Accurate, balanced evidence-based information about medicines
NPS staff member biographies
Dr Lynn Weekes
As inaugural Chief Executive Officer of NPS, Lynn has contributed significantly to the development of Quality Use of Medicines (QUM) resources and services for health professionals and consumers in Australia since 1998.
As part of her Ph D thesis, "Organisational Structures to Promote Quality Use of Medicines" Lynn developed indicators for QUM for Drug and Therapeutics Committees and for hospitals more generally. She has a strong professional interest in quality assurance, behaviour change and pharmacoepidemiology.
With her expertise in the QUM area Lynn sits, by invitation, on various national boards and committees from government, pharmacy and academic sectors.
Prior to Lynn's appointment to NPS, she was Executive Officer of NSW Therapeutic Assessment Group where she was involved in drug use practice, evaluation and policy. She originally trained as a pharmacist and practised in hospital and research settings.
Karen Kaye, Executive Manager, Quality Use of Medicines Programs
Karen joined the National Prescribing Service in March 2008 as Executive Manager, QUM Programs and Deputy CEO. Prior to this appointment she was Executive Officer for the NSW Therapeutic Advisory Group for almost 10 years and worked with clinical experts and government agencies to inform policy development for QUM in hospitals and the wider community.
Karen holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from University of Sydney and has completed post-graduate studies in hospital pharmacy and pharmacoeconomics. She has practised in community, hospital, industry and academic settings and in the professional organisations of pharmacy. For nine years she was Director of Pharmacy at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney and maintains a strong interest in hospital pharmacy practice through her role as a Federal Councillor for the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia.
Karen has a particular interest in promoting system changes to improve safe and effective medicines use across the continuum of care and ensuring a cost-effectiveness approach to evaluation of health technologies.
Jonathan Dartnell, Executive Manager, Innovation & Learning
Jonathan has a long-standing interest and commitment to medicines and public health. The early part of his career was spent as a hospital pharmacist in Australia and England, while developing skills for work in resource-poor settings. He then worked in Belize developing and coordinating pharmacy education and training programs. On returning to Australia, he coordinated the Drug Usage Evaluation (DUE) Program for the Royal Melbourne Hospital and led many Quality Use of Medicine projects, while also undertaking his doctoral studies in DUE. During this time he also assisted in establishing state and national DUE groups, and since then has assisted in steering several state-wide and national DUE projects. Until recently, Jonathan was with Therapeutic Guidelines, an independent not-for-profit organisation that prepares and publishes national clinical guidelines. In various roles he oversaw the expansion of the guidelines series, the development of electronic products, and reconfiguration of production processes.
In the new NPS role of Executive Manager, Innovation & Learning, Jonathan leads the Curriculum and Training, Pharmaceutical Decision Support, Program Evaluation, and Research and Development teams.
Julie Eisenberg, Executive Manager, Strategy & Communications
Julie oversees NPS corporate strategy, internal and external communications and government and stakeholder relations. She heads a team of marketing, advertising, public affairs and strategy professionals and has an interest in innovation strategies that extend and deepen the impact of NPS on its audiences.
Prior to joining NPS, Julie was a strategy/communications consultant with a background in and around the media industry. As a former executive of SBS, she worked with CEO and Board on corporate strategic planning and policy, external affairs, government relations and research through a time of dynamic industry change and audience evolution. She advocated the public interest in media policy with the Communications Law Centre, where she also wrote extensively, trained working journalists and lectured in postgraduate and undergraduate media/communications law for UNSW. A former specialist media content lawyer with an interest in free speech, she acted for media corporations while with a major law firm and in-house at the ABC.
Julie has been President of the International Institute of Communications Australian chapter since 2006 and is currently an advisory board member of youth media/arts organisation Vibewire and the Centre for Media and Communications Law at Melbourne University. She is a former board member of Digital Broadcasting Australia and the Telephone Information Services Standards Council.
Monique Heighes, Executive Manager, People & Development
Since her arrival at NPS, Monique has effectively promoted and repositioned the human resource function to be recognised as a significant strategic driver within the organisation. As part of the executive leadership team, Monique is responsible for developing strategies that contribute to and support a strong corporate culture and ensuring that our people practices support us to achieve our organisational goals.
Prior to joining NPS in March 2006, Monique had managed and delivered strategic and operational human resource services in executive and managerial appointments across a diverse range of environments. Her experience includes a mix of high-level consulting and in-house roles.
