MC

Sarah Morse

Sarah is a former NSW Young Australian of the Year and has more than 20 years’ experience as a Registered Nurse. In her current role as Director of Unchained Solutions, Sarah empowers other Australians to be leaders in tackling modern slavery.

Keynote speakers

Van Badham

Van Badham is an internationally award-winning writer, theatremaker, and broadcaster. She is a featured columnist for The Guardian and has written for The New York Times, Bloomberg, The Telegraph (UK), and The Age. Van was a Walkley finalist for her non-fiction book debut, 2021’s best-selling QAnon And On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults, and she was the first Australian to win Britain’s Harold Hobson prize for theatre criticism.

Van has also appeared on ABC TV’s Q&A program and The Drum, has appeared on Ten’s The Project, Sky News Australia’s Politics HQ, Seven’s Sunrise program and The Today Show on the Nine network.

Khadija Gbla

Khadija Gbla is a single mum, carer, black, non-binary, queer, neurodivergent, and disabled award-winning human rights activist, model, inspirational speaker, writer, and mentor. Born in Sierra Leone, Khadija spent her youth in Gambia, and, as a teenager, put down roots in Australia. Khadija was just three years old when war broke out in her country, and ten years later they attained refugee status and resettled in Adelaide.

Khadija is now the lead voice and campaigner on Female Genital Mutilation in Australia. She runs a not-for-profit organisation, Ending Female Genital Mutilation Australia, which protects Australian girls from FGM and supports survivors of FGM.

Speakers

Dr Supriya Subramani

The power of small acts: everyday dignities for change

Dr Supriya Subramani is a Lecturer, Sydney Health Ethics, Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at The University of Sydney. She is also a founding member of the Early Career Bioethics Network and South Asian Bioethics Community.

Dr Subramani’s research explores structural injustice and everyday indignities in healthcare contexts. She employs ethnographic and phenomenological methods, taking an interdisciplinary approach to study moral emotions, such as humiliation, and moral concepts, including respect, othering, and belonging. Dr Subramani’s work is deeply informed by anti-caste and anti-racist philosophy.

Dr Amanda Fox

Implementing designated RN prescribing

Dr Amanda Fox holds a joint Associate Professor in Nursing, Queensland University of Technology and Metro North Health – Redcliffe Hospital.

Dr Fox’s most recent work has focused on Registered Nurse prescribing under supervision; projects include exploring RNs preparedness to undertake prescribing, Nurse practitioners’ views on RN prescribing and system-thinking research to explore stakeholder perspectives of organisational and systems level barriers and supports required to enable registered nurse prescribing under a supervision model.

Catelyn Richards

Yes, this is our lane: the influence of nurses and midwives tackling climate change

As a Registered Nurse, PhD student, and the co-founder of Climate Action Nurses, Catelyn Richards is a passionate humanitarian and advocate for planetary health. She has worked and volunteered with leading organisations including the Climate and Health Alliance, Oaktree Foundation, AusAID, and Young People Without Borders, where Catelyn lived and worked in the Solomon Islands.

Catelyn has also completed a Masters of Leadership in Health and Human Services as a 2022 Westpac Future Leaders’ scholar, and is now completing her doctoral studies at UTS in planetary health and nursing.

Nikki Johnston OAM

Influencing better end-of-life care

Nikki Johnston OAM is a Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner with more than three decades of experience. Nikki is dedicated to ensuring equitable access to end-of-life care for all Australians, and she is the co-founder of the ‘Palliative Care Needs Round’ (PCNR) to enhance palliative care access in residential aged care facilities.

Nikki received the Order of Australia Medal for her contributions to nursing and was awarded the 2019 Federal Health Minister’s Trailblazer Award for nursing innovation.

Midwifery panel

Dr Alison Teate

Dr Alison Teate is a midwife with 40 years of experience. She has a passion for enhancing quality midwifery care initiatives including group antenatal care, midwifery continuity of care, and midwifery-led care in rural and regional areas.

Dr Teate has worked in public health systems across Australia, as a midwife, academic and educator, and midwifery leader, and most recently she has moved back to South Australia to set up a private practice focusing on lactation and offering women care in their home for pregnancy and postnatal care. Dr Teate is also the current ACM Vice President of the Australian College of Midwives (ACM).

Emma Gedge

Emma Gedge is a midwife from Wollongong Hospital. She is a NSWNMA Councillor, member of the Midwifery Member Network and activist.

Tamara Blanch

Tamara Blanch is a proud Yuin woman who began work as an Aboriginal Health Workers two decades ago. She is now a midwife with the local Aboriginal Maternal Infant and child Health Service, Binji and Boori, in Warrawong in the Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD.

O’Bray Smith (Facilitator)

O’Bray Smith has proudly served as an NSWNMA Councilllor for the past 16 years, with six years as President of the NSWNMA and the ANMF NSW Branch.

Having worked in the public health system for more than two decades, O’Bray is committed to uplifting the voices of nurses, midwives, and carers at all levels of decision-making.