46 Key Nursing Leaders in Australia and New Zealand

Last updated: June 2026

Nursing in Australia and New Zealand shapes the health of more people than any other single profession in the two countries. As of June 2026, there are more than 420,000 registered nurses in Australia alone, representing over 40 percent of the entire health workforce, and no major episode of care is delivered without them. The leaders on this list are the people shaping what nursing becomes next. They span Commonwealth and state government, peak professional bodies, research universities, rural and remote communities, and clinical wards. They include the voices setting national workforce strategy, the researchers whose work has changed how stroke is treated in 18 countries, and the community nurses who have built care models reaching 2,000 people in Central Australia who had previously been without consistent access.

Rather than recycling the familiar names that appear on every healthcare list, I put together this directory to surface the leaders genuinely shaping the nursing conversation in Australia and New Zealand right now. Each person was selected for a documented, fact-checked contribution to nursing leadership, active engagement with the nursing conversation in 2025 or 2026, and a focus on ANZ-specific context rather than global generic voices.

Why does this matter? Australia's Nursing Supply and Demand Study 2023 to 2035 projects a baseline shortfall of approximately 71,000 nurses by 2035, a forecast that makes the quality of nursing leadership today a direct determinant of whether the health system can sustain itself. Across the Tasman, New Zealand is managing the structural reform of Health New Zealand while simultaneously expanding scope of practice for nurse practitioners and building a nursing workforce that reflects the tikanga and health equity priorities of Aotearoa. The leaders in this list are doing the work.

If your organisation is looking for support building the leadership capability of your nursing and healthcare team through workshops, keynotes, or executive offsites, reach out to Jonno White at jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Nursing Leadership in ANZ Has Never Mattered More

The nursing profession in Australia and New Zealand sits at a structural inflection point. The forces converging in 2026, a growing workforce shortfall, a fundamental expansion of nursing scope of practice, a national nursing workforce strategy being developed for the first time in Australia's history, and a renewed political commitment to nurse-led care in primary settings, are all arriving at once.

The Nursing Supply and Demand Study 2023 to 2035 forecasts a shortfall of approximately 71,000 nurses by 2035 under baseline conditions. Every piece of evidence on workforce retention points to the same variable: leadership quality is the primary determinant of whether nurses stay in the profession. The nurses who leave are not primarily leaving because of pay. They are leaving because of poor management, inadequate clinical leadership, and the absence of a clear sense that their contribution is valued and their voice is heard.

In New Zealand, the establishment of Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora as the national health authority has concentrated nursing leadership in ways that create both risk and opportunity. The appointment of a National Chief Nurse for the first time, the reform of professional development and recognition programmes, and the sustained advocacy of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation have all reshaped the environment in which nursing leadership operates.

In Australia, the registration of the scope of practice review recommendations, the passage of legislation enabling registered nurse prescribing in certain settings, and the creation of inaugural Chief Clinical Adviser (Nursing) roles at the Australian Digital Health Agency and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care all signal a profession being repositioned at the centre of health system strategy rather than at its operational edge.

The leaders on this list are driving those changes.

How This List Was Compiled

Each leader on this list was selected for a documented, fact-checked contribution to nursing leadership in Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand. The criteria covered active engagement with the nursing leadership conversation in 2025 or 2026, from published research and policy submissions to clinical innovation and professional advocacy, alongside confirmed current roles and a deliberate effort to include the full geographic and disciplinary breadth of nursing leadership across both countries. The list spans national policy architects, state and territory chief nurses, academic researchers, remote area nursing leaders, clinical innovators, and professional body executives from across Australia and New Zealand.

Category 1: National Nursing Policy and Peak Bodies (Australia)

The leaders in this category sit at the intersection of government, professional college, and regulatory oversight. They set the direction for what nursing looks like at a national level, advise Ministers, lead workforce strategy, and represent the profession in the rooms where health policy is made.

1. Alison McMillan

Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing

Adjunct Professor Alison McMillan PSM is the Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, a role she has held since November 2019. With more than 40 years of experience as a registered nurse, she provides strategic policy advice to Ministers and the Department on nursing, midwifery, health system reform, workforce regulation, and education. She holds the Public Service Medal, awarded in 2021 for her leadership of Australia's national health response during the COVID-19 pandemic, and holds adjunct professor appointments at the University of Canberra and Monash University.

McMillan is currently leading the development of Australia's first National Nursing Workforce Strategy, an initiative that positions the profession's workforce challenges as a national priority requiring coordinated action across government, education, and industry. Her active LinkedIn presence and ongoing commentary on nurse-led care models and primary healthcare reform make her one of the most visible government nursing voices in the country.

2. Kathryn Zeitz

Australian College of Nursing

Adjunct Professor Kathryn Zeitz PhD FACN became CEO of the Australian College of Nursing in late September 2024, bringing a background in acute hospital operational management, clinical governance, and nursing research. She completed her PhD in clinical nursing at the University of Adelaide in 2003 and has contributed to nearly 50 peer-reviewed publications. Prior to joining ACN, she served as Deputy CEO of the Central Adelaide Local Health Network, South Australia's largest health network.

In her first year as CEO, Zeitz has been a consistent public voice on registered nurse prescribing reform, scope of practice, and the sustainable use of nursing capacity in primary and community care settings. Her frequent LinkedIn activity and participation in the 2026 ACN Policy Summit signal an executive who understands that ACN's credibility depends on visible, substantive public engagement.

3. Frances Rice

Australian College of Nursing

Frances Rice was appointed as ACN's Chief Nursing Officer in June 2025, stepping into the role as the national registered nurse prescribing standard came into effect. She has since become one of the most visible voices on nurse prescribing, speaking across media on what the reform means for patients, particularly in primary and preventive care settings. Her commentary combines clinical authority with policy literacy, and her appearances on behalf of ACN reach both healthcare professionals and policy audiences.

