Chair

Dr Nicholas Cheng MB BS BSc(MED) DCH FRACP

Paediatric Emergency Medicine

The Children‘s Hospital Westmead

Dr Cheng is involved in the treatment and prevention of all aspects of childhood injuries, especially children with burns. He is directly involved in the care of children with everything from minor injuries to life-threatening trauma. He is committed to training others to treat injured children and is a senior instructor in the Emergency Management of Severe Trauma and Emergency Management of Severe Burns Courses for local and international doctors and nurses. He is also involved in local, Australia-wide and global research into children's emergencies, including burn injuries, trauma and poisoning.

Dr Cheng believes that the most effective way to reduce childhood injuries is to prevent them from happening in the first place. This is especially true of accidental injuries, where innovations based on solid research have produced steady reductions in death and injury from accidents in children over several decades. His commitment to the work of Kidsafe NSW reflects this view. 

Deputy Chair               

Dr Julie Brown

Research Fellow, Neuroscience Research Australia

Australian Research Council APDI Fellow

Conjoint Lecturer, School of Medicine UNSW

Treasurer                                

Ms Lynn Kraus

US CPA, Member of Australian Institute of Chartered Accountants

Sydney Managing Partner – Ernst & Young

Lynn is the Sydney Managing Partner for Ernst & Young.   As Office Managing Partner of the Sydney office, Lynn is responsible for the firm’s go-to-market and client service strategies in Australia’s largest city.  Recently, Lynn led the integration of over 40 regional Ernst & Young offices in Asia-Pacific bringing together over 22,000 people.

Lynn is also a Partner in the Transaction Integration team.  She has 19 years experience advising clients in the financial services, government and real estate sectors.  Lynn’s integration experience includes target operating model design, synergies, integration blueprints and overall stakeholder engagement and communications. 

Lynn is also the Chairman of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusiveness Council and is passionate about supporting the advancement of women in the business community. 

Member

Ms Kristy Abbott 

MHealthSc, BA (Psych)

Consultant

After working for over 10 years in injury prevention, Kristy is now a part-time consultant working primarily on safety and injury prevention programs for not-for-profit organisations. Kristy has a background in Psychology and has a Masters in Behavioural Health Science. Kristy is committed to viewing injury prevention from an ‘upstream’ perspective and has an interest in identifying social and environmental factors that impact on injury risk.  

Member

Dr Susan Adams MBBS  FRACS

Staff Specialist, Head of Department, Paediatric Surgery

Sydney Children’sHospital, Randwick

Member

Professor Kathleen Clapham

PhD BA (Honours) Professor (Indigenous Health)

Australian Health Services Research Institute

University of Wollongong

Member

Associate Professor David Eager

PhD BE(Hons) GradCertDispRes FIEAust CPEng MASME MAAS

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology

University of Technology, Sydney

David Eager is an internationally recognised expert on the safety aspects of playgrounds, play surfaces and related facilities. He is the Deputy Chair of Academic Board at the University of Technology and Associate Professor within the Faculty of Engineering and IT. David is a Fellow of Engineers Australia, Chartered Professional Engineer and on the National Professional Engineers Register. He is also on the Register of Play Inspectors International. He is the Chair of a number of Australian Standards Committees and ASTM International Technical Committees and Subcommittees.  David is the technical expert for NATA for the Accreditation and Certification of Playground Inspectors and Impact Attenuation Surfacing Testing Laboratories. 

Member

Mr David Howarth

David is a part-time competition and consumer lawyer and policy consultant (and full-time father). He has worked as a telecommunications competition lawyer in private practice (Corrs Chambers Westgarth/ Freehills), as an investigator at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, an adviser at the Attorney-General’s Department (Federal Bureau of Consumer Affairs), and at consumer organisation CHOICE. He has published a number of competition law articles and book chapters in Australian and European publications. He has degrees in law and economics from the University of Sydney, and Masters degrees from the University of NSW and the University of Tübingen, Germany. He is currently completing a doctorate in competition law at the University of Heidelberg.

