Deputy Director-General
Dr Helen Brown
Dr Helen Brown is the Deputy Director-General of Clinical Excellence Queensland.
She graduated in medicine from the National University of Ireland, Galway and moved to Queensland in 2001. She completed her neurology fellowship with the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian and New Zealand Association of Neurologists and was awarded a Master of Philosophy from Griffith University in 2011.
Dr Brown has extensive clinical and leadership experience with over 20 years of experience working in hospitals across Queensland Health. Her roles have included Director of Neurology and Stroke at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and Clinical Director of the Neurosciences Division at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. She has been in her current role since 2022.
Helen is passionate about ongoing education. She was the Queensland Chair for the Australian and New Zealand Association for Neurologists (ANZAN) Education and Training Committee from 2014 to 2022 and is a senior lecturer with the University of Queensland. Her area of sub-specialty clinical and research expertise is stroke, and she is a former co-chair of the Queensland Stroke Clinical Network within Clinical Excellence Queensland.
Executive Director, Health Contact Centre
Victoria Chalmers
Victoria Chalmers is the Executive Director of Queensland Health’s Health Contact Centre. In this role she leads a 24/7, multi-disciplinary virtual care operation delivering 16 statewide services. With more than two decades in senior public sector roles, Victoria brings expertise in designing and managing safe, sustainable, and person-centred health services that optimise complex contact centre environments and combine people, process and technology.
Victoria has a Bachelor of Commerce, Postgraduate Certificate in Library and Information Studies and a Masters’ of Public Sector Management. She has experience in fostering collaborative, high performing teams and translating organisational strategy into measurable outcomes for consumers and staff. She has guided the Health Contact Centre through expansion and modernization, providing expert advice on channel management and multi-channel service delivery to meet consumer needs.
Executive Director, Health Service Evaluation, Research and Translation Branch
Damien Searle
With over 30 years’ experience working in hospitals and health departments in both Queensland and Victoria, Damien brings a wealth of operational knowledge and leadership capability to his current role as Executive Director for the Health Service Evaluation, Research and Translation Branch, Clinical Excellence Queensland.
Damien has health and business qualifications from the Queensland University of Technology. He has demonstrated the ability to successfully deliver wide-scale transformation and improvement in healthcare throughout his career. Some of his key achievements include leading key organisational reform programs aimed at improving equity and access to clinical services across the state and leading state-wide innovation programs. Damien led the development of the latest Queensland Health vision, HealthQ32. Most recently, Damien played a lead role in shaping the government’s health component of the Putting Queensland Kids First initiative.
Damien has a broad range of skills which include clinical services redesign, strategic and operational management and planning, policy and program development and improvement and implementation sciences. His previous executive leadership roles in Queensland Health have included being the Assistant Deputy Director-General within Clinical Excellence Queensland and Executive Director of Queensland Health’s Reform Program.
Executive Director, Healthcare Improvement Unit
Michael Zanco
Michael Zanco is Executive Director of the Healthcare Improvement Unit at Queensland Health. He works with health services, clinical networks and other leaders to make healthcare better and easier for people to use.
Throughout his career he’s worked closely with clinicians, executives and policymakers to improve care for patients. With a background in public hospital administration and corporate policy and investment, he focuses on making healthcare fair, high quality, and available to everyone.
Executive Director, Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch
Dr John Reilly
Prior to being the Executive Director, Dr John Reilly was Queensland’s Chief Psychiatrist.
He's been a general adult psychiatrist since 1992, working in many clinical roles in Victoria and Queensland. He was previously Medical Director of the Mental Health Service Group (MHSG) at Townsville Hospital, where from 2012, his clinical work was primarily addiction and forensic.
John is currently chair of the RANZCP Faculty of Addiction Psychiatry Committee.
Learn more about Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drugs Branch.
Executive Director, Patient Safety and Quality
Kirstine Sketcher-Baker
Kirstine Sketcher-Baker is Queensland Health’s Executive Director of Patient Safety and Quality. In this role she works predominately with health care executive, clinicians, consumers and other key stakeholders to minimise patient harm, reduce unwarranted variation in health care and achieve high-quality patient-centred care.
Kirstine has a statistical background with a longstanding interest in patient safety and quality of care in hospitals. She has extensive experience in Australia and overseas introducing tools and systems to monitor and improve patient care.