Rice's position sits at the interface of the professional college and the public conversation about what nurses can do. Her appointment reflects ACN's decision to invest in a dedicated clinical voice at the executive level, distinct from the CEO's strategic and governance focus.

4. Anna Thornton

Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care

Adjunct Professor Anna Thornton was appointed as the inaugural Chief Nursing Officer at the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care in April 2024. Prior to this appointment, she served as Executive Director of Nursing at St Vincent's Hospital Network and held Director of Nursing positions at Liverpool Hospital, Canberra Hospital, and Prince of Wales Hospital. In November 2023 she received the Judith Meppem Lifetime Achievement Award at the NSW Health Excellence in Nursing and Midwifery Awards.

At the Commission, Thornton manages the Communicating for Safety and Comprehensive Care Programs, providing expert clinical nursing advice across Australia's national patient safety architecture. Her creation of the CNO role at the Commission signals institutional recognition that nursing expertise must sit permanently within the bodies that set quality and safety standards.

5. Karen Booth

Australian Digital Health Agency

Karen Booth became the inaugural Chief Clinical Adviser (Nursing) at the Australian Digital Health Agency in September 2024, having previously served as President of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association. She has participated in numerous Australian Government health policy advisory groups, including the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce. Her background spans primary and preventive care, chronic disease management, clinical governance, and digital health adoption.

Booth's appointment fills a critical gap: nurses are the most numerous users of electronic health records and clinical information systems in Australia, yet nursing perspectives have historically been underrepresented in the governance of digital health infrastructure. Her role ensures that the Agency's digital health strategy is developed with the input of someone who has spent more than two decades working as a primary care nurse.

6. Annie Butler

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation

Annie Butler has served as Federal Secretary of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation since June 2018, leading the largest trade union in Australia, which represents more than 300,000 nurses, midwives, and assistants in nursing. Her advocacy has centred on safe staffing levels, nursing wage equity, and the conditions of aged care nursing. The ANMF's sustained campaign for mandatory care minutes in residential aged care, which led to the minimum 200-minute requirement commencing under the Aged Care Act 2024, represents one of the most significant nursing advocacy wins in the sector's recent history.

Butler's influence operates through evidence-based submissions to Senate inquiries, media commentary, and the Federation's organising power across every Australian state and territory. Under her leadership, the ANMF has become a principal voice in national health reform conversations that extend well beyond industrial relations.

7. Sally-Anne Jones

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation

Sally-Anne Jones serves as Federal President of the ANMF, working alongside the Federal Secretary to set the organisation's strategic priorities and represent the collective voice of its 300,000-plus membership. She brings a clinical nursing background and professional leadership experience to the role, with a particular interest in advancing nurses and midwives as agents of change within health systems.

Jones's public role complements the Federal Secretary's media and advocacy presence with a focus on member representation and governance. Together, the ANMF Federal Leadership Team operates as a cohesive voice on the workforce, clinical, and policy questions that affect every nurse and midwife in Australia.

8. Catelyn Richards

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation

Catelyn Richards is the Federal Assistant Secretary of the ANMF, stepping into national nursing leadership as the Federation navigates some of its most consequential advocacy years. A registered nurse, Richards brings clinical credibility to the Federation's national advocacy and policy work alongside the senior executive team.

Her appointment to the Federal Assistant Secretary role marks a generational transition in the ANMF's leadership and signals the Federation's commitment to renewal at the top of the organisation while maintaining continuity of mission.

Category 2: State and Territory Nursing Leaders (Australia)

Australia's federated health system means that much of the most consequential nursing leadership happens at the state and territory level. These leaders set the direction for nursing workforces that collectively cover tens of thousands of nurses and midwives across hospitals, community health services, and primary care.

9. Emma Saddington

Victorian Department of Health

Emma Saddington is the Chief Nurse within the Victorian Department of Health, a role that gives her influence over the direction of nursing policy, workforce strategy, and professional leadership for Victoria's public and community health systems. Her career has included leading statewide reforms, contributing to the development of Australia's first National Nursing Workforce Strategy, and representing Australia internationally through the Global Nursing Leadership Institute, where she was recently inducted into the GNLI Hall of Fame.

Saddington's position within the Department of Health, distinct from Safer Care Victoria's nursing officer role, means she operates at the intersection of government policy and the nursing profession's strategic direction across the state.

10. Karrie Long

Safer Care Victoria

Karrie Long is the Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer at Safer Care Victoria, the state's healthcare quality and safety improvement agency. With nearly 20 years of experience driving health delivery innovation, she provides professional leadership, advice, and direction to Victoria's health sector. Her background spans clinical practice in intensive care, education, digital health, research, and senior leadership at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where she served as Director of Nursing Research and Interim Chief Nursing Officer. She was an inaugural recipient of the Florence Nightingale Foundation's Dame Yvonne Moores Global Leadership Scholarship.

Long's role focuses on embedding nursing leadership within quality and safety improvement, connecting the profession's clinical expertise to the governance systems that protect patients across Victorian health services.

11. Heather Keighley

CRANAplus

Heather Keighley was appointed in December 2025 as the inaugural Chief Remote Area Nurse at CRANAplus, the peak professional body for remote and isolated health practitioners. Her career has included roles as Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for the Northern Territory Department of Health, Executive Manager Health Workforce at the Northern Territory Primary Health Network, Director of Nursing and Midwifery for Top End Health Service, and Chairperson of the National Rural Health Alliance.

The creation of this inaugural Chief RAN role reflects the scale of the remote nursing workforce challenge. Under Keighley's leadership, CRANAplus is pursuing an ambitious plan to deliver 1,000 nationally accredited nurses and midwives prepared for remote practice by 2031, a workforce pipeline initiative that, if realised, would materially change the availability of qualified nursing care in Australia's most underserved communities.

