Program Presenters
Mark Beaves
Mark is the Head of Quality Assurance Programs at RANZCOG. He has been the Manager of FSEP since its inception in 2003. Mark coordinates the ongoing strategy, research, development, and delivery of the FSEP suite of educational resources. He lectures and writes on fetal surveillance across Australia, New Zealand and internationally.
He has 20 years of experience in performing ultrasound and caring for women with high-risk pregnancies. Mark’s critical care training and Bachelor of Education (Studies) complement his 40 years of clinical nursing and midwifery experience. Mark is currently undertaking a PhD through Monash University.
Allison Thomas
Alli has over 20 years of experience in midwifery, predominantly working within the speciality field of high risk pregnancies and genetic counselling.
She currently works at Monash Health and Mercy Hospital for Women in research positions. Alli has been a clinical educator for the RANZCOG FSEP for over 12 years.
Catherine Lancaster
Catherine has extensive experience in all areas of midwifery practice. For the last 17 years, Catherine has been involved in managing maternity units that cover all areas of practice. These positions required a “hands on” clinical practice and a focus on policy and procedure, to ensure the implementation of best practice guidelines.
In line with this focus, Catherine is committed to the implementation of the RANZCOG IFS Clinical Guideline through the FSEP to improve maternal and fetal outcomes.
Fiona Kane
Fiona has almost 20 years’ experience working as a midwife across various breadths of midwifery in both Ireland and Australia. Currently she works as a midwife educator at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Perth. Fiona holds a MSc Degree from Trinity College, Dublin. She teaches obstetric emergencies for RHW across Western Australia and sessionally for Perth based universities.
Professional interests lie around obstetric emergencies, exercise in pregnancy and obesity in pregnancy.
Isabelle Eadie
Izzy completed her midwifery training in the UK in 2003 but has worked predominantly in the intrapartum setting in tertiary units in New Zealand. For many years she worked as a clinical midwife manager on the Labour & Birthing Unit at Auckland Hospital. Izzy recently worked as a midwifery lecturer at AUT in Auckland and now Izzy’s work time is divided between Auckland Hospital, the NZCOM education team and FSEP.
Teaching has always been Izzy’s passion and she says her favourite aspect of facilitating fetal surveillance education is when participants have those “light bulb” moments.
Jackie Harrington
Jackie has extensive midwifery experience, practicing for 15 years in various tertiary units in the UK; including the prestigious Rosie Maternity unit Cambridge. Since moving to Australia in 2004 she has worked as a Clinical Educator for Monash undergraduates and held the position of Midwifery Educator at Peninsula Health, Frankston for 20 years. She is a skilled clinician having worked in both low and high-risk settings now for over 30 years.
She has a particular interest in the management of Obstetric and Neonatal emergencies and has been a PROMPT facilitator since 2014. Like all the FSEP Clinical Educators, Jackie is passionate about improving outcomes for mothers and babies.
Jennifer D’Arcy
Jen has over 15 years of experience working in all areas of maternity care. For the past 13 years, she has worked at the University Hospital Geelong as a clinical educator working with undergraduate and postgraduate midwifery students. Jen has completed additional training in Teaching and Assessment and works as a senior clinical lecturer for Deakin University.
Jen is passionate about striving to achieve the best outcomes for women and babies through education and empowering others to achieve the same.
Laura Callard
Laura is a registered nurse and midwife with over 16 years experience. She has always specialised in providing holistic midwifery care to women with high risk pregnancies, with a particular interest in Fetal Surveillance and Maternal Fetal Medicine.
Laura has continued her studies with a Master degree in Advanced Nursing Practice – Intensive Care and a Post Graduate Degree in Rural and Remote Health (Scheduled Medicines Endorsement).
In lecturing for RANZCOG, Laura wants to help improve outcomes of women and babies by empowering and educating practitioners and students. She hopes that her lectures inspire practitioners to understand the physiology that generates the “pattern” on the CTG.
Laura is also currently working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service which provides aeromedical care to patients throughout regional, rural and remote areas of Queensland, Northern Territory and New South Wales.
Lauren Dunne
Lauren has been a midwife for over 12 years working predominantly in birth suite, fetal monitoring and high-risk caseload in Darwin, Northern Territory.
She currently works in Western Health as an Associate Midwifery Unit Manager at Joan Kirner W+C birthing and Maternity Assessment Unit.
Mark Benson
Mark has over 25 years of clinical midwifery experience, predominantly as an ANUM in the Birthing Suites at University Hospital Geelong. He has also taught at Deakin University Waterfront for several years, tutoring and assessing both undergraduate nursing and midwifery students, followed by a locum position at Bacchus Marsh Hospital and Epworth Hospital Geelong.
He is passionate about education, especially around anatomy and physiology in the context of the CTG, and in the importance of sharing fetal surveillance knowledge in the setting of current clinical experience. Mark believes strongly in the promotion of safe care for mothers and babies, and improved knowledge and cognition for maternity and obstetric staff alike.
Sarah Hay
Sarah is a Registered nurse and midwife with 24 years’ experience. She has worked across a range of levels of risk and models of care and is passionate about high quality midwifery care for all women, in particular those with complex pregnancies.
Sarah is currently working as a midwifery lecturer at the University of Notre Dame in Western Australia, alongside her fetal surveillance educator role, where her aim is to support clinicians to improve outcomes for women and their babies. Sarah is an active researcher and currently undertaking studies towards a PhD.
Yvonne Brown
Yvonne is a research midwife working both clinically in perinatal/fetal monitoring unit as well as coordinating clinical trials for a busy metro hospital. She has many years’ experience in birthing suites in Geelong and Melbourne. She has a passion for training midwives to upskill in ultrasound.
She firmly believes we need to do more to create mentally and culturally safe workplaces not only for our own health as clinicians, but for better outcomes for women and babies.
Nadia Bardien
Nadia is a registered nurse, midwife, the past Manager of Perinatal Services, and the Manager of Birthing Services at the Mercy Hospital for Women. She is an experienced and skilled clinician, having worked across the breadth of midwifery services from low-risk birthing centres to tertiary hospital settings in South Africa and Australia. She has over 15 years of experience in fetal surveillance and the care of women with high-risk pregnancies. She is an active researcher and holds a Master’s degree from LaTrobe University. Her research interests include late onset growth restriction and fetal Doppler measurements. Currently working at Eastern Health as a clinical midwife consultant across fetal diagnostic services, birthing suite, and fetal surveillance.