About Us

Chairperson

Professor Ian Kerridge is Associate Professor in Bioethics at Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney and Staff Haematologist/Bone Marrow Transplant physician at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney.  He is the author of over 300 papers in peer-reviewed journals and five textbooks of ethics, most recently Ethics and Law for the Health Professions (Federation Press, 2013). Ian has had a long involvement with clinical ethics – having established the Clinical Unit in Ethics and Health Law within the Hunter New England LHD and been a member of the NHMRC/AHEC Clinical Ethics Capacity Working Group which produced guidance on clinical ethics in 2016. He is also Chair of the RACP Ethics Committee and a member of NSW Health Clinical Ethics Advisory Panel.

Executive Sponsor

Dr Greg Stewart is the Director, Primary Integrated and Community Health for South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) where he has managerial responsibility for a range of community services, including Drug and Alcohol, Oral Health, Child Youth and Family, Aboriginal Health, and the Kirketon Road primary health care centre in Sydney’s King’s Cross. He is also responsible for the District’s strategic approach to integrated care and chronic disease management, and for the development and implementation of SESLHD’s Sustainability (carbon reduction) Plan. He has been a senior manager in the NSW Health system for over 30 years including periods as Chief Executive Officer of Wentworth Area Health Service and Chief Health Officer of NSW. He has a longstanding interest in the social determinants of health and the promotion of health and wellbeing through factors outside the health system

SESLHD Clinical Ethics Consultant

Dr Linda Sheahan is a Palliative Care Physician and Clinical Ethics Consultant for South East Area Health Service. Her academic appointments include Honorary Associate with Sydney Health Ethics at University of Sydney as a member of the Clinical Ethics Network, and Conjoint Lecturer for UNSW Medical School. She completed a Masters in Bioethics through Monash University, followed by a Fellowship in Clinical and Organisational Ethics with the Joint Centre for Bioethics in Toronto, with which she is an affiliated bioethicist. Current research interests include exploration of the interface between palliative care and legalised physician assisted death in the Australasian context.

Emeritus Member

Professor Margaret Rose is Professor (conjoint) at the Prince of Wales Clinical School. She has had a long involvement and interest in research ethics particularly in the management of programs in the university and health sectors, the development of related education programs and, through membership of state, national and international committees, in the development of public policies.  During her tenure as Director, Research Governance, in SESLHD she was responsible for the establishment of the Clinical Ethics Committee that was the platform for the subsequent development of the Clinical Ethics Service.

St George Hospital Clinical Ethics Lead

Dr George Skowronski is Director of the Intensive Care Unit at St George Private Hospital. He is the Clinical Ethics Lead at St George (Public) Hospital. He also holds a conjoint appointment with the University of NSW as an Associate Professor of Critical Care. The numerous ethical problems of intensive care medicine led to an early interest in clinical ethics and he completed a Master of Bioethics at Sydney University in 2016. His main interest is in clinical ethics consultation and he also has a current research interest in organ donation ethics.

Dr Susan Hertzberg is a senior staff specialist in the Emergency Department at the Prince of Wales Hospital and a senior medical advisor at Avant Mutual. She has an interest in health law and ethics and has completed the Masters of Health Law and the Masters of Bioethics programs at Sydney University. She is a member of the Medico-legal Society, Australian Association of Bioethics and Health Law and is on various committees of the College of Emergency Medicine.

Dr Scott Lamont is a Clinical Nurse Consultant in Mental Health Liaison Nursing at Prince of Wales Hospital. He holds a Sessional Academic position at the Sydney Bioethics Program, and is on the Editorial Board of the Austin Journal of Nursing and Health Care. He has a PhD from the University of Sydney in which he researched practices relating to capacity assessment and consent processes in patients with delirium. His 20+ years working in mental health is underpinned by a strong sense of patient advocacy, rights and justice in this vulnerable population.

Liza Nadolski is Senior Risk Management Advisor at icare NSW. She drives risk management innovation for a diverse customer base, which includes NSW Health. Liza was previously Legal Counsel & Corporate Governance Manager for the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network, prior to which she worked in research ethics at South East Sydney Local Health District. Liza has a Masters in Human Rights Law and has been a member of the Clinical Ethics Committee since 2010. She believes that ethics underpin a strong risk management culture in the clinical context. Liza is also a Director of Australian Doctors International, a not-for-profit which deploys volunteer doctors to Papua New Guinea. 

Dr George Rubin is Associate Medical Director for Epidemiology, Quality and Safety in South Eastern Sydney Health District and a professor of public health at the Universities of Sydney and NSW.  He is a past President of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine; chaired the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunization; and served as director of Epidemiology and then Chief Health Officer for NSW Health.  He worked as a medical epidemiologist with the US Centres for Disease Control in Atlanta, USA and in Bangladesh.  He has published more than 150 scientific papers and works clinically as a specialist in addiction medicine.   He chairs the District’s End of Life Care Committee. 

Georgie Haysom is the Head of Research, Education and Advocacy at Avant, Australia’s largest medical defence organisation.  She has a Masters in Law specialising in bioethics and has worked in health law for 25 years, assisting and advising doctors on a wide range of medico-legal issues, including several years representing doctors in medical negligence litigation. She has a long-standing interest in the interaction between law, medicine and ethics, and the way in which the law impacts on medical practice. 

Debra Kennedy graduated in Medicine from the University of Sydney and trained in Paediatrics and Clinical Genetics in Sydney before completing a Fellowship in Clinical Genetics and Teratology at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto Canada. She established MotherSafe, the NSW Statewide Medications in Pregnancy and Lactation Advisory Service at the Royal Hospital for Women in January 2000. Debra is Director of MotherSafe where she oversees the telephone counselling service and also runs the clinic. She is a conjoint senior lecturer in the School of Women’s and Children’s Health at UNSW and is involved in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. Debra also directs the provision of Clinical Genetics Services at IVF Australia with a particular focus on genetic counselling in relation to preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD).

Dr Ik-Lin Tan is a consultant neurologist at the Sutherland Hospital, and a Clinical Senior Lecture of UNSW Medical School. She is also the Co-Chair Director of Physician Training at the St George- Sutherland Hospital network. She obtained her Master of Public Health from the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins, and attended the Berman Institute of Bioethics Summer Intensives Course, Johns Hopkins University with an interest in Clinical Bioethics and Public Health Ethics. She did a short stint at the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics. She is interested in the development of bioethics related education programs, as well as research in bioethics in neurodegenerative disorder.

Dr Duncan George is a consultant psychiatrist who has trained in consultation liaison psychiatry and psychogeriatrics.  His training also included two years in Berlin, Germany.  He has a strong interest in novel strategies to treat mood disorders, as well as HIV-related cognitive impairment.