Monique has a Masters in Organisational Psychology, a Diploma in Human Resources and is a certified executive coach. This unique combination complements our forward-thinking organisation and brings a unique perspective to our people and development strategies.
Neil Donnelly, Manager, Program Evaluation
Neil is the Manager of the Program Evaluation team with responsibility for designing and implementing evaluations of the various programs and activities at NPS. Neil has a research and evaluation background in number of areas, including public health, pharmacoepidemiology, statistics and quantitative criminology.
He holds an honours degree in Psychology, a Masters of Public Health and a PhD which examined the use of time series analysis methods to evaluate the impact of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme subsidisation policies on prescription drug utilisation.
Prior to commencing at NPS in 2007, Neil was the Research Manager at the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research where he was involved in the evaluation of a range of criminal justice interventions.
Before this, Neil was a senior statistician at the Needs Assessment & Health Outcomes Unit, Central Sydney Area Health Service and also at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW.
Dr John Dowden, Editor, Australian Prescriber
Dr Dowden is the Editor-in-Chief of Australian Prescriber, Australia’s national journal of drugs and therapeutics. He has worked in hospital medicine and general practice in several countries.
He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Australian Medicines Handbook and also a member of the Board of Therapeutic Guidelines, where he has contributed to the development of treatment guidelines in psychiatry, respiratory medicine and general dentistry.
At NPS, Dr Dowden contributes to the New Drugs Working Group and the Communications Working Group.
Judith Flaxman, Office Manager
Judith has worked at NPS in the capacity of Office Manager since September 2006. She manages a large Administration team who provide varying levels of administration support across the organisation as well as to NPS Working Group members. She also manages the facilities for the NPS offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Judith was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She started her career in the field of Hospitality Management in 1999 working in 5-star hotels and managing Guest Services across the board. Judith brings a strong customer service focus to the organisation as well as high level business, process, management and negotiation skills.
Judith is currently enrolled in an MBA program at UTS.
Georgina Green, Manager, Marketing and Public Affairs
Georgina manages the marketing and public affairs functions of the dynamic Strategy and Communications team within NPS. Starting her career in health as a nurse, travel and work experiences led into a parallel career stream in public relations culminating in a Masters in Public Affairs completed at Sydney University.
With more than 15 years’ management and public affairs experience within corporate, small business, public service and not-for-profit environments, Georgina’s skills are uniquely suited to working with the broad range of Quality Use of Medicines stakeholders. Georgina has extensive experience in public affairs/relations, organisational communications, media, marketing, promotions and special events and is skilled in project management, managing and leading staff, team development and planning.
In recent years her interest in the application of positive psychology and coaching principles at work have influenced her approach to developing networks and capacity within professional partnerships. Georgina is currently completing Yoga teacher training which promises to add yet another level of professionalism to her career!
Tony Harrison, Chief Technical Officer
Tony has been involved in the Information Technology arena throughout his career, working his way through programming, helpdesk and coordinator to manager and now his current position with NPS as the Chief Technical Officer. Working for a variety of organisations has enhanced his ability to quickly solve issues, understand what is required, provide leadership and keep abreast of current and future trends in information technology.
Experience working for US-based companies allowed Tony to travel extensively throughout the US and Asia identifying the best practices for information technology usage and how to apply them locally.
Tony holds a BSc Computer Science and is completing a Masters in Management. He is a keen pilot who holds a commercial pilot’s licence and can be seen most weekends either at or near a local airport.
Raymond Hill, Senior Manager, Data Management and Analysis
Raymond joined the National Prescribing Service in November 2008. He is responsible for information policy, data architecture, metadata architecture and for ensuring the quality of NPS's information resources.Raymond has been involved in the Information Communications and Technology industry throughout his career, working in a variety of government, academic and commercial settings. His extensive experience enables him to marry data management, information technology, business process, organisational behaviour and governance to support business outcomes.
Raymond holds a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and has postgraduate qualifications in information systems management, computing and political economy. He also holds a number of industry certifications in service management, enterprise technology governance and project management.
Raymond has particular interests in technology governance, database modelling, information warfare and military history. He is a keen scuba diver who regularly travels to Micronesia (Chuuk) to dive World War II wrecks.
Judith Mackson, Manager, Education & Quality Assurance Program
Judith is the Education & Quality Assurance Program Manager for NPS. This position includes responsibility for design, planning and coordination of national and local interventions for improving prescribing and medicine use including feedback on prescribing and clinical audit for general practitioners, and for coordinating training and support for NPS facilitators in Divisions of General Practice.
