Board of Directors

Karen Booth

President

Karen has worked as a primary health care nurse and manager in general practice since 1998. Her roles include acute and preventative health care, chronic disease management, care coordination, data management, accreditation, administration, staff training and mentoring.

Karen’s true passion is preventative health care, utilising surveillance and health checks to identify health problems early, and intervention to prevent damage to a person’s health and wellbeing. Key to this is the development of systems to utilise the skills of the whole general practice team working to the best of their ability.

Karen has participated in numerous Australian Government Department of Health national health policy advisory groups, including several Ministerial appointments, providing advice to the Primary Health Care Advisory Group, the MBS review and Primary Health Reform Steering Group for the National Primary Health Care 10 Year Plan.

Karen has more than 10 years’ experience in corporate governance and has held several board director positions. Karen is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

 

Denise Lyons

Board Director

Denise has been a Registered Nurse for more than 30 years and has worked in the Australian health care system for the past 25 years in a range of primary healthcare environments.

After a decade of work in paediatrics wards and emergency departments in the USA, Denise developed a passion for health literacy and prevention, earned a Masters degree in Health Promotion, and found her nursing vocation in General Practice. She has worked in primary care ever since .

In 2012, Denise was also endorsed as a Nurse Practitioner.

 

Maurice Wrightson

Co-opted Board Director

Maurice held senior executive positions within Australia Post, at both a State and National level for over 15 years. During this time he successfully applied a broad range of leadership and change management skills to a variety of senior positions including Deputy General Manager Retail NSW/ACT, Manager Delivery NSW/ACT and Manager Workforce Capability Unit Mail & Networks Division. He particularly utilised his strengths in Change Management, People Development and Profit Centre Management.

Maurice is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He has 24 years’ experience as a Director and over 20 years’ experience as a Board Chairman. Maurice is a member and Chairs various Board Committees including Governance, Finance Audit and Risk, Property and Human Resources. He has a keen interest in Governance, Strategy Development and Stakeholder Management. Other Boards include API Leisure & Lifestyle and headspace Gosford/Lake Haven.

 

Lisa Chalmers

Board Director

Lisa is currently the Director of Health and Wellbeing at Barker College. She has over 30 years of nursing experience in a range primary health care settings. She brings a deep commitment to the significance and value of primary health care for all Australians but also a strongly shared vision and values of APNA for the future of Primary Health Care as the key to addressing many of the healthcare challenges for Australia into the future.

Lisa has a Masters in Public Health and a strong commitment to champion the work of primary health nurses in Australia, APNA's recent amalgamation with School Nurses Australia brings new opportunities for School Nurses across Australia to be recognised for the incredible work they do and to be supported as they seek to care for, educate and promote positive health behaviours on the future generations.

 

Sharon James

Board Director

Sharon is an experienced rural primary healthcare nurse who works remotely for Monash University as a Research Fellow and Project Manager. Her research is focussed on enhancing primary care and women’s sexual and reproductive health through the development and testing of new models of care to enhance nurses scope of practice and consumer experiences of care.  Her work has been published and presented internationally.

Following a clinical career of 20+ years, Sharon completed her PhD exploring lifestyle risk factor communication between General Practice Nurses and patients during chronic disease management consultations in 2021. Sharon's other research has included exploration of primary healthcare nurses; experiences during COVID-19, preconception and interconception care, and supporting bushfire recovery. Her interconception work has resulted in institutional and international fellowships. As a result of her research leadership, she is part of the Oxford University Primary Care Research Leadership Programme and has received the 2025 Sigma Emerging Leader/Researcher (Oceania) award.

She has worked in rural communities in occupational health, employee health and wellbeing, general practice nursing and academic roles. Her other qualifications include immunisation, project management, public health, occupational health and safety nursing and as a company director. The diversity in primary healthcare practice has informed her research and interests in women’s health, behaviour change communication, preventive care, chronic disease management, models of care and nursing roles in primary health care settings.

 

Christine Fuller

Board Director

Christine is the Deputy CEO / Chief Nursing Officer at Correct Care Australasia (CCA), a private healthcare provider delivering primary health care to approximately 6,000 prisoners across 16 prisons and 2 Youth Justice sites in Victoria. Christine is a registered nurse with 35 years’ experience working in diverse roles in the public and private healthcare sector, including executive positions, managing major departments, leading multidisciplinary organisation-wide projects, and line responsibility. She holds a Diploma of Nursing, a Bachelor of Nursing Administration, and a Master of Health Administration. Christine has completed the AICD Board Directors Course to enhance her knowledge, skills and contributions to the APNA Board.

Christine has been working in correctional health for the last ten years and has responsibility for clinical operations and policies, quality and professional conduct of nurses and Chairs CCA's Clinical Governance Committee. Her areas of interest and experience are consultative leadership, developing the professional role of nurses and facilitating quality care to patients.

Christine admires the commitment, resourcefulness, and autonomy of the primary health care nurses' role and as a Vice President is committed to ensuring the ongoing respect, recognition, and a broad career pathway for primary health care nurses. She will continue to contribute to, and influence, the significant and rapidly growing area of primary health care nursing and the ongoing good governance of APNA.

 

Angela How

Board Director

Angela is a proud registered nurse, leader and nursing advocate. Angela has postgraduate qualifications in Clinical Redesign and Clinical Education and significant experience working in both primary health and hospitals in Australia and the United Kingdom.

Angela is currently the Manager of Evidence Translation and Innovation at Brisbane South PHN which involves driving strategic responses to primary health reform and policy changes. Her responsibilities include designing evidence-based programs that emphasise person-centred continuity of care, facilitate team-based approaches and provide wrap-around services to those with the highest need.

Angela brings a passion for continuous improvement and strong advocacy for the nursing profession, combined with a deep understanding of the primary care strategic and operating environment and an enthusiasm for positive disruption to shape primary health nursing for the future.

 

Allyson Warrington

Co-opted Board Director

Allyson is an experienced senior executive and non-executive director. She has a diverse set of skills in leadership, corporate governance, service delivery, fiscal management, change management, marketing and communications, strategy, risk, compliance, and policy development.

Allyson joined Community Based Support, a Tasmanian aged care and disability services provider as Chief Executive Officer and Company Secretary in December 2019. Previously she spent over seven years as CEO of General Practice Training Tasmania, overseeing strategies to ensure healthy Tasmanian communities through accreditation of general practices, hospital terms, training of GP registrars and supervisors and workforce distribution and planning.

Allyson’s non-executive director roles span over 25 years, most recently six years as a Director of Primary Health Tasmania (Chairing the Governance Advisory Committee), and Chair of the Board of Cancer Council Tasmania. Her experience in regulation and compliance includes nine years on the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, at which time she Chaired the Finance Governance and Communications Committee, as well as being nominated as a member of the AHPRA Finance Audit and Risk Committee. Allyson’s current directorships are as Chair of the Tasmanian Pharmacy Authority and Member of the Independent Communications Committee for the Commonwealth Government Department of Finance.

Allyson has spent a significant period of time during her career in senior roles in membership organisations/associations including CPA Australia, City Heart Business Association, Australian Mines & Metals Association and RACT.  She brings a wealth of member and client service delivery experience. Allyson is a 26TEN Coalition Member and occupies positions on the Tasmanian councils of both the Aged and Community Care Providers Association and National Disability Services.

She holds a Bachelor of Business and Company Directors Course Diploma, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and is former President of the Australian Marketing Institute (Tas) and Public Relations Institute of Australia (Tas).