Wounds Australia
ACT Australia
Helen Jentz is an experienced leader in the professional association arena having led a number of state and national organisations.
Helen is a respected advocate, presenter and contributor across a variety of areas including education, health and business.
She has previously held executive positions with the Australian College of Educators, the Australian Medical Students’ Association, Diabetes Australia and the Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
She was recognised for her innovation and leadership by being named on the The Educator Hot List for 2017.
Throughout her career Helen has held position on a number of state and federal committees and working groups including the Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee, the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Ethics Committee, the Queensland Workplace Health and Safety Board, Queensland Government’s Red Tape Reduction Taskforce, the Queensland Productive Aging Taskforce.
Helen is currently the Vice-President of Joy Media a volunteer position she has held for the past two years.
Epworth Health
VIC Australia
Kerry May is a registered health professional with over 25 years’ experience in public and private health care and is currently the Executive General Manager of Epworth Eastern. Previous to her time at Epworth Kerry was the Director of Acute Allied Health at Monash Health, and until 2012 the Podiatry Manager and Diabetic Foot Unit Coordinator at the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Kerry has a Bachelor of Podiatry, a Graduate Diploma in Vocational Education and Training, a Master of Gerontology and an Executive MBA. Her time at RMH involved establishing a Diabetic Foot Unit to ensure that people with diabetes related foot complications were provided with evidenced based management by a multi-disciplinary team enthusiastic about limb preservation and patient quality of life, across the continuum of care.
Silverchain Group
Gordana Petkovska is a Nurse Practitioner (NP) specialising in wounds and ostomies in the Advanced Wound Assessment Service for Silver Chain Group. Her role is in assessing, diagnosing, and managing both acute and chronic wounds and consults across multiple clinical areas. Gordana is a PhD candidate at Curtin University investigating pressure injuries in a community hospice population.
Gordana has extensive experience in the community in senior clinical positions, including Clinical Coordinator and Clinical Nurse Consultant Manager. She has contributed to many Silver Chain Group research projects and led a pilot trial using compression wraps in bariatric patients. In addition, Gordana headed the development and implementation of the ComCare® Wound Module electronic record across the organisation.
Gordana is on the Western Australian committee for Wounds Australia, previously holding the Acting Chair and Finance Liasion positions. She is an active member organising and presenting at educations days. Gordana is also a North Metropolitan Foot Initiative Committee member investigating high-risk foot management in the primary care setting. In addition, Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (GP) previously employed her in providing education on skin tears to GPs in Perth, Western Australia. She was also in the small working group for the palliative population to update The prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers/injuries: Clinical practice guideline: The international guideline, 2019.
Gordana has a keen enthusiasm for wound prevention and management in the community and expanding nursing knowledge in this setting. Of particular interest are prevention and self-management, the high-risk diabetic foot, and bariatric patients' management. Gordana strives to advance evidence-based research into clinical practice by developing and implementing national protocols and processes across the Silver Chain Group. She has presented at national and state conferences on wounds in the community and their outcomes and financial impact, and contributed to published articles.
Chair, Wounds Australia
VIC Australia
Hayley has a passion for healing wounds as a clinical nurse consultant across Australia and New Zealand Hayley has a wide range of post graduate experience in wound management, whilst completing her masters of business Admin (MBA). Hayley also holds the position of Wounds Australia Board of Directors. Hayley has presented at national conferences and has a proven track record of providing advanced wound care education. She travels extensively throughout Australia and New Zealand educating on the principles of wound management and infection control to help clinicians maximise safe wound care outcomes. Hayley's interest includes, chronic wound management, palliative care and pressure injury prevention whilst optimizing comfort for those living with a wound.
International Wound Infection Institute (IWII)
VIC Australia
Terry Swanson completed her undergraduate work in the USA before immigrating to Australia in 1988. She was endorsed in 2004 as one of the first Nurse Practitioners in her state and specialty of wound management. Terry was admitted as a Fellow of the Australian Wound Management Association in 2010 for her significant contribution to wound management at a state, national and international level. She is the current Vice Chair of the International Wound Infection Institute (IWII) and chaired the development and publication of the 2016 and Co-chaired the 2022 IWII Consensus Document Wound Infection in Clinical Practice. Terry served as the Chair of IWII from 2012 until 2015. She is also on the International Relations WUWHS board and serves as Co-Chair of the Supporting Societies subcommittee.
Terry has published and presented on chronic wounds and wound infection nationally and internationally. She was the lead author and editor for the book Wound Management for the Advanced Practitioner. Terry was the Scientific Chair of the 2018 Wounds Australia National Conference and has held positions of responsibility of various nursing and wound related boards locally, nationally and internationally. When Terry was President of the Australian Wound Management Association (now Wounds Australia) Victorian Branch Terry was on the organising committee and helped host the first World Union of Wound Healing Conference in Melbourne in 2000.
Senior Lecturer, University of Newcastle
NSW Australia
Dr Tehan is an experienced podiatrist working at the John Hunter Hospital high risk foot clinic, and a senior lecturer at the University of Newcastle podiatry program. Dr Tehan completed her PhD in 2016 which was an investigation of methods to assess lower limb vascular status. Dr Tehan’s research interests lie in vascular assessment of the wounded limb, as well as addressing inequity in diabetic foot disease outcomes in rural and remote areas of Australia. Dr Tehan leads the diabetes and wound management course at the University of Newcastle and is currently an associate editor of Wound Practice and Research.
