Our board

Michael is a GP registrar with an interest in Indigenous health and health policy who currently splits his time between the Royal Australian Navy as a uniformed medical officer and Sans Souci Medical Practice. His research areas are health workforce & training, the use of social media in healthcare and measuring health outcomes. He has a background in the not-for-profit sector and is currently a director of the Postgraduate Medical Council of Queensland and the national Doctors' Health Service as well as being a past director of beyondblue, the Federal AMA and past president of the Australian Medical Students' Association.

Adjunct Associate Professor Lyn Fragar is a Public Health Physician and is currently Chair of the Hunter New England Local Health District. She has previously been the Director of the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety, a research centre of the University of Sydney based in Moree in North West NSW. She has previously been employed as the Area Medical Superintendent overseeing 6 hospitals in the northwest region. She has also spent considerable time working in Papua New Guinea, initially as a Medical Officer, then as a Provincial Health Officer . In 2002 she received the award of Officer of the Order of Australia for pioneering service to rural health care and farm safety issues in Australia. Lyn's other achievements include being awarded the Rotary International Award for Vocational Excellence in 2002, the Australian Medical Association award for 'The best individual contribution to health care in Australia in 1999', the Lou Ariotti Award for Excellence in Innovative Rural Health Research in 1996 and the Australian Hospital Association National Outreach Award in 1987.

Dr Michelle Guppy is Associate Professor of General Practice at the School of Rural Medicine, University of New England, and conjoint with the University of Newcastle. She is a practising GP in Armidale. Michelle has been involved in rural undergraduate medical education in Armidale since 2003. 

Mr Craig Hocking is the Chief Executive Officer at Tamworth Aboriginal Medical Service - an Aboriginal community controlled health service. Craig has over eight years of experience within the Aboriginal health sector at both local and regional levels, with qualifications in Aboriginal studies, business management and human resource management.

Dr Ian Kamerman has been a rural GP supervisor for over 15 years. He is a director of GP Synergy, and General Practice Supervisors Australia. He is a member of the Board of Hunter New England Local Health District, the Australian Medical Association (NSW) Council and the National Medical Training Advisory Network Executive Council. He is currently chair of ACRRM's Professional Development Committee and NSW PESCI panel. He is an enthusiastic supervisor with an interest in training within a patient centred medical home model and addiction medicine.

Professor Liaw is professor of general practice at UNSW, Director of General Practice for SW Sydney Local Health District and Ingham Institute of Applied Medical Research, and sits on the Management Committee of the UNSW Research Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity. An experienced rural GP, he sees patients and supervises registrars at the GP Clinic in the Fairfield Hospital campus. He has a long-standing interest in the health of Indigenous peoples, having worked as a clinician and researcher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health in the Riverland SA, Melbourne, Shepparton and SW Sydney. Prof Liaw is an internationally recognised general practice and health services researcher and educator. He uses mixed methods to research health information systems and informatics-enhanced education and integrated care across the primary, community and acute care sectors, with a focus on chronic disease prevention/management and cross-cultural health. He has received research funding from the NHMRC, ARC, state and federal governments, NGOs and commercial entities. He leads an electronic Practice Based Research Network research and development program in the optimal use of EHR data for research and quality improvement. He leads a current NHMRC-funded multicentre RCT of a cultural respect program in general practices in Melbourne and Sydney (2014-17). He is an investigator in the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in eHealth, APHCRI Centre of Research Excellence in Obesity, ARC-Linkages funded project on home telemonitoring, and a NHMRC-funded project on treatment as prevention in HIV. In his spare time, he chairs the RACGP National Research and Evaluation Ethics Committee, sits on the NSW Health Acute Care Taskforce and performs editorial duties as Associate Editor of the International Journal of Medical Informatics and Journal of Innovations in Health Informatics.

Dr Marles is the Director of the Hornsby - Brooklyn GP Unit and is particularly interested in medical education and Aboriginal health. Liz has previously been a lecturer at the university of Sydney and is the Immediate past President of the RACGP. Liz is also a member of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee.

Harry Nespolon is an experienced Chair and company director.  He is Chair of GP Synergy, and successfully led a tender that has resulted in company becoming the largest GP training provider in Australia. He is the deputy Chair of Sydney North Health Network, a primary health network. He has been Chair of number of organisations including a Division of General Practice and Medicare Local.  He has been a director of Therapeutic Guidelines a for profit organisation.  He holds a Fellowship of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and regularly updates his director’s knowledge.

Harry Nespolon has more than 20 years’ experience in general medical practice.  He is the principal of two general practices in centre of the city of Sydney and the lower north shore for over 14 years.  Before moving to Sydney he worked in general practice in Adelaide and Canberra.

Harry is a member of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioner (RACGP) NSW Council. He is involved in most aspects of general practice training, including a supervisor of General Practice registrars, and involved in most aspects of the RACGP Fellowship exam, including setting standards.  He holds a Fellowship of RACGP.

Harry Nespolon is sought out to provide advice on many aspects of healthcare, including general practice and broader policy issues.  He writes extensive expert reports for medico-legal proceedings. He is a long serving member of several disciplinary committees, including Medicine’s Australia Code of Conduct committee and the Dietitian’s Australia.  He holds law and economics degrees and completed his Masters of Health Law (MHL) from Sydney University in 2015.

Once having completed his Masters of Business Administration (MBA) at the Australian Graduate School of Management he worked as a management consultant advising predominately in insurance and financial areas.  Prior to this he worked as a senior member of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) in the federal office.  He was able to influence several major programs and was in regular contact with senior politicians and bureaucrats.

When he is not working he tries to take his own advice by running after his beautiful daughter and keeping up with his partner.  

Damon is a senior information technology leader. He is currently the Chief Information and Digital Officer for the New South Wales government. Prior to this Damon held a range of leadership positions across Macquarie Group, Woolworths and Westpac Banking Corporation. 

Dr Fiona Robinson has been involved in medical education for many years. She is currently a senior lecturer with the University of Sydney Medical School in which she is involved in coordination and delivery of the general practice (community term) curriculum. Dr Robinson also has significant experience in registrar education and training; she was a medical educator with the former Sydney Institute of General Practice Education and Training (SIGPET) and continues to be regularly involved with GP Synergy as a clinical teaching visitor, presenter and facilitator.  Dr Robinson is also the chair of the Sydney North Primary Health Network Shared Antenatal Care Committee, and the GP lead for the Health Pathways Program.

Dr Yonge graduated with honours degrees in medicine and economics from Sydney University.

His experience includes two years as an emergency retrieval doctor on Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) aircraft.  This was followed by general practice on the Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara lands in South Australia, Barkly cattle stations, Uluru and several remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Currently Dr Yonge is a GP supervisor and practice principle in Port Macquarie with special interests in Aboriginal health, diabetes and clinical governance. He is an examiner and fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), a fellow of the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM), a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a director of GP Synergy.

Dr Yonge enjoys developing new evidence based clinical protocols and promoting rural and remote general practice. He believes in a central and greater role for general practitioners and a clinician-led health industry. Time not spent on these activities is with his partner and young children on their rural property beside the Hastings river and playing tennis!