12. Ann Aitken

CRANAplus

Dr Ann Aitken is the Chair of CRANAplus, bringing a PhD and extensive experience in remote health to the governance of Australia's peak body for remote and isolated health practitioners. Her leadership at CRANAplus has included advocating at the federal government level for a nationally recognised, postgraduate, rural and remote generalist nursing and midwifery program, a reform that would create a sustainable pathway for nurses to be trained and retained in remote areas.

Aitken's combination of academic credibility and remote health practitioner background positions her as one of the most substantive voices on the workforce conditions that determine whether remote Australians have access to nursing care at all.

13. Alison Weatherstone

WA Country Health Service

Alison Weatherstone is the Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery at WA Country Health Service, one of Australia's largest and most geographically complex health services. Her career has included national policy roles, including contributing to the development of the National Consensus Framework for Rural Maternity Services and serving as Chief Midwife at the Australian College of Midwives, where she represented more than 5,000 members nationally. She was named a 2026 HESTA Australian Nursing and Midwifery Awards finalist for her transformative midwifery leadership and contribution to equitable maternity care in rural and remote Western Australia.

Her work sits at the intersection of nursing and midwifery policy and the operational challenge of delivering safe, equitable care across a geographically dispersed population that covers more territory than most countries.

14. Anna Love

Safer Care Victoria

Anna Love is Victoria's Chief Mental Health Nurse, operating within Safer Care Victoria's Clinical and Professional Leadership team. She provides leadership and promotes collaboration between the Victorian Government and the mental health nursing profession, representing mental health nurses at all levels of government and across all health service sectors.

Love's role addresses one of the most persistent gaps in nursing visibility: mental health nurses are among the largest nursing specialty groups in Australia but are frequently underrepresented in both nursing leadership conversations and public health policy discussions. Her advocacy for the mental health nursing profession within Victoria's quality and safety architecture is a model for how specialty nursing voices can be embedded in governance.

Category 3: Academic Nursing Research and Education (Australia)

The researchers and academics in this category generate the evidence that drives nursing practice, shape the next generation of nursing leaders, and contribute to the policy frameworks that determine how the profession develops. Their influence extends well beyond Australia.

15. Brendan McCormack

University of Sydney

Professor Brendan McCormack is Head of School and Dean of the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sydney, one of Australia's highest-ranked nursing schools. His internationally recognised research focuses on person-centred healthcare, particularly the development of person-centred cultures, practices, and processes. He has authored more than 700 publications, including 310 peer-reviewed journal articles and 14 books, and holds an h-index of 56 as of 2026. In 2025, he received the prestigious Paul Tournier Prize for his three-decade contribution to person-centred healthcare through research, leadership, and culture change. In 2024 he was appointed to the Lancet Global Commission on People-Centred Healthcare.

McCormack's person-centred practice framework is used by health systems and nursing education providers across the world, and its particular resonance in Indigenous, Maori, and Pacific health settings, where deficit-focused clinical approaches have caused harm, makes it especially relevant to the ANZ context.

16. Tracey Bucknall

Deakin University and Alfred Health

Professor Tracey Bucknall is a Deakin Distinguished Professor, Co-Director of the Centre for Quality and Patient Safety Research at the Institute of Health Transformation, Deakin University, and holds a joint appointment as Foundational Chair in Nursing and Director of Nursing Research at Alfred Health. Her research focuses on patient safety, clinical decision-making, and the implementation of research into clinical practice. She has been inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame of Sigma International and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She serves on the NHMRC Public Health and Health Systems Committee 2024 to 2027.

With more than 8,500 citations and 307 publications as of 2025 to 2026, Bucknall's work as a decision scientist in healthcare directly informs how nursing leaders and health systems approach the challenge of translating evidence into clinical practice. Her dual appointment spanning a university and a major health service means her research remains grounded in the operational realities of care delivery.

17. Sandy Middleton

Australian Catholic University

Distinguished Professor Sandy Middleton, based at Australian Catholic University in New South Wales, has built a body of research on stroke nursing leadership that has reshaped clinical practice across Australia and 18 other countries. Her leadership of the QASC Trial demonstrated that nurse-led protocols for fever, hyperglycaemia, and swallowing management after stroke reduced death and dependency. The implementation of those protocols has changed what nurses are expected to do at the bedside after a stroke event, and the evidence base she produced has shaped clinical guidelines internationally.

In May 2026 she was named a HESTA Australian Nursing and Midwifery Awards finalist, recognition of a contribution to evidence-based nursing practice that goes far beyond the usual scope of academic research.

18. Lauren Elizabeth Lines

Flinders University

Associate Professor Lauren Elizabeth Lines at Flinders University brings together nursing research and child protection in ways that have produced concrete national policy outcomes. Her work focuses on improving outcomes for children and families experiencing adversity, building nursing and midwifery workforce capacity to prevent child abuse through national policy frameworks and co-designed practice tools. She was named a 2026 HESTA Australian Nursing and Midwifery Awards finalist.

Lines represents the growing category of nurse researchers who are using the profession's deep reach into community and primary settings to address public health challenges that fall outside the traditional scope of hospital nursing. Child protection, domestic violence, and family adversity are areas where nurses are frequently the first and sometimes only professional to have consistent contact with families in crisis.

19. Naomi Dobroff

Monash Health

Associate Professor Naomi Dobroff serves as Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Officer at Monash Health and chairs the Chief Nursing Informatics Officers Faculty at the Australian College of Nursing. She is a Fellow of both the ACN and the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, and is recognised nationally and internationally as the person who has most consistently built the discipline of nursing informatics in the Australian context.

Dobroff's contribution is specifically about making nurses active architects of the digital health systems they use, rather than passive adopters. In a context where nurses are the most numerous users of electronic health records and clinical information systems, her work on nursing informatics governance ensures that nursing expertise shapes the design and deployment of technology rather than simply adapting to it.

