School of Nursing and Midwifery Executive

Professor Lisa McKenna

Professor Lisa McKenna is Dean of the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She is a Registered Nurse and Midwife and Fellow of the Australian College of Nursing and Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Health Professional Educators. Professor McKenna has extensive experience in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate health professionals. She has researched and published extensively on health education and workforce, particularly in the areas of interprofessional education, simulation, graduate transition to practice, workplace violence and peer-assisted learning. Professor McKenna has over 300 publications in international refereed journals, 13 textbooks and many book chapters and conference presentations. She is regularly invited to present her work nationally and internationally. She is Editor-in-Chief of Clinical Simulation in Nursing and Editorial Advisor for Nurse Education Today. From 2014-2022, Professor McKenna was Editor-in-Chief of Collegian: The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research.

Professor David Edvardsson

Professor David Edvardsson is Associate Dean, Academic in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. He is a Registered Nurse with a research Master and PhD in nursing, and a member of the Australian College of Nursing, the Swedish Society of Nurses and the Gerontological Society of America. Professor Edvardsson is an internationally recognised and awarded expert in health promoting nursing, clinical nursing and geriatric/gerontological nursing. He has numerous international peer-review publications, and a h-index of 45 with over 48,000 citations. He is the Associate Editor of Nordic Journal of Nursing Research and former Regional Editor of Health and Social Care in the Community, with a global network of collaborators.

Associate Professor Bev Copnell

Associate Professor Bev Copnell is Associate Dean, Research and Industry Engagement, as well as Director of Graduate Research and Director of the Northern Clinical School in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She has researched and published widely in clinical nursing practice, particularly in paediatric nursing and professional nursing issues and leads the School's Children and Families research team. Her current research interests include caring for families of hospitalised children, end-of-life care for infants and children in acute care settings, and nursing workforce issues. She is an editor of Collegian: The Australian Journal of Nursing Practice, Scholarship and Research and a member of the Editorial Board of Paediatric Critical Care Medicine.

Dr Jenny Davis

Dr Jenny Davis is Associate Dean, Domestic Partnerships and a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She specialises in nursing education and history, health workforce optimisation, advanced practice development and the contribution of nursing and information management to health care quality and leads the School's Digital Health research team. Dr Davis has worked across diverse public health and tertiary education settings to manage research programs which deliver organisational and industry impact. She has postgraduate qualifications in nursing, midwifery, education and information management. She has published several co-edited books and book chapters and over 40 refereed international journal articles and is a reviewer for several multidisciplinary journals. She has been awarded over $2M in collaborative grant funding for projects that delivered organisational and industry impact.

Professor Debbie Kirk

Professor Debbie Kirk is Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. With an extensive background spanning 30 years as a registered nurse and 25 years as an endorsed nurse practitioner, Professor Kirk has a diverse clinical portfolio, specialising in hematology/oncology, chronic illness, health promotion and palliative care/symptom management. In addition to her clinical background, Professor Kirk has made significant contributions to academia, excelling in leadership and team development roles. Her scholarly contributions include over 30 refereed manuscripts and approximately 32 book chapters, where she has served as both author and editor with a focus on oncology symptom management and workforce.  Her dedication to excellence in clinical practice, teaching, research and service has earned her international recognition, culminating in her appointment as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Associate Professor Gulzar Malik

Associate Professor Gulzar Malik is Associate Dean, International Partnerships in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Associate Professor Malik co-ordinates postgraduate nursing subjects and oversees offshore undergraduate nursing courses and leads the School's Nursing and Midwifery Workforce research team. She specialises in evidence-based practice in clinical settings, voluntary assisted dying, empowering international students, pain management and innovative teaching pedagogies. Associate Professor Malik is a highly experienced Registered Nurse and academic who has over 20 years of experience in healthcare settings and academic institutions both in Australia and overseas. She is an active member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and contributes to the Psi Zeta At-Large Chapter of Sigma as a counsellor.

Professor Helen McLachlan

Professor Helen McLachlan is Professor and Discipline Lead (Midwifery) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and is a Registered Nurse and Midwife. She has extensive experience teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate midwifery and in higher degree supervision. Professor McLachlan is a national and international leader in maternity care research and has published in a range of areas including innovative models of care, maternal and child health, breastfeeding, postnatal depression, midwifery education and translating research into practice. She has 90 publications in international refereed journals, two book chapters and 200 conference presentations. Professor McLachlan has received over $10M in competitive grant funding and has received multiple awards, proving her ability to lead large, complex projects which have led to substantial policy and practice change in maternity care.

Professor Amanda Cooklin

Professor Amanda Cooklin is Director of the Judith Lumley Centre, in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She is an ARC Future Fellow and leads the Work and Family Research Program at the Centre. She has expertise in the epidemiology of parents' mental health, the social determinants of parenting, and the work-family interface. Her research comprises epidemiological cohort studies and intervention trials, with a focus on establishing the longitudinal relationships between parents' mental health (anxiety, depression, fatigue), parenting and children's outcomes and the role of parents' employment, job quality and work-family balance on parent mental health and parenting. Professor Cooklin has attracted more than $8 million in research funding, resulting in over 70 scientific publications on parents work and wellbeing.

Janette Collier

Janette Collier is Acting Director of the Australian Institute for Primary Care and Ageing (AIPCA), a research centre located within the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Ms Collier specialises in aged care assessment including the use of technology during assessment. Ms Collier is also a PhD Candidate within the School, researching the impact of pet ownership on older people transitioning to residential aged care.

Dr Ken Ho

Dr Ken Ho is Discipline Lead (Nursing Undergraduate) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. His research areas include gerontology, with a focus on aged care and loneliness. He is highly interested in applying qualitative methodologies, particularly phenomenology and mixed methods design, in aged care. Dr Ho is an active member of the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and was inducted as a Fellow of the Hong Kong College of Education and Research in Nursing of the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing in 2021. In 2022, he was awarded Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing by the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. Dr Ho then joined the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence’s Special Interest Group for International Engagement and Development and is part of the research team awarded the Hong Kong ICT 2022 Smart People Silver Awards. He is currently working closely with older adults, volunteers and migrants in projects, demonstrating gender and cultural diversity in research. He is an Associate Editor of Nursing Open.

Dr Catina Adams

Dr Catina Adams is an academic nurse and midwife and Discipline Lead (Nursing Postgraduate) in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. She coordinates the Child, Family, and Community Nursing course and has also developed a Child, Family, and Community Nursing elective stream in the undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing degree. Dr Adams was awarded her PhD in October 2022, exploring how the Enhanced Maternal and Child Health program supports women experiencing family violence. Her research interests include neurodivergence, family violence, perinatal anxiety, child, family and community nursing practice, father- and non-birth-parent inclusive practice, family-centred care, Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, telehealth and clinical governance.

Martine Davis

Ms Martine Davis is the Senior Manager for the School of Nursing and Midwifery. Ms Davis has extensive experience managing administrative teams, including nineteen years higher education sector management experience at La Trobe University and the Universities of Waikato and Auckland in New Zealand. In her role as Senior Manager, she leads the professional administrative staff team, and as primary adviser to the Dean and the School Executive, supports the governance, operations, and strategic planning activities for the School.

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