Meet the team

Kathy Kirby

Director

Registered Nurse │ Expert in Aged Care Leadership

Kathy Kirby is a highly experienced Registered Nurse and aged care leader with over 20 years of experience across acute, sub-acute, community and aged care settings. Her diverse clinical and leadership background has provided her with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities across the health and aged care sectors.

With extensive experience in clinical care, project management and senior leadership roles, Kathy brings a practical and compassionate approach to supporting organisations, teams and older people. She is passionate about building capability within teams, mentoring emerging leaders and supporting services to deliver safe, person-centred and high-quality care.

Focus Areas

• Dementia support - Kathy is a Certified Positive Approach to Care Teacher and has extensive experience in providing care and services for people living with dementia across the care continuum, including developing new programs and implementing contemporary models of care.
• Palliative and end of life care – Kathy is experienced in managing the complex needs of individuals nearing the end of life, ensuring care is compassionate, respectful and aligned with the person’s preferences.
• Leadership, coaching and mentoring – Kathy takes a team-based approach and is dedicated to sharing her extensive knowledge and skills with others to build capability within teams. Her expertise in coaching and mentorship supports both new and experienced practitioners to develop their clinical and leadership skills.
• Crisis management – Kathy has proven success supporting aged care facilities under sanction notices, particularly during challenging periods such as the COVID-19 pandemic, helping organisations meet regulatory requirements while maintaining high standards of care.
• Change management – Kathy has extensive experience leading both health and aged care teams through change implementation, often aligned with meeting and exceeding accreditation standards. She is particularly skilled in supporting leaders and coaching others to play a key role in driving sustainable change.

Kate Lamont

Director

Occupational Therapist │Expert in Quality and Safety in Aged Care

Kate Lamont is an experienced Occupational Therapist and leader with over 20 years of experience in clinical care, health service management, and quality improvement. With a Master’ s in Health Services Management Kate is known for leading policy, improvement and clinical governance initiatives that enhance safety, dignity, and quality of life for older people.

Her work spans public health, state government, and aged care services, with a strong focus on consumer-centered care, workforce development, and continuous improvement. A passionate educator and mentor, Kate empowers teams to deliver best-practice care and drive meaningful change across the sector.

Focus Areas

• Dementia support - Kate is a Certified Positive Approach to Care Teacher and has extensive experience in providing care and services for people living with dementia across the care continuum, including a focus on environmental design and implementing contemporary models of care. Kate is also trained in the COPE program (Care of People with Dementia in their Environment).
• Occupational Therapy - With over 20 years’ experience working as an occupational therapist, Kate has clinical experience across emergency, acute, subacute, aged care and community continuums. Her passion is supporting people living with dementia.
• Leadership, coaching and mentoring - Kate has further qualifications in training and assessment, organisational coaching and leadership coaching. She currently provides online and in-person support to a range of health and aged care leaders, including new and experienced quality managers working in regional and remote locations.
• Quality, safety and improvement - Kate has extensive experience in policy development, project management and quality improvement across public health, aged care services and state government. She has led large organisational change initiatives and has particular skill in stakeholder management and building team capability.
• Change management - Kate has extensive experience leading both health and aged care teams through change implementation, often aligned with meeting and exceeding accreditation standards. She is particularly skilled in supporting leaders and coaching others to play a key role in driving sustainable change.

Gaby Brodbeck

Registered Nurse │ Consultant and Trainer

Gaby Brodbeck is a highly skilled aged care nurse with a background in psychiatric nursing. She has over 30 years of diverse experience, with the last 20 years focused on aged care continuous improvement, working in advisory, management, quality and workforce education roles.

Gaby brings specialised expertise in continence nursing, dementia support, psychological and behavioural support planning, and consumer assessments – ensuring care is both person-centred and clinically sound. She also leads our worker wellbeing program, facilitating The Lift Project.

Focus Areas

• Dementia support – Gaby is a Certified Positive Approach to Care Teacher and has extensive experience in providing care and services for people living with dementia across the care continuum. She is highly skilled in training staff and supporting teams in the area of changed behaviours and behaviour support plans.

• Continence care – Gaby is highly skilled in assessing, managing and educating staff on continence care, promoting dignity and improved outcomes for older adults. She has expertise in working with teams to identify underlying issues for incontinence and implementing sustainable organisational changes to improve continence care.

• Education and training – Gaby has extensive experience in training and building capability in the aged care workforce. She has the ability to develop training content relevant to the needs of her learners and deliver it in a practical way that translates into sustainable practice change.

• Aged care quality and safety – Having worked in aged care quality, safety and compliance roles for the last 20 years, Gaby has well-developed skills in leading teams to identify areas for improvement and supporting them to make changes.

• Worker wellbeing – Gaby is certified to deliver The Lift Project – a 10-session program focused on improving wellbeing and mood through simple evidence-based strategies. With her extensive knowledge of the aged care and healthcare sector, Gaby is well versed in delivering this training to support the care workforce.

