National Rural Health Alliance hires new CEO

The peak national body for rural, regional and remote health has appointed rural clinician Dr Gabrielle O’Kane as its new chief executive officer.

National Rural Health Alliance hires new CEO

Jerome Doraisamy

Last Updated: 28 June 2019 Published: 28 June 2019

Dr O’Kane (pictured), a dietitian, comes to the job “with 35-plus years working in outback private and public practice in NSW and is also an academic and researcher”, the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA) said in a statement.

“An adjunct associate professor at the University of Canberra’s Health Research Institute, she has most recently been responsible for commissioning and governing drug and alcohol services for the South East NSW Primary Health Network, Coordinaire.”

NRHA chair Tanya Lehmann congratulated Dr O’Kane and welcomed her to the role.

“The NRHA board is excited by the passion, lived rural clinical practice and teaching experience that Dr O’Kane brings to our organisation,” she said.

“Her academic rigour, business acumen, creativity, warmth and career achievements very much align with the NRHA’s mission to advocate for better and more accessible health services across rural, regional and remote Australia.”

Dr O’Kane’s appointment comes at a key time for the national organisation, it said, which has 37-member organisations representing health professionals, service providers, consumers, educators and researchers working in rural, regional and remote Australia.

She succeeds Mark Diamond and will take up her new position from 8 July 2019.

Jerome Doraisamy

Jerome Doraisamy is a senior writer for Lawyers Weekly and Wellness Daily at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in early 2018, Jerome is admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales and, prior to joining the team in early 2018, he worked in both commercial and governmental legal roles and has worked as a public speaker and consultant to law firms, universities and high schools across the country and internationally. He is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines self-help book series and is an adjunct lecturer at The University of Western Australia.

Jerome graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Social Inquiry).

You can email Jerome at: [email protected]