Chief Executive Officer, Cohuna District Hospital, Victoria; Australia

Bernadette is the Chief Executive Officer of Cohuna District Hospital, Victoria. Prior to that Bernadette held General Manager / Executive Director roles in NSW Health and Queensland Health. During her tenure as General Manager of Tweed Byron Health Service group, she led the planning and delivery of the new Byron Central Hospital on a greenfield site.

She was also Director of The Tweed Valley Hospital development. She was co-chair of the NSW / Qld Cross-Border Service Development Committee.

Prior to her Executive Director Roles, Bernadette worked as Clinical Manager across Royal Prince Alfred

Hospital and Concord Hospital. She was also the Divisional Manager of Medicine and Aged Care at Royal Northshore Hospital, Sydney.

Clinically, Bernadette is a registered nurse and midwife and her neurosciences clinical experience is predominantly in tertiary and quaternary hospitals having trained in the Richmond Hospital in Dublin.

Bernadette has been an Assessor with Australian Council on Health Care Standards since 2006. She was appointed to the Council of Australian Council on Health Care Standards representing Australian College of Health Service Managers in 2021. She was awarded Fellow of Australasian College Health Service Managers, by exam, in 2013. She is a Graduate of AICD. She completed executive leadership studies (Women and Power) at Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education, Boston in 2017. She is Board Director Lodden Mallee Network. She is Foundation Member of Margaret Olley Art Gallery, Murwillumbah and Executive member of Tweed Performing Arts Centre Development. She is currently completing Executive Fellows Program (2022) with Australian New Zealand School of Government.

Bernadette is a strong advocate for IHI Patient Flow White paper and delivered exceptional performance in patient flow models of care together with a passionate engaged team. Bernadette is leading the Joy in Work program in Cohuna and is convinced that this approach is delivering early improvements. Bernadette resides in Cohuna, Victoria.