20. Ann Bonner

Griffith University

Professor Ann Bonner is Head of the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Griffith University, where she sits on the Board of the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery (Australia and New Zealand). Her research background spans kidney health nursing, workforce development, and clinical governance, and she holds honorary appointments at Aarhus University in Denmark and Queens University Belfast. She has more than 30 years of experience across the health and higher education sectors.

Bonner's governance role at CDNM places her at the table where nursing education policy in Australia and New Zealand is shaped. The Council's decisions about nursing education standards directly influence the quality of the nursing graduates entering the workforce.

21. Marion Eckert

Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, Adelaide University

Professor Marion Eckert is the Director of the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre, a multidisciplinary nursing and midwifery research centre that has earned recognition as Australia's first Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health. Her research spans cancer nursing, nurse-led skin cancer screening in rural and regional Australia, patient safety, and workforce innovation. In 2026 she was named a South Australian of the Year finalist. In 2025, the Rosemary Bryant AO Research Centre under her direction won the HESTA Outstanding Organisation Award for its work screening more than 500 people in rural areas through Australia's first free nurse-led skin cancer pop-up clinics.

Eckert is among the most active nurse researchers on LinkedIn, regularly posting about health workforce data, skin cancer prevention, and the evidence base for nurse-led care. Her work demonstrates that nurse-led clinical innovation is not confined to hospitals or metropolitan centres.

Category 4: Clinical Nursing Innovation and Award-Recognised Leaders (Australia)

22. Ty Simpson

Alfred Health

Ty Simpson is the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) Cell Therapy at Alfred Health in Melbourne. He was named the 2025 HESTA Australian Nurse of the Year for his contributions to nursing education and patient care in a highly specialised field that was previously delivered almost entirely by medical staff. His leadership extended to the Australasian CAR-T Nursing Group, fostering collaboration among more than 120 nurses across Australia and New Zealand, and his CAR-T study days and protocol reviews have improved both nursing competence and patient safety in this field.

Simpson represents the growing cohort of specialist clinical nurse leaders who are building the evidence base and workforce capability for complex contemporary therapies, doing the detailed work of translating cutting-edge treatment into consistent, safe, nurse-led clinical practice.

23. Helen Lamech

Healthy Living NT

Helen Lamech is a registered nurse and diabetes educator based in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, with more than 30 years of nursing experience across Central Australia. Working with Healthy Living NT, she developed a peer-mentored community network of more than 100 families, introduced diabetes technology and education to communities facing significant social, geographical, and cultural barriers, and established the region's first nurse-led type 1 diabetes clinic. Her work has directly improved the lives of more than 2,000 people. She was named the 2026 HESTA Nurse of the Year.

Lamech's contribution is a reminder that nursing leadership in Australia's most under-resourced communities requires not just clinical expertise but the ability to build community trust, navigate cultural complexity, and sustain a programme over decades. The outcomes she has produced, measurable improvements in diabetes management for people who had previously been without consistent specialist access, are exactly the kind of evidence that makes the case for nurse-led care in primary and community settings.

24. Rochelle Bonning

Campbelltown Hospital, South Western Sydney Local Health District

Rochelle Bonning is a senior midwife at Campbelltown Hospital in New South Wales, recognised in May 2026 as the HESTA Australian Midwife of the Year. With 30 years of midwifery service at Camden and Campbelltown Hospital, she co-founded the Camden and Campbelltown Midwifery Group Practice and established an antenatal outreach clinic in Macquarie Fields to support vulnerable families. In 2025, following more than a decade of advocacy, she led the successful implementation of Campbelltown's publicly funded homebirth program, positioning the hospital as one of only 17 nationally to offer this service.

Bonning exemplifies the nursing and midwifery leader who builds sustainable change at the system level not by moving into management but by staying close to practice and using clinical credibility to drive structural reform. Her three decades of sustained advocacy for continuity-of-care midwifery models produced a public homebirth program that no manager mandate could have achieved alone.

25. Haley Hodgson

Access Health Clinic

Haley Hodgson is a registered nurse and nurse practitioner candidate who founded Access Health Clinic in Broken Hill, New South Wales, in 2025. The clinic is a walk-in, same-day, nurse-led primary care service that sees more than 300 patients per week, maintains average wait times under three minutes, and offers bulk-billed consultations. Entirely self-funded, the model has reduced unnecessary hospital presentations and improved chronic disease management in a regional community that has historically had limited access to primary care. In 2025, Hodgson won the APNA Positive Disruptor Award for her nurse-led primary care innovation.

The Access Health Clinic model is one of the most concrete demonstrations currently operating in Australia of what expanded nurse practitioner scope of practice and genuine nurse-led primary care looks like when freed from the structural and funding constraints that restrict most primary care nursing. Hodgson was also named a 2026 HESTA Outstanding Organisation finalist.

Category 5: New Zealand National Nursing Leaders

New Zealand's nursing leadership landscape has been reshaped by the formation of Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, the restructuring of the Ministry of Health's nursing functions, and sustained workforce advocacy from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation. These leaders sit at the heart of that change.

26. Nadine Gray

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora

Nadine Gray (Te Whakatohea) is the National Chief Nurse for Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, appointed to the inaugural role in July 2024. Her background spans emergency nursing, tertiary nursing education, Maori health strategy, and national nursing workforce development. She was previously Chief Nursing Officer at Te Aka Whai Ora, the Maori Health Authority, and Clinical Chief Advisor Nursing at the Ministry of Health. She holds a Master of Health Science (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland and published research on nurse practitioner practice co-design in January 2026. She was named the Aged Care Association NZ Nurse of the Year 2025.

Gray's appointment as National Chief Nurse represents both the recognition of nursing leadership at the highest levels of New Zealand's health system and a commitment to ensuring that the nursing workforce reflects the cultural values and health priorities of Maori whanau. Her mother, Janet Maloney-Moni, was Aotearoa's first Maori Nurse Practitioner, and Gray's own career carries forward that legacy of Maori nursing leadership.