Anita Panayiotou

Consultant │ Improvement Specialist │ Neuropsychologist

Focus Areas

• Dementia expertise – As a registered Neuropsychologist, Anita has extensive experience supporting people with cognitive decline and dementia. She has also led several large-scale quality improvement and research projects in which she has implemented and investigated best practice for people living with dementia. She holds an appointment at the Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne, where she continues to collaborate and conduct research.

• Organisational change and culture – Anita has experience in organisational psychology and has worked supporting service areas and teams to improve team and organisational culture for ongoing improvement, as well as recruitment for longevity.

• Education and training – Anita has had extensive experience in training and building capability in health and aged care leaders. She has the ability to develop training content relevant to the needs of her learners and deliver it in a practical way that translates into sustainable practice change.

• Mentoring and coaching – Anita has well-developed skills in leading teams to identify areas for improvement and supporting them to make changes. She is skilled in supporting new and existing leaders to develop and enhance their leadership skills.

• Quality and service improvement – Anita is highly skilled in clinical governance and improvement practice, having been trained in the IHI Model for Improvement, as well as training and supporting healthcare leaders to learn and implement this model for sustainable change.

Amy Parker

Consultant │ Trainer │ Physiotherapist

Focus Areas

• Policy development and evaluation – Amy has experience leading and delivering policy-related programs that inform, implement and evaluate initiatives aimed at improving outcomes for older people across health systems.

• Evidence translation and implementation – Amy is experienced in working with health and aged care teams to translate research and evidence into practical, implementable approaches that support consistent, high-quality care for older people.

• Clinical governance, quality and safety – Amy has extensive experience supporting the design and strengthening of clinical governance frameworks, quality and safety systems, and accountability structures to improve care delivery and reduce risk.

• Quality and service improvement – Amy is highly skilled in quality improvement, having worked with aged care teams across the care continuum to identify issues and implement improvements for sustainable change.

Sarah Sida

Quality Consultant │ Registered Nurse

Focus Areas

• Clinical governance and risk management – Sarah brings strong expertise in building and strengthening clinical governance frameworks that keep services safe, accountable and aligned with regulatory expectations. She works closely with leadership teams to identify risk, improve oversight processes and embed practical systems that support safe clinical decision-making. Her approach focuses on translating governance requirements into clear, workable processes staff can actually use in day-to-day practice.

• Aged care compliance – With deep knowledge of the evolving regulatory landscape, Sarah supports providers to interpret and operationalise the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards. She helps organisations move beyond theory by developing realistic implementation plans, reviewing current practice and identifying compliance gaps. Her work ensures services feel confident not just at audit time but in maintaining consistent, ongoing compliance.

• Mentoring and coaching – Sarah has well-developed skills in leading teams to identify areas for improvement and supporting them to make changes. She is skilled in supporting new and existing leaders to develop and enhance their leadership skills.

• Quality and service improvement – Sarah is highly skilled in quality improvement, having led aged care teams to identify issues and implement improvements for sustainable change. 

Vanja Simic

Quality Consultant │ Trainer  │ Registered Nurse

Focus Areas

• Education and training – Vanja has had extensive experience in training and building capability in the aged care and health workforce. She has the ability to develop training content relevant to the needs of her learners and deliver it in a practical way that translates into sustainable practice change.

• Quality and risk – Vanja has held numerous Quality and Risk Manager roles within both private and public hospitals across Melbourne. She understands and has driven compliance around the NSQHS and ISO 9001 Standards. She has developed and implemented robust Risk Management Frameworks and worked with staff on significant quality improvement projects.

• Mental Health First Aid – Vanja is a Licensed Mental Health First Aid Instructor, facilitating training in the Standard and Older Persons Mental Health First Aid offerings. She teaches the key skills required to identify, understand and help someone who may be experiencing a mental health issue or who might be in crisis.

• Leadership, coaching and mentoring – Vanja takes a team-based approach and is dedicated to sharing her extensive knowledge and skills with others to build capability within teams. She is a mentor for the Faculty of Nursing at La Trobe University and works periodically to help mentor the next generation of nurses.

Jo Spence

Consultant │ Trainer  │ Community Engagement Expert

Focus Areas

• Volunteer engagement and management – Jo has extensive experience in developing and overseeing volunteer programs for both large metropolitan health and aged care services, as well as smaller regional and rural services. Jo was a recipient of the Volunteer Manager Award of Excellence by the Australasian Association for Managers of Volunteers. She has a knack for thinking outside the box and working with service areas to develop creative and meaningful programs to support patient and resident care.

• Consumer and community engagement – As a community engagement expert, Jo has led the development and ongoing management of several consumer advisory groups. This has included creating and developing partnerships with community organisations to connect local groups with local health and aged care services. Jo has skills in governance, consumer engagement and leading co-design.

• Leadership, coaching and mentoring – Jo has skills in leadership coaching, supporting health and aged care leaders who oversee volunteers and community engagement to develop knowledge, skills and confidence. She is a highly sought-after mentor for new and experienced leaders overseeing consumer engagement.

• Change management – Jo has extensive experience in leading both health and aged care teams to implement change. This has been aligned to initiatives involving volunteer teams or opportunities to partner with community groups for improved patient and resident outcomes, often aligned to health and aged care quality standards.