Background

Chelsea has a background in paediatric nursing, with a specific interest and experience in maternal child health, refugee and migration health and immunisation. She has a passion for promoting health at a population level and for developing integrated approaches to effectively deliver health services for populations with complex health and social needs.

Chelsea has held roles in various areas of public and primary health, with government institutions and United Nations agencies, coordinating and implementing health and development programs across the Western Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. 

Her prior roles have included most recently a position at the National Centre of Immunisation Research and Surveillance as a Global Health Technical Advisor. In this role, she has been supporting ministries of health in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific, to enhance their immunisation policy development and program design, analysis of vaccine coverage, monitoring of communicable diseases and vaccine safety surveillance. Previous to this, she worked at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where she was the Global Clinical Nurse Coordinator.  Within this role, she was responsible for improving clinical services and standards of care for refugees and migrants being resettled in the framework of IOM’s Global Health Assessment Program.

Within these roles, she has had a primary focus on ensuring equitable health outcomes for diverse, hard to reach and vulnerable population groups.

Qualifications

• LaTrobe University: Nurse Immunizer Program, Melbourne, Australia, November 2011
• University of Melbourne, School of Population Health: Masters of Public Health, Melbourne, Australia, November 2010
• University of British Columbia: Bachelor of Applied Science in Nursing, Vancouver, Canada, April 2001
• New South Wales College of Nursing, NSW Australia: Post Graduate Certificate, Promoting Health in the Community, Sydney, Australia, November 2000

Positions

• National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance: Global Health Technical Advisor, Sydney, Australia, Feb 2022 – July 2023
• Migration Health Department, International Organization for Migration: Global Clinical Nurse Coordinator, Health Assessment Program, Geneva, Switzerland, Nov 2019–Dec 2021  
• Immunisation Section, Victorian Department of Health and Human Services: Senior Policy Advisor and Project Manager, Immunisation Section, Melbourne, Australia, Mar 2011 – Nov 2019
• British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC): Provincial Vaccine Educator (LWP Position), Vancouver, Canada, Aug 2015 - July 2016
• Northern Territory Department of Health: Immunisation Coordinator (LWP Position), Darwin, Australia, Apr 2015 - May 2015
• International Health and Medical Services: Immunisation Manager (LWP Position), Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, Apr 2014 - May 2014
• International Health and Medical Services: Public Health Nurse (LWP Position), Christmas Island Territory, Australia, Sep 2012 - Jan 2013
• Victoria Department of Education and Early Child Development (DEECD): Regional Refugee School Health Coordinator, Melbourne, Australia, Mar 2007 - Mar 2011