Our Team

The work of Adelaide PHN is achieved with the support of a dedicated staff team and Board. The Adelaide PHN Board is a skills-based Board comprised of up to nine Board appointed Directors, each Director serves a three-year term via a staggered, rotational system.

Our Board

Mr Tom Symonds

Chair of Board

Tom Symonds has been the Chair of the Board since August 2020 and a Board Director since 2016. Prior to this, he was an inaugural member of the Adelaide PHN’s Central Community Advisory Council.

Tom is keenly interested in community engagement, health care quality, health workforce development, and health research and innovation. He serves as a community member on the South Australian Board of the Nursing and Midwifery of Australia and as a council elected director of the Australian Medical Council Board. He also previously served as community member on the South Australian Board of the Medical Board of Australia.

Tom is the Innovation Ecosystem Manager in the Department of the Premier and Cabinet with the SA Government.

Ms Linda Abrams-South

Board Director

A senior executive and experienced board director with extensive experience across Australia in strategic and operational leadership of large and complex organisations across health, infrastructure, economic, and justice sectors; this includes as General Manager of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and District Director of Rural and Indigenous Health in Queensland.

Linda has 20 years of board director experience in both South Australia and Queensland, including Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, Northern Regional Development Board, Workskil Australia Inc., and Wide Bay Group Training Ltd.

Linda is degree qualified in Finance and Accounting; Commercial Law; Business; and Computer and Information Science and is a Fellow with the Governance Institute of Australia; Australasian College of Health Management; and Institute of Managers and Leaders. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Linda is passionate about improving the health and wellbeing outcomes for the most disadvantaged in our communities through partnerships, performance, and good governance. 

Ms. Claudia Goldsmith

Finance, Audit & Risk Committee Chair

Claudia is a qualified Accountant and graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), with extensive experience in strategic financial management and governance, compliance, and risk management.

An experienced Audit and Risk Committee Chair, and current board member of SA Health’s Riverland Mallee Coorong Local Health Area Network, Rural Business Support Inc., and the Blind Welfare Foundation, Claudia is also an independent audit committee member for two council regional subsidiaries and three regional councils across SA, Victoria, and NT. Through these various governance roles, and with former involvement in health and aged care, Claudia has developed a solid appreciation of the challenges for the sector.

She is keen to contribute her broad-ranging skills and experience to Adelaide PHN and appreciates the need to work collaboratively with consumers, GP’s, health providers, and key stakeholders to develop and deliver improvements in services.

Mr Scott Williams

Board Director

Scott Williams, CEO of Police Health Group, has worked within the health care industry for over 30 years. 

Scott has worked in community and hospital health in Australia and the United Kingdom and held several senior executive roles. He has successfully led and delivered several large-scale capital and service redesign projects through cultural reform.

Scott has actively represented his organisation in industry forums, public events and interactions with critical strategic partners. 

Dr Melanie Smith

Board Director

Dr Melanie Smith is an associate contractor GP at Chandlers Hill Surgery with interests in palliative care, paediatrics, mental health, diagnostic reasoning and evidence-based practice. She is also the Deputy Chair of the SA/NT Faculty for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

Melanie is a member of the RACGP SA Faculty Women in General Practice Committee, the Australian Institute of Digital Health SA Branch Committee and the CEIH Urgent Care Clinical Network. She is also a GP Consultant with the SA Virtual Care Service.

As a former software engineer who transitioned into medicine, Melanie is passionate about incorporating the key elements of IT strategy/governance and change management into health care settings. 

Dr Peter Del Fante

Board Director

Dr Peter Del Fante is a part-time General Practitioner in private practice, a public health physician and a clinical informatician with extensive experience in clinical and data governance, general practice and health systems innovation, and population health analytics. 

He is also a senior digital health advisor at the Australian Digital Health Agency, where he has been involved in all aspects of the design and delivery of the National Digital Health Strategy. Previous leadership roles include being the CEO of a successful division of general practice and the clinical lead for the National McKinsey Integrated Diabetes Care Project (2012-2015). 

Peter is very passionate about equitable, integrated and digitally supported health care ecosystems that optimise people’s health and well-being.

Shane Mohor

Board Director ( First Nations Representative)

Shane Mohor is the previous CEO of the Aboriginal Health Council of SA Ltd (AHCSA). He has previously worked in Aboriginal health as a registered nurse and as a senior executive in government, university, and non-government organisations for over 30 years.  

Shane is strongly committed to improving the health and well-being of the Aboriginal community. He supports Aboriginal-led, owned and driven collaborative research projects that provide positive outcomes for the Aboriginal community.  

He is firmly committed to advancing employment for all Aboriginal people, particularly for Aboriginal Health Workers and the Aboriginal Health Workforce in general. Shane is also the Chairperson for Nunkuwarrin Yunti of SA Inc. and AHCSA’s Member of the South Australian Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation Network.

Tamara Cavenett

Board Director

Endorsed clinical psychologist with expertise in organisational leadership, clinical governance and policy in mental health.


Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), past President and Board Chair of the Australian Psychological Society (2020- 2022),

Director at Mental Health Australia and has held positions on several Federal Department of Health advisory committees. Proven track record of advancing health system reforms to ensure evidence-based, innovative and person-centred mental health care is available to Australians.

Olga Polikina

Board Director

Dr Olga Polikina works as a General Practitioner consultant with SA Virtual Care Services. She previously worked as a GP Liaison Officer for SA Health and the Department of Health and Wellbeing. 

Other positions undertaken include GP Deputy Clinical Lead for the GP Assessment Team (GPAT), and Duty Doctor at CRCT, managing multiple primary care-focused medical, nursing, and administrative teams. She has also worked as a GP in the outer northern suburbs of Adelaide and regional areas. 

Due to her interest in mental health, Olga has a good understanding of the available support, capabilities, and areas for improvement. She has extensive patient and health policy advocacy experience overseas, including involvement in ratifying and implementing the Tobacco Free Framework in Russia.

Ms Paula Davies

Secretary

Paula Davies is the Governance and Risk Manager, Company Secretary, and General Counsel for Adelaide PHN. She has over 25 years of legal experience in private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, including four years overseeing clinical research integrity at SA Health. 

Paula has a strong interest in supporting organisations with good governance frameworks to ensure robust, transparent, and ethically sound decision-making. She also has a keen interest in safeguarding and helping remove social disadvantage. This has shaped her previous work in the disability sector as a company secretary and general counsel.

Paula is a board member/trustee of Julia Farr’s grants body and has board experience spanning over two decades in retirement living, literacy, community legal services, social housing, supporting disadvantaged youth and more. She is also an independent member of several local government Audit and Risk committees in SA.
 

Our Executive Management Team


Meet the rest of the team; download our organisation chart

  • Chief Executive Officer 
    Michelle McKay
     
  • Executive Assistant
    Andrea Powley
     
  • Deputy Chief Executive Officer/Executive Manager Strategy, Planning & Performance
    Sarah Murray
     
  • Executive Manager Mental Health, AOD & Procurement
    Tamira Pascoe
     
  • Executive Manager Primary Care & Integration 
    Wendy Dolejs
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