27. Lorraine Hetaraka

New Zealand Ministry of Health

Lorraine Hetaraka (Ngati Kahu, Te Arawa, Ngaiterangi, Ngati Ranginui) is a Clinical Chief Advisor of Nursing at the New Zealand Ministry of Health, having joined the Chief Nurse's Office in March 2021. Her prior roles include Chief Executive of Te Arawa Whanau Ora, senior nursing roles in Primary Health Organisations, and Associate Director of Nursing at Auckland District Health Board in a joint appointment with the University of Auckland. Her master's degree from the University of Auckland was awarded with first class honours.

Hetaraka's position at the Ministry ensures that Maori health perspectives and nursing policy intersect directly at the level of national health strategy. Her background in primary care nursing and Maori health governance makes her voice central to discussions about how the nursing workforce can address the persistent health inequities facing Maori communities.

28. Kerri Nuku

New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Kerri Nuku serves as Kaiwhakahaere of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (Topunga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO), one of the two co-leadership roles at the top of the organisation. She provides strategic and professional leadership on behalf of NZNO's 58,000-plus members, with a particular focus on Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and the advancement of Maori and Pasifika nursing workforce equity. She is among the most vocal advocates for safe staffing conditions in New Zealand's public hospitals, regularly providing public commentary on short-staffing data and patient safety implications.

Nuku's voice has become central to the public nursing debate in New Zealand at a time when Health New Zealand's financial constraints have placed nursing workforce conditions under sustained pressure.

29. Paul Goulter

New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Paul Goulter has served as Chief Executive of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation since early 2022. His background in union leadership, including prior roles at NZEI Te Riu Roa (the primary teachers' union), has been applied to one of the most challenging advocacy environments in NZNO's recent history, including prolonged bargaining disputes with Health New Zealand over staffing and wage conditions. Under his leadership, NZNO has maintained its position as the principal voice for nurses' industrial and professional interests at a time of significant structural change in New Zealand's health system.

Goulter represents the type of nursing leadership that operates primarily through coalition-building and collective bargaining rather than clinical authority, and his effectiveness has been demonstrated in a series of difficult disputes where nursing workforce conditions were at stake.

30. Anne Daniels

New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Anne Daniels is the President of the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, elected by the membership to represent their professional and industrial interests alongside the Kaiwhakahaere and Chief Executive. Her public statements on safe staffing have consistently grounded the advocacy conversation in the lived reality of understaffed wards and the patient safety consequences of inadequate nursing numbers.

Daniels's role as a nurse leader elected by and from the membership gives her a legitimacy with the frontline nursing workforce that appointed executives do not automatically carry. Her contributions to NZNO's policy and advocacy positions represent the organised voice of New Zealand's largest nursing and midwifery union.

31. Frances Hughes

Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora Board / University of Auckland

Dr Frances Hughes is one of the most internationally experienced nursing leaders from the Asia-Pacific region. She is a Board Member of Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora, appointed in July 2025 as part of the reconstituted governance structure. Her prior roles include Chief Nurse of New Zealand, Chief Executive of the International Council of Nurses in Geneva where she represented the nursing profession across more than 130 countries, and Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer for Queensland Health in Australia. She is currently a professor at the University of Auckland specialising in mental health nursing leadership.

Hughes's depth of experience, spanning direct clinical practice, professional association leadership at the global level, and now health system governance in New Zealand, makes her one of the most complete nursing leadership voices in the region. Her specialisation in mental health nursing fills a gap that most nursing leadership discussions in ANZ do not adequately address.

32. Jill Clendon

Health New Zealand Te Waipounamu

Dr Jill Clendon is Regional Clinical Director for Primary and Community Care, Service Commissioning, at Health New Zealand Te Waipounamu (South Island). She is also Chair of Nurse Executives Aotearoa, the peak leadership body for senior nurse executives across New Zealand. Her career has spanned clinical nursing, primary health policy research as Policy Analyst at NZNO, public health, and executive leadership across multiple health settings. She holds a PhD in nursing from Massey University and has co-authored nursing textbooks including the widely used Community Health and Wellness text.

Clendon's combination of clinical practice, policy expertise, and current executive leadership in one of New Zealand's most complex primary care commissioning environments positions her as a sophisticated voice on the design and leadership of nurse-led care in community and primary settings.

Category 6: New Zealand Nursing Research, Education, and Regulation

33. Denise Wilson

Auckland University of Technology

Professor Denise Wilson is Professor of Maori Health, Associate Dean Maori Advancement, and Co-Director of the Taupua Waiora Maori Health Research Centre at Auckland University of Technology. Her research focuses on Maori health equity, Indigenous health workforce development, and the intersection of Maori cultural values with nursing practice and education. Her work has contributed to national policy frameworks on Maori nursing workforce development and cultural safety in nursing education.

Wilson's contribution to nursing leadership in New Zealand sits at the intersection of research evidence and the cultural safety obligations that underpin all nursing practice in Aotearoa. Her work on Maori nursing identity and workforce development directly addresses the pipeline challenge that New Zealand's health system must solve to build a nursing workforce that reflects the communities it serves.

34. Stephen Neville

Auckland University of Technology

Professor Stephen Neville is a nursing professor, researcher, and advocate at Auckland University of Technology, where he has contributed to the national profile of New Zealand gerontology nursing research since the early 1980s. He co-created the AUT Centre for Active Ageing in 2015. He holds honorary professorships at Western Sydney University, Edith Cowan University, and the University of Canberra, and serves as Associate Editor of the Australasian Journal on Ageing and Editor of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. In January 2026 he was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to nursing and gerontology research.

