Meet the Health Roundtable Team

Victoria Hirst

General Manager Health Roundtable

Victoria is an experienced research consultant, policy advisor and program manager with 25 years working in the health industry. She is skilled in qualitative research, stakeholder consultation, strategic planning, facilitation, analytical skills, data, research design and program evaluation. Victoria leads Beamtree’s Knowledge Networks including Health Roundtable, Ability Roundtable and the Workforce Wellbeing Collaborative. She has extensive experience applying co-design methodologies to create solutions to complex health system challenges. Her special interests are in access to equitable health care, health workforce planning and building the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce.

Kate Lopez

National Manager, New Zealand

Kate is an experienced health executive with experience across the New Zealand health sector including front line clinical nursing roles, and senior operational and professional leadership positions. Through her role as the lead for Health Roundtable in New Zealand, Kate supports local, regional and national leaders across Aotearoa to use benchmarked data to identify insights for improving quality, safety, and health system performance, and to connect, share with, and learn from their wider network of Health Roundtable peers.  

Kate holds an MBA and Post Graduate Diploma in Health Sciences, and has over 25 years’ experience in the New Zealand health system

Therese Cotter

Strategic Health Partner, Victoria & Tasmania

Therese is an experienced Health Services leader who has worked in acute care and primary care settings across three jurisdictions. In her role as the lead for Health Roundtable in Victoria and Tasmania, Therese supports Health Service leaders to use benchmark data to identify insights for improving quality, safety, and health system performance.  

Therese holds a Master of Business Administration, has Nursing and Midwifery qualifications and has over 30 years’ experience in the Australian Health system. 

Graham Guy

BSc (Hons), PGDip, MHSc. | Strategic Health Partner for Queensland

Graham Guy is a Physiotherapist by profession, originally studying in Edinburgh. Graham has worked in health for 29 years, working in the UK, New Zealand and Australia.  Graham extensive experience in executive roles, leading change across community, primary care, secondary and tertiary services.

Graham has a strong interest in managing care across the patient continuum, inclusive the wider social determinants of health.  He has developed innovative programs of work that meet consumer needs first and foremost, that are targeted, and evidence based, reducing health inequities, that take a coordinated whole of patient journey approach to care.  Graham particularly enjoys how we can use Health Roundtable data to tell a story, so the data we share leads to service development and improved outcomes. 

Fiona Fitzgerald

Strategic  Health  Partner  NSW and ACT, and Workforce  Wellbeing  Knowledge  Network  Lead

Fiona has 30 years’ experience in healthcare and 13 years’ experience working in the health informatics space with a focus on delivering IT solutions that improve patient outcomes and healthcare workflows. She joined the Health Roundtable team in 2018.  

Fiona is currently the Strategic Health Partner NSW and ACT and Workforce Wellbeing Knowledge Network Lead. Over the last five years, Fiona has spearheaded various initiatives, primarily focusing on patient safety, medical patient journey, and workforce wellbeing. She is recognised as a leader in the subject of healthcare worker wellbeing with requests to present to academic and professional bodies. 

Steve Bickford

Program and Events Lead

Steve is an experienced Health Manager with over 30 years in public and private healthcare sectors across a variety of roles. Steve practiced as a radiographer before moving into the leadership role of Director of Medical Imaging across 10 Imaging facilities.

The subsequent role of Divisional Director for Critical Care and Perioperative Services in a large regional Health Service included accountabilities for Emergency Care, Intensive Care, Surgical and Perioperative, Medical Imaging and Allied Health services.

Steve holds Bachelor’s and Master’s qualifications from the Queensland University of Technology.

Commencing work for the Health Roundtable in 2017, Steve is the Program Lead for the Imaging, Surgical Journey, and Allied Health Programs, and is the Health Roundtable Lead for Events.

Rebecca Clarke

Program Lead

Rebecca is a dedicated team member having worked with The Health Roundtable since the start of 2023. Rebecca has a strong background in quality improvement, project management, strategy development and research.   Rebecca has worked in both various roles in the tertiary and primary health settings and supported diverse areas across organisations in her 17 years of experience in healthcare. It is this experience which enables Rebecca to support service in the delivery of the Health Roundtable Emergency Care, Nursing, Maternity, Paediatrics, and Hospital in the Home Programs

Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Nursing- La Trobe University, Graduate Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety- Edith Cowen University, Graduate Diploma of Emergency Nursing- University of Tasmania, Masters of Public Health and Tropical Medicine- James Cooke University.  

Kirsten Gibson

Program Manager, Knowledge Networks

Kirsten Gibson joined Health Roundtable at the beginning of 2023 having most recently been the Director of Quality and Safety at the Royal Hobart Hospital in Hobart, Tasmania.  Prior to Australia, Kirsten worked for a fully integrated healthcare system called Kaiser Permanente.  Her past experience also includes supporting a healthcare analytics company in the United States working with health systems to improve their performance on quality indicators and gaining efficiencies.  She has a strong project management and process improvement background.

Kirsten specialises in managing relationships and providing support across the Patient Safety, Medical Patient Journey and Mental Health programs to improve the quality of care delivered. 

Emily Daley

Workforce Wellbeing Coordinator

Emily Daley has been a dedicated member of Health Roundtable since the beginning of 2023. With over 15 years of experience in nursing and Health IT, Emily’s strong organisational and relationship skills have been instrumental in her role as coordinator for the Workforce Wellbeing program and assisting with aspects of the Patient Safety program.

Emily Daley holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Western University, Ontario, Canada.

Dr Gail Prileszky

Program Manager

Gail is an enthusiastic Health Roundtable team member who leads the Finance and Costing and Maternity and Paediatrics programs. Gail has experience in both strategic and practical organisational performance improvement across multiple domains, particularly clinical quality and financial sustainability. She specialises in enabling others to translate data insights and build relationships to support actionable, positive change. 

Gail is a registered nurse and midwife and holds a PhD in Medicine and Health Science. She has over 25 years of global clinical, government, academic and consulting experience, providing a strong foundation for her current role. She is also a qualified professional executive coach. 

Ashleigh Mills

Knowledge Networks Operations Lead

Ashleigh Mills joined the Health Roundtable team in January 2024 as the Knowledge Networks Operation Lead, co-ordinating Health Roundtable member and analytics services ensuring organisational success, continuous improvement, understanding clients’ needs and program enhancements. Ashleigh provides supports the Mental Health Program and is leading the development of equity measures.

Ashleigh holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Sydney University and a Master in Public Health from the University of New South Wales and has 20 years’ experience in health and human services in Australia and the UK with expertise in mental health reform.

Ryan Teague

Head of Client Relationships and Business Development

Ryan Teague is a dedicated team member having worked with The Health Roundtable for 4.5 years. Ryan has cultivated a diverse and valuable skill set throughout his experiences in community work and portfolio management within the health industry. Focusing on customer satisfaction, quality improvement, and engagement he demonstrates a keen understanding of the dynamics within health.

Ryan Teague holds a Bachelor Degree in Business; Major in Marketing and has 20+ years within the health industry; speciality areas are within Neuroscience and Endocrine Disorders.

Annalise O’Connell

Manager, Client Relationships and Business Development (QLD & WA)

Annalise specialises in managing relationships and providing account management support for Health Roundtable across QLD & WA. She holds a Bachelor of Health Science Public Health and a Master of Commerce Finance and has a background in the pharmaceutical and banking industries.