Judith is a member of the Drug Utilisation Sub-Committee of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee, Australian Government, Department of Health and Ageing and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Prescriber Feedback Editorial Committee.
Judith has a background in clinical pharmacy, drug information and hospital pharmacy administration. She has a Diploma of Clinical Pharmacy (SHPA) and a Masters of Medical Science (Clin Epi) specialising in pharmacoepidemiology (The University of Newcastle). She has had a long-standing interest in therapeutics, Quality Use of Medicines, drug utilisation and clinical practice improvement. Other interests include rational drug use in developing countries.
Greg Laws, Chief Financial Officer
Greg commenced with NPS in December 2008 and is responsible for the leadership and management of all financial functions for NPS. This includes coordination of financial management reporting (to assist management and the Board in decision making), as well as overseeing the budgeting process, development and implementation of financial policies and providing leadership to the finance team.Prior to joining NPS, Greg worked in various not-for-profit enterprises including a national charity, a credit union and an employer association. Prior to these roles, Greg worked with a Government Trading Enterprise as Financial Controller following a long career in banking which included over ten years in senior financial roles.
Greg has a Bachelor of Business (Business Administration) and a Graduate Diploma in Accounting and has been a CPA for 15 years. He brings a range of experience in financial management from different industry sectors including commercial, government and not-for-profit.
James Reeve, Manager, Pharmaceutical Decision Support
James manages the Pharmaceutical Decision Support Program at NPS. The goal of the program is to facilitate access to evidence-based information on medicines for health professionals at the point of decision-making.
James graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Tasmania in 1986 and subsequently managed a community pharmacy for six years, and then went on to work as a hospital pharmacist. He completed a Graduate Diploma of Information Technology in 1992 and an Honours degree in 1994. He has recently completed a PhD titled “Utilisation and Evaluation of Information Technology to Improve the Quality and Safety of Medication Use”.
James has worked on a number of Quality Use of Medicines projects, in particular, academic detailing to general practitioners, writing materials for health professionals and consumers, and developing and implementing web-based resources for health professionals. He has worked as an electronic production editor and editor for Therapeutic Guidelines. His current interests include the use of information technology to support decision-making and safe medication use.
Meg Stuart, Manager, Curriculum & Training
Meg is Manager of the Curriculum and Training Program at NPS. The Curriculum and Training program team develop and implement training materials with a Quality Use of Medicines focus for health professional students and the broader QUM workforce. Learning materials are developed for a range of delivery modes, including face to face workshops, paper based self-directed materials and online modules.
Meg holds a Bachelor of Applied Science, a Master of Science (Physiology and Pharmacology) and a PhD (Biomedical Sciences). Meg began her career as a physiotherapist, working in a large teaching hospital in Sydney. An academic career at the University of Sydney followed and Meg has extensive curriculum development and teaching experience in both undergraduate and postgraduate programs for health professionals. Meg’s particular passion is the development of online learning communities, with a view of learning as a life long collaborative phenomenon.
Trish Tuffin, Manager, Publishing
Trish manages the NPS Publishing group which ensures the organisation’s products meet the highest editorial quality standards, provides project management for production and publishing related work such as website design, and ensures our print products are delivered efficiently and on time.
NPS has a range of online and print materials which are distributed to both health professionals and consumers and each one follows a rigorous workflow and production process. NPS Publishing is committed to innovation in publishing and information design by leveraging technology and new ideas to provide our audiences with products in the most appropriate format.
Trish Tuffin has a strong editorial and production background in a range of consumer magazines, corporate publishing for a range of clients and professional online and print updating content for legal, tax and HR audiences.
Margaret Williamson, Manager, Research & Development
Margaret is the Manager of Research & Development at NPS. She has a clinical background in hospital pharmacy and training and expertise in public health, epidemiology and health informatics. Margaret has a wide range of experience in the design and conduct of research to evaluate the efficacy, effectiveness and quality of a range of health interventions and services.
A large proportion of her work over the last decade has been managing and/or evaluating large outcome-based projects, including designing evaluations of the impact of electronic medication management systems on patient safety, establishing and managing the NSW Health Survey Program, and developing guidelines and indicators to monitor chronic diseases (asthma and diabetes).
Her work over the last two years at has concentrated on developing Quality Use of Medicines research capacity within NPS and across Australia. Most recently she has been involved in studies to examine the information needs and preferences of consumers and health professionals around complementary medicines and the evaluation of the impact of electronic medication management systems on patient safety and quality of care.