Neville's contribution to nursing leadership is through the evidence base he has built for nursing practice with older adults, a population that represents the fastest-growing demand on both the Australian and New Zealand health systems. His MNZM recognition in 2026 reflects national acknowledgement of a career that has genuinely changed how nursing care for older people is understood and delivered.

35. Ngaira Harker

Nursing Council of New Zealand

Ngaira Harker is the Board Chairperson of the Nursing Council of New Zealand (Te Kaunihera Tapuhi o Aotearoa), the statutory authority responsible for the registration of nurses and the protection of public safety through nursing regulation. The Council delivered a public apology in 2025 to survivors of abuse in state and faith-based care, reflecting governance leadership that acknowledges the historical harms enabled by failures in professional oversight.

Harker's role as Board Chair places her at the governance centre of nursing regulation in New Zealand, responsible for the standards of competence and the cultural safety obligations that determine how nurses are trained and held accountable.

36. Jenny Carryer

College of Nurses Aotearoa

Professor Jenny Carryer is Professor Emerita at Massey University and a founding Fellow of the College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ). She chairs the Nursing Futures Taskforce, a cross-sector nursing leadership coalition that provides strategic direction and coordinates nursing advocacy responses to emerging health system challenges in New Zealand. Her contributions to nursing policy in Aotearoa span nurse practitioner scope of practice, primary care nursing workforce development, and the intersection of nursing leadership with Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.

Carryer's voice carries the weight of decades of sustained contribution to both the academic and policy dimensions of nursing leadership in New Zealand, and the Nursing Futures Taskforce she chairs operates as an influential coordination mechanism for senior nursing leaders across the sector.

Category 7: Pacific, Global, and Expanding Scope

37. Amelia Tuipulotu

World Health Organization

Dr Amelia Latu Afuhaamango Tuipulotu, from the Kingdom of Tonga, is the WHO Chief Nursing Officer, appointed in December 2022 and based in Geneva. She is responsible for embedding nursing and midwifery policy within universal health coverage, emergency preparedness, and workforce strategy across 194 WHO member states. Her work directly shapes the Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery and the implementation of the findings from the WHO 2025 State of the World's Nursing report. For ANZ nursing leaders, particularly those working in the Pacific and with Indigenous and Pacific communities, Tuipulotu represents the most influential nursing policy voice in the world, and one with direct cultural and geographic resonance with this region.

As a Pacific woman from Tonga holding the most globally significant nursing leadership role on the planet, her appointment is itself a statement about what nursing leadership can look like when the profession's diversity is treated as a strength rather than a footnote.

38. Chris Raftery

Australian College of Nursing

Adjunct Professor Chris Raftery FACN is a Board Director of the Australian College of Nursing and a well-respected, published, and endorsed nurse practitioner based in Queensland. He is the former national President of the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners and a strong advocate for nursing in Queensland and nationally, particularly on the development and growth of advanced practice nursing and the role of nurse practitioners in the health system. He is Deputy Chair of the Queensland Clinical Senate and contributes to health policy, strategy, reform, and regulation at the local, state, and national levels.

Raftery's work on advanced nursing practice and nurse practitioner scope of practice sits at the centre of one of the most consequential policy debates in Australian nursing in 2026: how far the profession's scope can be extended to address primary care access gaps and specialist shortfalls.

39. Zachary Byfield

Australian College of Nursing

Dr Zachary Byfield MACN serves as National Director of Nursing Education at the Australian College of Nursing, bringing a background as a registered nurse and former enrolled nurse with experience across both higher education and vocational nursing education settings. Having previously served as Discipline Lead for Nursing at TAFE NSW, Byfield contributes to ACN's nursing education policy and curriculum frameworks and sits on several health-related boards.

Their perspective on nursing education across both higher education and vocational pathways is particularly valuable at a time when Australia's workforce strategy requires diversified entry routes into the profession. Byfield's commitment to evidence-based practice and teaching reflects ACN's focus on developing the next generation of nursing leaders from entry level upward.

40. Andrea Jansen

Australian College of Nursing

Andrea Jansen MACN is a registered nurse and the host of the ACN Podcast, where her leadership-focused interview series brings the voices of nurse leaders from across Australia and beyond to a national nursing audience. Her work building accessible, high-quality nursing leadership content through the podcast represents a form of nursing community leadership that complements formal institutional roles with broad peer-to-peer reach.

Jansen's contribution reflects the growing importance of content-led nursing leadership, where practitioners with credibility and communication skill build influence across the profession through media and community engagement rather than through positional authority alone.

Category 8: Nursing Informatics, Digital Health, Innovation, and Regulation

41. Pam Doole

New Zealand Ministry of Health

Pam Doole is a senior nursing advisor within the Chief Nurse's Office at the New Zealand Ministry of Health, bringing long experience in nursing leadership across the Ministry, the Nursing Council of New Zealand, and Hutt Valley District Health Board. She joined the Chief Nurse's Office in 2020 after a career that included serving as Director of Strategic Programmes at the Nursing Council, where she advised on nursing registration standards, scope of practice reviews for enrolled nurses, and the framework for extended practice for registered nurses.

Doole's depth in nursing regulation and workforce development, built across both the regulatory and clinical governance dimensions of the profession, makes her an important voice within the Ministry's nursing leadership architecture. Her focus on the registration and professional development of internationally qualified nurses addresses one of the most pressing practical challenges in New Zealand's nursing workforce strategy.

42. Kate Renzenbrink

Bendigo Health

Kate Renzenbrink is the Chief Nursing and Midwifery Information Officer at Bendigo Health in regional Victoria and a member of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health. Her role sits at the intersection of clinical nursing practice and digital health system implementation, ensuring that nursing and midwifery expertise shapes how digital tools are deployed and used in a regional health service context.

Renzenbrink represents the growing cohort of senior nurses who have developed genuine expertise in digital health systems and informatics, moving the profession beyond passive adoption of technology into active governance and design of the digital health infrastructure that nurses rely on every day.