Member

Dr Rebecca Ivers

PhD Injury Epidemiology, Masters of Public Health

Director, Injury Division

The George Institute for Global Health

Professor Rebecca Ivers is the Director of the Injury Division at the George Institute for Global Health, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney, immediate past President of the Australian Injury Prevention Network and board member of the Road Traffic Injury Research Network. She is trained in epidemiology and public health and directs a research program with a strong focus on prevention of injury in children, including studies on child restraints, adolescent risk taking, and road safety in Aboriginal populations.

Member

Dr Nick Pigott

Medical Director, Intensive Care Unit,

The Children’s Hospital at Westmead

Nick is currently an intensive care specialist at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead.  Prior to this he worked at Sydney Children’s Hospital and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. At Sydney Children’s Hospital he also held the position of Trauma Director.

Nick has particular interests in trauma, cardiac intensive care and human factors, and is undertaking a Masters degree in Health Law at the University of Sydney.

Member

Dr Gael Walker

FPRIA, Phd MAdmin, GradDipCommMgt, DipEd, BA

Consultant

Retired Associate Dean

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, UTS

Gael’s career is in education. The last nine years before she retired from the paid workforce in 2008 she was Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), responsible for all Communication courses at the University of Technology, Sydney. Gael has a lifelong commitment to community development and advocacy with board experience including the Consumers’ Health Forum, Maternity Alliance and the Nursing Mothers’ Association of Australia. Her work with Indigenous Community Volunteers in remote communities has focused on working with women organising their own support groups. Gael is a Life Fellow of the Public Relations Institute of Australia and is responsible for developing communication strategies for Kidsafe NSW.

Member

Mr David Wilson

Workplace Trainer and Assessor

Manager Child Care Services  of NSW P/L

David operates an After School Care Program, a service which caters for between 35 – 45 children each day. In addition, he operates Sydney In Home Child Care a program under which services are delivered via the Federal Government’s Child Care Services Support Program.  Currently the organisation cares for over 500 children within the greater Sydney metropolitan area.

David’s expertise is in business management, governance, accreditation and collaborative partnerships. He has been an active member of the Kidsafe NSW Council since joining in 2009.

Member

Ms Kellie Wilson

GradDipClinical Practice (Paediatrics),

DipAppSc (Nursing), NICC

Paediatric Trauma Clinical Nurse Consultant (CNC)

Sydney Children‘s Hospital, Randwick

Kellie has been involved with Kidsafe NSW since 2007. She provides high level expertise in paediatric trauma as well as being a credible spokesperson for Kidsafe promoting a number of important campaigns including correct use of child restraints and preventing falls from windows.

In her role as a CNC, Kellie cares for Neonatal and Pediatric patients in a highly dependent to critical state requiring advanced life support. She is also responsible for systems management and oversight of service provision at Sydney Children’s Hospital and sits on a number of state committees.

Kellie is accustomed to working as part of a multidisciplinary team working towards the common goal of achieving optimal outcomes for the child and their family.

Member

Ms Foonghar Chong

MAdult Ed, BA, Dip A&T, AssocDip NurseEd

Director Education – Health, Community and Personal services, TAFE NSW

Foonghar has 16 years’ experience in nursing and health including child and family health, specialist clinical nursing, nursing education and health promotion (parenthood) and management.  She has held various teaching and managerial positions in TAFE NSW during the last 20 years. 

As Program Manager and Manager Industry Teams for the TAFE NSW Industry Skill unit, Foonghar is responsible for managing the development of training programs and related teacher and learner resources for TAFE NSW in Community Services and Health. This has included responsibility for implementation of national qualifications within NSW, and the sponsorship and management of projects developing resources for the application of new learning technologies. 

Foonghar is an acknowledged leader in developing best practice integrated delivery and assessment models.  In addition, Foonghar has demonstrated excellence in her leadership of a state-wide change process, aimed at extending the capability of TAFE NSW teachers.