Board of Directors

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President

Phillip Newton
Sydney, Australia

Professor Phillip Newton is Professor and Director of the Nursing Research Centre at Western Sydney University and Western Sydney Local Health District. As a registered nurse with a strong academic track record, Professor Newton’s program of research demonstrates a strong interdisciplinary focus and an emphasis on the links between clinical research and translation into the health service. He has a distinguished and consistent record of obtaining competitive funding at the highest level. In total, he has been awarded over $3 million in support as a Chief Investigator from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Heart Foundation NSW Cardiovascular Research Network; Department of Health & Ageing and the Australian Research Council. He has been elected a Fellow of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (FCSANZ) American Heart Association (FAHA) and the European Society of Cardiology (FESC).

The main focus of his research has been on risk factor modification and symptom management. His PhD and his early post-doctoral work investigated interventions to improve symptoms and improve self-management. Prof Newton is now leading a team investigating the impact of frailty on people with chronic heart failure as well as people referred for solid organ transplantation. He is a senior investigator of the Heart Failure Snapshot study, the largest point prevalence study of acute heart failure and investigation of clinical variation across institutions in Australia.

Vice-President

Vacant Position

Secretary

Ross Proctor

RN, CCU Cert
Sydney, Australia

Ross is the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Cardiac Services at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney. He has more than 30 years’ experience in cardiac nursing across a variety of settings, including six years co-ordinating the post graduate cardiac nursing course at the NSW College of Nursing, now the Australian College of Nursing (ACN).Ross was the NSW state representative on the Cardiovascular Nursing Council of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ) (2007-2014). He is a founding member, past President (2011-2013) and, Life Member (2018) of the Australasian Cardiovascular Nursing College.Ross has contributed to the 2015 Heart Foundation Acute coronary syndromes capability framework and the 2016 Heart Foundation/CSANZ Acute coronary syndromes guideline. Ross is a course director and accredited ALS 1 & 2 instructor with the Australian Resuscitation Council. Ross has lectured extensively across Australia on most facets of cardiac nursing and has presented at numerous conferences. Ross’ interests include:
- Improving resuscitation outcomes
- Improving patient and family/carer experiences in health care
- Promoting and developing cardiac nursing
- Motorcycling
- Not necessarily in that order.

Ross Proctor

Treasurer

Karen Sanders
Sydney, Australia

Karen is an acute Cardiac Nurse Practitioner at Austin Health. Karen’s cardiac nursing experience commenced in the era of the “Datascope” 82 IABP machine & the ISIS trials and encompasses various clinical, managerial, educational and project roles at the Royal Melbourne The Alfred and Austin hospitals in Melbourne over more than 3 decades. Membership of several nursing and cardiac organisations includes the ACNC since its inaugural meeting in 2007, and committee membership from 2009 to 2018 and then rejoined the ACNC Board 2019. Karen took was the ACNC Treasurer from 2015 to 2018 and then from 2019 to current.

Committee Member

Jacqueline Colgan
Sydney, Australia

Jackie is a hospital trained nurse from the UK and has been in Australia for twenty-five years. She has worked in acute cardiology for over twenty years. Jackie holds a Post Grad Cert in Cardiac Nursing; and a Masters in Nursing Professional studies with majors in Education and Management. Jackie has been teaching the UTAS Cardiovascular Nursing units since 2013. She has a passion for clinical education and patient safety. Jackie is currently employed at the Central Coast Local Health District in NSW, Australia. Jackie is the current co-chair of the NSW ACI Cardiac Network. Jackie’s interests include:

- Improving staff confidence with delivering smoking cessation education

- Promoting the use of video education in acute care.