43. Rhonda Wilson

University of Newcastle

Honorary Professor Rhonda Wilson is a Wiradjuri woman, experienced nurse, and internationally recognised mental health nursing scientist at the University of Newcastle. Her work in e-health is focused on digital therapeutic interventions that promote and support patient-centred care and wellbeing. She brings together Indigenous health perspectives, mental health nursing expertise, and digital health innovation in ways that address some of the most complex intersections in contemporary nursing practice.

Wilson's work on digital therapeutics for mental health nursing represents a category of nursing innovation that is still largely invisible in mainstream nursing leadership discussions, but which has significant implications for how mental health services reach populations that have traditionally been underserved by conventional delivery models.

44. Christine Stirling

University of Tasmania

Professor Christine Stirling is Head of School of Nursing at the University of Tasmania, where she leads the Transforming Research in Ageing theme, prioritising partnerships to improve health for older people through improved aged care and health services, evidence-based nursing practice, and workforce development. She holds qualifications in nursing, a Master of Public Administration, and a PhD, and ensures the University of Tasmania's nursing program prepares a future-ready nursing workforce.

Stirling's position in Tasmania gives her a perspective on regional nursing education that is often missing from national conversations dominated by metropolitan universities. Tasmania's rural and remote health challenges, combined with its high rates of chronic disease and ageing population, make her work on nursing education and aged care research directly relevant to the policy challenges facing the Australian health system.

45. Tracey Morgan

New Zealand Nurses Organisation

Tracey Morgan is the Primary Health Care Spokesperson for the New Zealand Nurses Organisation, providing public commentary and policy advocacy on the state of primary health care nursing in New Zealand. In December 2025, she commented publicly on NZNO survey data showing that 80 percent of respondents had considered leaving the primary care sector, and that 78 percent had experienced increased workload in recent years. Her voice gives primary care nursing a sustained presence in New Zealand's nursing leadership conversation.

Morgan's role as a specialist spokesperson for primary care nursing reflects NZNO's recognition that primary care nurses face distinct workforce challenges and require dedicated advocacy separate from the acute hospital nursing agenda.

46. Helen Nielsen

Nursing Council of New Zealand

Helen Nielsen is a registered nurse and clinical tutor with more than 40 years of experience in the profession, appointed in February 2026 as a member of the Nursing Council of New Zealand's Board. Her extensive background in nursing education through a range of academic roles positions her as a voice for education-focused nursing leadership within New Zealand's primary regulatory body for the profession.

The Nursing Council's governance function, setting and monitoring nursing standards in the interests of public safety, depends on the presence of people who understand nursing practice from both its clinical and educational dimensions. Nielsen's appointment reflects the Council's commitment to drawing on the full breadth of nursing career experience in its governance.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

The most prominent international voices in nursing leadership, including figures like Howard Catton at the International Council of Nurses, Dr Rose Sherman in the United States, and the nursing leadership team at the World Health Organization, carry enormous influence in the global conversation. This list moved past those voices to focus specifically on the ANZ context.

Among those seriously considered from within Australia and New Zealand were several clinical nursing directors working within individual hospital networks whose contributions are substantial but whose public platform remains limited to their immediate systems, a number of nurse practitioner innovators in primary care whose influence is real but whose national visibility is still developing, and several state-level nursing policy advisors whose work shapes practice at scale but who operate below the public line.

The voices on this list were selected precisely because their contributions are both documented and publicly visible. They are not a shortlist of the most senior titles. They are the people whose work, ideas, and advocacy are actually driving the nursing conversation forward.

Common Mistakes in Nursing Leadership Development

The organisations that consistently produce strong nursing leaders share a set of habits. The organisations that struggle to develop nursing leadership make a predictable set of mistakes.

The first mistake is conflating clinical excellence with leadership capability. Promoting the best nurse into a management role without leadership preparation produces two losses: the floor loses its best clinician, and the ward acquires a leader who was never trained to lead. The evidence consistently shows that the transition from expert nurse to nurse manager is one of the most under-supported professional transitions in health care. Peer recognition is not leadership development.

The second mistake is running nursing leadership development as an event rather than a system. A single conference or a two-day workshop does not change how a leader thinks or behaves. Durable leadership development requires a sustained programme with coaching, peer learning, structured practice opportunities, and accountability. The ACN Institute of Leadership's Nurse Executive and Nurse Director programmes are structured around this principle. Organisations that fund one-off events and expect lasting change are consistently disappointed.

The third mistake is excluding nursing leaders from the strategic conversations that affect nursing. When chief nursing officers are excluded from budget discussions, from digital health governance, from workforce strategy planning, the resulting decisions are made without the most important source of operational intelligence about how care is actually delivered. The creation of inaugural Chief Clinical Adviser (Nursing) roles at the Australian Digital Health Agency and the ACSQHC in 2024 represents an institutional correction of this mistake at the national level. The same correction needs to happen across health services and hospital networks.

The fourth mistake is treating workforce wellbeing as separate from leadership quality. The research on nursing turnover consistently points to leadership as the primary variable. Nurses leave their managers before they leave their organisations. An organisation that is experiencing high nursing turnover and is responding with recruitment campaigns, sign-on bonuses, and agency contracts rather than examining the quality of its frontline nursing leadership is addressing a symptom while worsening the disease.

The fifth mistake is assuming that remote and rural nursing leadership can be developed using the same models as metropolitan nursing leadership. The operational context of remote area nursing, clinical isolation, extended scope of practice, cultural safety obligations, and the absence of the immediate peer support networks that metropolitan nurses take for granted, requires leadership preparation that is specifically designed for that environment. The work CRANAplus does through its education programs and the Bush Support Line represents the specialist infrastructure that remote nursing leadership development requires.

Implementation Guide: Building a Stronger Nursing Leadership Culture

The research on what actually moves nursing leadership culture is reasonably clear, and the leaders on this list represent its practical application.

