmaceutical industry. Over this time, she has fostered strong relationships with hospital groups and clinics, clinical associations and individual medical practitioners.

  • Home
  • Programmes & Courses
  • Insights & News
  • About
  • Contact

Programmes & Courses

  • Accountability and Professionalism
  • Clinical Leadership
  • Communication in Challenging Situations
  • Safety and Reliability Culture
  • Clinician Wellbeing and Resilience
  • Individual Performance

Contact Us

AU: 1800 957 888
Int:  +61 7 3511 5000

Connect

Email:
or submit a form
Postal: PO Box 1013,
Milton QLD 4064 Australia

© 2023 Cognitive Institute | Privacy | Website by Excite Media

Cognitive Institute is the trading name of Cognitive Consulting Group Pty Ltd (“CCG”) ABN 47 070 825 188. CCG is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”), a company limited by guarantee registered in England with company number 36142 at Level 19, The Shard, 32 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9SG. MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.

  • Mastering Open Disclosure course enrolment

    Please use this form to register your enrolment in this course and a member of our team will be in touch.

  • Standard Price: $595 Earlybird Price: $495*

    *The earlybird rate is available for payments made more than three weeks from the event, thereafter the standard rate applies

  • Terms & conditions

    Before registering, please ensure you have read and agree with the terms and conditions. Cognitive Institute reserves the right to cancel the course if the minimum number of registrations is not reached. A full refund will be provided. All materials are made available for personal use only and are subject to copyright.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Cognitive Institute develops and delivers a range of consultancy educational solutions for healthcare professionals and organisations around the world. This site uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Accept