NPS staff member biographies

Karen Kaye, Deputy CEO and Executive Manager, Programs and Services

Karen joined NPS 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 and Learning

Jonathan oversees the Research and Development, e-Health Decision Support, Educational Design and Support, and Program Evaluation teams. These teams lead NPS work in researching influences on medicines use; they develop and test ways to improve medicines use, including with software applications and in the e-health environment; they develop e-learning systems, and they measure the impact of NPS activities.

Jonathan has a long-standing interest in medicines and public health, particularly in how we can improve access to relevant and actionable information while decisions are made about medicine use. Prior to NPS he 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 earlier times he spent several years in the field of drug usage evaluation (DUE) supporting local, state and national activities, while also undertaking his doctoral studies in DUE. The initial part of his career was spent as a hospital pharmacist in Australia and England, and subsequently in Belize, developing and coordinating pharmacy education and training programs. 

Sharene Jackson, Executive Manager, Information

Sharene manages the Information teams responsible for the design and production of NPS publications and resources, data management and knowledge management. Sharene has a strong commitment to ensuring that we offer the highest quality products and services to our clients, in the most efficient, cost effective way.

Sharene’s training in journalism and instructional design led her to a career in developing print and online publications for the health and education sectors. She has been with us since 1998 and, in her current role, combines her passion for information design with her keen desire to always find better ways of doing things.

Monique Heighes, Executive Manager, People and Environment

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.

Caroline Lamb, Executive Manager, Business and Corporate Services

Caroline has degrees in economics and law. She worked as a solicitor at Mallesons before moving to in-house corporate roles in steel manufacturing and building products in Australia and South East Asia. She experienced the heady days of the 1980s as an investment banker with Australian Industry Development Corporation (AIDC) and Westpac where she financed large scale construction projects in Australia and off shore, and developed funding vehicles for venture and start-up capital in a wide range of industries including biotechnology.

Her 10 years at AMP saw the achievement of measurable success in general and project management spanning business development, operational management and business support functions.

Caroline has experience in corporate development, from start-up through development and implementation of business strategies to change management in the mature organisation. She has proudly marketed Australian expertise, sourced partners and established new ventures in Europe and Asia.

Caroline has retained her solicitor’s practising certificate and has consulted to major private and public organisations on corporate governance and compliance. She is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the St Vincent’s Hospital Human Research Ethics Committee. 

Yeqin Zuo, Manager, Program Evaluation

Yeqin manages the Program Evaluation team at NPS, which develops and implements evidence-based evaluation of NPS’s entire suite of initiatives and projects, with a strong focus on continuous improvement. These evaluations encompass all areas of NPS interventions including quality use of medicines and diagnostic referrals.

As a public health physician, Yeqin is widely experienced in population health research, policy development, program planning and evaluation. Prior to joining NPS, she worked in cancer screening program management, national immunisation policy development and chronic disease control. She has been involved in health program and policy development at both state and federal government levels.

Yeqin also has long-standing interest in development in China, and has served as a public health expert for AusAID, WHO and other international agencies.

Yeqin holds a Bachelor of Medicine, a Graduate Diploma of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and a Master of Public Health. She became a fellow of the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine in 2009. 

Georgina Green, Manager, Culture and Development

Georgina is responsible for developing a strong organisational culture aligned with our values of excellence, passion, integrity and collaboration. The Culture and Development team’s work encompasses a number of speciality areas including the establishment of a change management centre of excellence, the learning and development function, enhancing employee engagement, talent management and internal communications.

Georgina has combined an early career in health with extensive experience in management across corporate, government and not for profit environments. She holds postgraduate qualifications in public affairs and is a certified executive coach, group facilitator and yoga teacher.

Tony Harrison, Chief Technical Officer

Tony has been involved in the information technology arena throughout his career, working his way through programming, helpdesk support and coordination to management and now his current position with NPS as 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.

The systems employed by NPS are a result of this experience and represent the appropriate technology employed at the right time to deliver maximum business benefit.

Tony holds a master’s degree in management and bachelor’s degree in computer science. He is a keen pilot who holds a commercial pilot’s license and can be seen most weekends either at or near a local airport.

James Reeve, Manager, e-Health and Decision Support

James manages the e-Health and Decision Support team at NPS, which facilitates access to evidence-based information about medicines by health professionals at the point of decision-making.

James graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Tasmania in 1986. Afterwards he managed a community pharmacy for six years, and then worked as a hospital pharmacist. James holds a PhD; his thesis is titled Utilisation and Evaluation of Information Technology to Improve the Quality and Safety of Medication Use. He also holds a Graduate Diploma of Information Technology.

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.

Michelle Koo, Manager, Educational Design and Support

Michelle manages and leads the Educational Design and Support at NPS. The team is responsible for developing and implementing online learning resources for health professional students and new prescribers. Prior to her current appointment, Michelle had been part of NPS since 2005.

Michelle holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) and a Doctor of Philosophy from the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney. Her background is in clinical pharmacy and research. She is a practising community pharmacist.

Trish Tuffin, Manager, Production and Digital Services

Trish manages the Production and Digital Services team. This team 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 NPS’s 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 is innovative in its publishing and information design, using technology and new ideas to give audiences products in the most appropriate formats.

Trish 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 and Development

Margaret is the Manager of Research and 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.