Start with psychological safety. The Nursing and Midwifery Board's standards, the ACN's frameworks, and the body of research produced by leaders like Brendan McCormack on person-centred practice all point in the same direction: nursing leadership cultures that are psychologically safe produce better clinical outcomes, lower turnover, and higher workforce engagement. Psychological safety is not the absence of accountability. It is the presence of a culture where raising concerns, asking questions, and admitting errors are encouraged rather than punished. Building it requires deliberate, consistent, visible behaviour from nursing leaders at every level.

Invest in the middle. Charge nurses, clinical nurse specialists, and nurse unit managers are the leadership layer that shapes the daily experience of every nurse on every shift. They are also the layer least likely to receive structured leadership development, most likely to be promoted without preparation, and most vulnerable to burnout. The organisations producing the strongest nursing leadership cultures are investing systematically in this cohort.

Build your evidence base. The leaders at the top of this list, the CMOs, the state chief nurses, the peak body executives, all operate on the strength of the evidence they can marshal. If your nursing leadership team cannot articulate the research basis for its workforce decisions, its clinical governance frameworks, and its scope-of-practice positions, it will consistently lose to other voices in institutional resource conversations. Sandy Middleton's stroke research, Tracey Bucknall's patient safety work, and Marion Eckert's nurse-led innovation all demonstrate what happens when nursing research is applied at scale.

Connect with the profession. The nursing leadership community in Australia and New Zealand is smaller and more interconnected than it looks from the outside. The ACN, the ANMF, NZNO, CRANAplus, and the Council of Deans of Nursing and Midwifery all convene forums, run conferences, and produce research that nursing leaders can draw on. Isolation from the professional community is a risk factor for leadership stagnation. The leaders on this list are almost all deeply embedded in the professional networks that sustain their influence.

For nursing leadership teams looking to build the clarity, alignment, and communication skills that translate good intentions into real culture change, Jonno White works with healthcare organisations across Australia and internationally to deliver Working Genius workshops, DISC sessions, and executive team facilitation that help nursing leaders understand how their teams are wired to work. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the most influential nurse in Australia in 2026?

The most influential nursing voice in Australian policy is Alison McMillan, the Commonwealth Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, who is leading the development of Australia's first National Nursing Workforce Strategy. In the professional college space, ACN CEO Kathryn Zeitz and Chief Nursing Officer Frances Rice are the most active voices on scope of practice reform. Annie Butler at the ANMF carries the most influence on workforce conditions and industrial advocacy.

Who leads nursing in New Zealand?

The National Chief Nurse of New Zealand is Nadine Gray, appointed to Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora in July 2024. The New Zealand Nurses Organisation is led by Chief Executive Paul Goulter and Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku. Nursing regulation sits with the Nursing Council of New Zealand, chaired by Ngaira Harker.

What are the biggest challenges facing nursing leadership in Australia and New Zealand?

The most pressing challenges are workforce shortfall, scope of practice constraints, geographic inequity in nursing access, and the retention of experienced nurses in the profession. The Nursing Supply and Demand Study 2023 to 2035 forecasts a shortfall of approximately 71,000 nurses in Australia by 2035 under baseline conditions. Scope of practice reform, particularly around nurse prescribing and nurse-led primary care, is proceeding but remains uneven across jurisdictions.

How can nursing leaders develop their leadership capability in ANZ?

The ACN Institute of Leadership offers structured programmes including the Nurse Executive Leadership Program and the Nurse Director Leadership Program, both built around the Nurse Executive Capability Framework. CRANAplus offers specialist development for remote and rural nursing leaders. At the team level, organisations can hire Jonno White, Certified Working Genius Facilitator, to deliver workshops that help nursing leadership teams understand how each member is wired to contribute. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Who are the best nursing leaders to follow on LinkedIn in Australia and New Zealand?

For regular, substantive nursing leadership content, follow Alison McMillan on workforce strategy and primary care reform, Kathryn Zeitz on scope of practice and nursing professional standards, Marion Eckert on nurse-led innovation and digital health, Nadine Gray on Maori nursing leadership and workforce equity, and Naomi Dobroff on nursing informatics. For remote and rural nursing, CRANAplus and Heather Keighley provide the most consistent content.

Final Thoughts

The 46 leaders in this directory are not a neat, self-contained list. They are a cross-section of a profession that is more interconnected, more evidence-driven, and more strategically sophisticated than most health system conversations acknowledge. They cite each other's research. They sit on each other's advisory committees. They advocate for each other's reforms across jurisdictions.

What they share is a conviction that nursing leadership matters beyond the ward. That the profession's reach into every episode of care, every community, every household that touches the health system is a source of policy leverage, research evidence, and system transformation that is consistently underused.

The workforce challenge facing Australia and New Zealand over the next decade is real. A shortfall of 71,000 nurses does not resolve itself. It responds to leadership. The people on this list are doing the leading. Following their work is a reasonable starting point for anyone who wants to understand where ANZ nursing is going.

To discuss how Jonno White can support your nursing or healthcare leadership team through Working Genius facilitation, keynote speaking, or executive offsites, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, author of Step Up or Step Out, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 240+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Sources

Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care (Nursing Supply and Demand Study 2023-2035). World Health Organization (State of the World's Nursing 2025). Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. HESTA Australian Nursing and Midwifery Awards 2025 and 2026. Australian Digital Health Agency. Nursing Council of New Zealand. New Zealand Nurses Organisation. Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora. CRANAplus.

Next Read

The nursing leaders on this list operate within a broader healthcare leadership ecosystem that extends across medicine, allied health, policy, and digital transformation. For the wider picture of who is shaping healthcare leadership across Australia and New Zealand, the healthcare leadership thought leaders directory covers that full ecosystem.

Keep reading: Healthcare Thought Leaders in Australia and New Zealand