In Accreditation Services our team of Associate Directors are responsible for assessment of nursing and midwife programs of study. They also contribute to the development and review of accreditation standards. Accreditation Services is operationally supported by our Administrative Officers, Melanie (Team Leader), Kim, Vanessa and Laura.
Kathryn Austin – Associate Director
RN, GradDip VET, GradCert Mgt, MEd, MBA
Kathryn has been driving the strategic and operational delivery of health programs in the vocational education and training sector for over 30 years. She holds a deep understanding of how to promote high-quality learning and teaching scholarship and evaluation. Using informed evidence-based responses to labour market needs and governments priorities, she has guided teams across the NSW training sector in improving educational and accreditation standards. As a registered nurse and clinical educator, Kathryn is a principled advocate for health services and has authored industry publications and presented at conferences on the changing needs of the healthcare sector. As an Associate Director she is committed to improving standards and promoting a culture of performance awareness to enhance the quality of education programs in the higher education and VET sectors.
Sara Couch – Associate Director
RN, RM, BN, GradDipMid, MMidwifery, GradCert HigherEd
Sara has experience and qualifications in clinical care, tertiary education and research. Sara’s work in nursing and midwifery education began as a clinical facilitator and foundation member of the Werna Naloo Consortium that implemented the first Bachelor of Midwifery program in Victoria. Until recently Sara was a Lecturer and Course Coordinator at Deakin University. Sara is committed to contributing to the safety and quality of nursing and midwifery care in Australia through her work as an Associate Director and her research interests. As an Associate Director, Sara is responsible for supporting education providers and leading assessment teams through the processes of accreditation and contributing to the development of evidence based Education Standards for nursing and midwifery programs. Sara’s research program focuses on learning and teaching, safety and quality in midwifery care and perinatal mental health.
Dr Elijah M Marangu – Associate Director
RN, MPH, GradCert HigherEd, PhD
Elijah is a registered nurse and mental health nurse, he has worked in clinical, health services management and academic roles in Australia, South Africa and Kenya. More recently, Elijah worked as senior lecturer at Deakin University’s National Indigenous Knowledges, Education, Innovation and Research Institute (NIKERI), prior to this, he worked for 12 years at Deakin University School of Nursing and Midwifery as lecturer. Elijah’s research interests are health evaluation, healthcare for vulnerable populations, humanitarian health, and his PhD research examined capacity building strategies for mental health care in low-income settings and focusing on Kenya. Elijah is committed to enabling close collaboration between ANMAC and education providers to develop, and lead to accreditation of nursing and midwifery programs that are responsive to health needs of the Australian population in its entirety.
Dr Gayle McLelland – Associate Director
RN, RM, BEd(st), GradCertHlthInformatics, MEd(I&CT), PhD
Gayle is a registered nurse and registered midwife who has worked in various clinical settings in both the public and private health sectors. With experience as a clinical educator in both nursing and midwifery, Gayle worked in academia more than two decades ago. With extensive experience in the education of nurses and midwives, she is acutely aware that quality curricula based upon the standards is fundamental in this process. Upon the completion of her PhD in 2016, she became invested in using interprofessional collaboration to support students and clinicians in the provision of safe maternity care. Her research interests are nursing and midwifery education; interprofessional collaboration; emergency maternity care and safe workforce. As an Associate Director, Gayle views the process of accreditation as vital when supporting students to become safe clinicians. She aims to work with education providers, consumers, clinicians and academics to implement the Education Standards in the development of quality nursing and midwifery programs.
Mary-Grace Bingham – Associate Director
PGDM, BPA, MPHC, MQIHC, BN, NCCN, RM
Mary-Grace has spent most of her nursing and midwifery career working as a clinician and manager in the rural and remote areas across Australia. Following a change in her career pathway, Mary-Grace exchanged her love for working in the country, for a role with Aphra as a nursing and midwifery professional officer advising on regulatory and registration matters for both professions. Mary-Grace’s regulatory role also included an NMBA audit of all privately practicing midwives who supported women birthing in their homes. Mary-Grace was then employed by the ANMAC CEO to work within her office on projects which included the accreditation of education providers who offered immunisation courses, which were much in demand during the pandemic. More recently, Mary-Grace has been appointed as an Associate Director in Accreditation Services. This role also supports Mary-Grace’s passion and her current research to support nurses and midwives to qualify and work to their full scope of practice.
Pammie Ellem – Associate Director
RN MN PhD
Pammie is an experienced Registered Nurse who has always been dedicated to the nursing profession and the opportunities nursing has to offer. Pammie has worked in many rural and remote locations providing acute and community nursing care. Additionally, Pammie has worked in academia in variety of roles including undergraduate, postgraduate, research and clinical liaison. Pammie has a strong interest in Breast Cancer Care, Palliative , Aged Care and Education. Pammie’s PhD study developed a model of professional peer support ‘Connecting the unconnected’, in recognition of support required for isolated health practitioners both geographically and professionally. Similarly, Pammie is invested in enabling nursing colleagues who are interested in research or further education either as Higher Degree Research Students or undertaking research within a research team. As an Associate Director Pammie looks forward to contributing her broad experience to the accreditation process to ensure tomorrow’s nurses are able to access high quality education and provide best practice. Professionally Pammie is a Board Director the Breast and Prostate Cancer Association of Queensland and Deputy Chair of the Nursing in the Community National Leadership Team for Australian College of Nursing. Pammie is also a Charter member of the Global Nurses and Midwives Rotary Club.
Melanie Lauva – Associate Director
RN, BNurs(Hons1), GCertHPEd, MEdRM, PhD
Mel is a Registered Nurse and experienced tertiary educator and leader. Having worked across three Australian states and with overseas teaching experience, Mel brings a depth of curriculum, learning and teaching and compliance knowledge to her role.
Most recently, Mel was the Director of the Australian Institute of Health Service Management at the University of Tasmania. Mel’s PhD research was in the area of patient safety using a human factors lens and she is committed to contributing to this area through her work with ANMAC.
As an Associate Director, Mel is responsible for supporting education providers and leading assessment teams through the processes of accreditation and contributing to the development of evidence-based Education Standards for nursing and midwifery programs.
