Governance

Steve is a paramedic, expedition leader, geographer, and writer with research interests in remote, polar, and space medicine. His experience spans humanitarian operations, high altitude expeditions, flight retrieval, and ambulance development. Steve has led over 20 remote expeditionary teams in areas including the Everest region, the Sahara and Kahlari deserts, and the Mongolian Steppe. Steve has published over 30 articles in international journals and media, and in 2019 he was awarded the IAFCCP Tim Hynes Award for exemplary service and the Qbank everyday hero award for his work establishing remote clinics in low GDP countries. Previous to this Steve was a soldier who served in East Timor and Iraq.

Currently, Steve is a lecturer at Griffith University School of Medicine (paramedicine) and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Fellow of the Wilderness Medical Society. In 2020 he launched the Medics Beyond Borders initiative to bridge health care gaps in low GDP countries.

Dr Belinda Flanagan has been involved in various areas of health since 1990 and over this period has gained extensive experience in the healthcare, emergency medical services, and education sectors.

Prior to her appointment as a university academic /researcher, Belinda was an Advanced Care Paramedic with both the NSW and Qld Ambulance Services and a Registered Nurse /Midwife with NSW and Qld Health. Her qualifications include a Ph.D. (Paramedicine), Masters in Midwifery, Bachelor of Science (Nursing), various ambulance and teaching qualifications and she is close to completing a Master’s in Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Belinda’s future interests include the development of healthcare programs in the Asia Pacific region that target prehospital management of maternal and child health responses. She develops paramedic clinical practice through her page Birth in Paramedic Care.

Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, and the second person to graduate medical school with quadriplegia in Australia. Dinesh earned a Bachelor of Laws (LLB), prior to completing his Doctor of Medicine (MD) at Griffith University and has completed an Advanced Clerkship in Radiology at Harvard University. Halfway through medical school, he was involved in a catastrophic motor vehicle accident that caused a cervical spinal cord injury. As a result of his injury and experiences, Dinesh has been an advocate for inclusivity in medicine and the workplace generally. He is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia.

Dinesh is currently a resident medical officer at the Gold Coast University Hospital, a lecturer at Griffith University and an adjunct research fellow at the Menzies Health Institute of Queensland. He has research interests in spinal cord injury, particularly with novel rehabilitation techniques.

Dinesh was the Gold Coast Hospital's Junior Doctor of the Year in 2018 and was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019. He was the third Australian to be awarded a Henry Viscardi Achievement Award and was the Queensland Australian of the Year for 2021.

Kate is an accomplished clinical and performance psychologist with over 15 years' experience. She has worked with elite sporting teams, corporate leaders, members of Australia’s Special Forces and television personnel. Kate is accustomed to helping individuals and teams optimise their performance in high-risk and high-stress environments, including operational work in Afghanistan and East Timor throughout her Army career, and recent humanitarian work in Bangladesh. Kate has coached many professional sports teams and organisations to develop cohesion and strengthen mental acuity, including the Australian Federal Police, Manly Sea Eagles, Parramatta Eels, the Australian Defence Force, NSW Police, Qantas, Telstra and the ABC. She has also worked on a number of television shows as a psychological coach and profiler, including Shark Tank, the NRL Rookie, and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here.

Kate is a registered clinical psychologist and has completed her Doctorate of Clinical Psychology at Macquarie University as well as a Master of Philosophy and Bachelor of Psychology (Honours).
Kate’s passions lie in the outdoors; climbing, hiking, mountaineering and exploring. Bringing together her professional background and working in remote environments, Kate and Survive collaboratively developed the ACCE Psychological First Aid training, which has now been tested and rolled out to international audiences. Kate can be found at drkatebaecher.com

Captain Sean Golding has worked in the Airline industry for over 30 years and is currently an Instructor Trainer and Flight Examiner on the Boeing 787. With a focus on human factors and safety, he has held various positions including Director of Safety for the Australian Airline Pilots Association and Member of the Human Performance Committee for the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA). In 2019 Sean commanded the Qantas Project Sunrise record-breaking flight, non-stop from New York to Sydney, as part of ongoing research into the effects of fatigue on ultra-long haul flying.

Sean also works as a Paramedic in the private sector and sits on the Board of Directors for State Medical Assistance, as well as chairing their Compliance, Risk and Audit Committee.

With his strong aviation safety background, Sean has adapted those principles to the health industry and developed training programs for safety, fatigue and human factors. Having been appointed as an Associate Instructor for the Effective Management of Anaesthetic Crises program through ANZCA, he now instructs at the Sydney Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre at Royal North Shore Hospital.
 

Dr Brent Systermans is a rural generalist registrar with extensive experience in working in austere and remote environments. He has had a varied medical career that has led him to work in every state of Australia as well as New Zealand, Ireland, Nepal, and China. Brenton has travelled to Antarctica with the Australian Antarctic Division as an Expedition Medical Practitioner, worked out of a tent at Everest Base Camp looking after the Sherpa and climbers at the Himalayan Rescue Association's Everest ER, and undertaken humanitarian aid work in the Simpson Desert with the Australian Army.

Brent also works periodically as a trekking leader having guided climbs of Mount Kilimanjaro, treks to Everest Base Camp and across remote parts of Europe and Australia. Brent is actively involved in sharing his passion for these environments through his work as a lecturer at the University of Tasmania (UTAS). There he teaches into the UTAS Healthcare in Remote and Extreme Environments Program. In his spare time, Brent is a keen mountaineer, skier, trail runner and cyclist.

Scott Jones is a critical care flight paramedic who has worked for the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) since 2007. Previous to this Scott worked as a paramedic in California and was a US Marine for 8 ½ years.

In 2020 Scott moved to Vanuatu where he worked as a critical care flight paramedic and clinical manager for ProMedical Ambulance Service. Scott was instrumental in developing the service's first set of clinical guidelines and worked with the local officers to enhance their clinical capabilities. During his yearlong rotation, Scott retrieved patients from some of the most remote islands in the pacific region. Scott believes in education and development and he actively promotes prehospital education through his Paramedic Inc. Facebook page and the Free Radicals Paramedic podcast.

Leanne is a dual qualified Nurse / Paramedic with experience in humanitarian health care delivery. Between 2017 and 2019 Leanne led three humanitarian medical teams into remote communities in Nepal and facilitated the primary health delivery to over 900 people.

Back home Lee has worked at numerous ambulance stations in remote areas acting in the role of station officer. She also moonlights as an emergency nurse in the emergency departments of regional hospitals. In these roles, Lee enjoys the opportunity to provide mentoring and leadership to new graduates. In 2019 Lee completed her post-graduate studies in Emergency Health and Critical Care.