Our People

Prof Natasha Smallwood is the Professor and Director of Respiratory Medicine at the Alfred Hospital (Melbourne) and School of Translational Medicine at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia). In addition to her respiratory qualifications, she holds postgraduate qualifications in Medical Leadership, Epidemiology and Palliative Care.

Prof Smallwood has authored over 150 publications and been awarded approximately $12 million as major research grants. She has clinical and research interests in severe lung disease, particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and interstitial lung disease.

Prof Smallwood is the President for the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, a past Board Director for the Victorian Doctors Health Program (Australia), and holds multiple leadership roles. She is a taskforce member for various national and international respiratory guidelines. She recently worked with the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare to develop the first ever national clinical care standard in respiratory medicine for people with COPD.

Dr James Fingleton is Clinical Director Sub-speciality Medicine and a respiratory physician at Wellington Hospital. He has a sub-specialist interest in asthma and COPD and was lead for the previous NZ National Asthma audit. He is a Fellow of the Thoracic Society of Australia New Zealand (TSANZ) NZ branch and Co-Chief Investigator of the Australia New Zealand Respiratory Audit Program (ANZRAP).

James also teaches as a Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Otago, Wellington and is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board and Asthma and COPD guidelines committees of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation New Zealand.

Dr Jennifer (Jenny) Alison is Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, previously Professor of Respiratory Physiotherapy, University of Sydney and Professor of Allied Health, Sydney Local Health District. She has supervised 28 PhD students to completion and was awarded an Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning.

Jenny is a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society and Fellow of Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ), was awarded the TSANZ 50 th Anniversary Medal for Education and Training and an Inaugural Lung Health Legends Award, Lung Foundation Australia. Jenny has extensive experience in leading large multi-site funded clinical trials and has over 230 publications, h-index 41. Jenny has a strong commitment to improving outcomes for people with chronic lung disease.

Prof John Blakey is the Head of Department of Respiratory Medicine at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth. He is the medical advisor for Asthma Australia and is proud to be working as part of a multi-professional team towards halving asthma admissions in Australia. John is a Clinical Professor at Curtin University Medical School and has a record of award-winning health services research.

Ms Catherine Buchan is a Respiratory and Sleep Nurse Consultant at Alfred Health and clinician researcher and PhD candidate in respiratory research@Alfred, School of Translational Medicine, Monash University. She holds postgraduate qualifications in critical care and a Master of Nursing Science. Catherine has clinical and research interests in people with advanced lung disease, particularly acute and chronic respiratory failure, utilising non-invasive respiratory supports and managing challenging symptoms such as severe breathlessness, to improve outcomes. Catherine is a Fellow of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, a current board director, chair of the clinical care and resources subcommittee and President-elect of the Victorian branch.

Dr Jack Dummer is a respiratory physician working at Dunedin Hospital in New Zealand where he has led projects to improve care for patients with COPD, including better links between primary and secondary care. He has published research in areas including the delivery of healthcare for people with COPD, pharmacoepidemiology and inhaler safety, airway inflammation and breath analysis, and inhaled drug development. He also chaired the working group that developed the TSANZ position statement on the diagnosis and treatment of lung disease associated with alpha one-antitrypsin deficiency.

Mr John Harrington is a Registered Nurse leading respiratory nursing for Hunter New England Area Health as the Clinical Nurse Consultant for Airway Disease. Significant roles are developing a multi-disciplinary approach to airway disease, developing new models of care for COPD, asthma and Pleural disease. John is a Professional Member for the NMC and an affiliate with HMRI Breathing for Life Program.

A/Prof Joy Lee leads the Asthma and Allergy Unit at the Austin Hospital and consults for Melbourne Allergy Asthma & Immunology Consultants, as well as in the public sector at the Alfred Hospital and Monash Medical Centre. She has a special interest in the management and treatment of allergic diseases, including allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma. She has experience in the use of immunotherapy for grass pollen and dust mite allergy as well as monoclonal antibody treatments for severe asthma and urticaria.

Dr Lee has a PhD with the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University. Her thesis focus was on improving asthma inhaler usage and difficult to control asthma. She has also undertaken research on epidemic thunderstorm asthma.

Dr Lee is an investigator in clinical trials for therapies in asthma and allergic nasal disease. Her research has been recognised with awards from both the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand and the National Asthma Council. She is a sought-after speaker, media expert and medical educator.

Dr Jessica Nash is an early career Respiratory & Sleep physician, currently working in Perth, WA. She is the final stages of her PhD exploring the use of audit and feedback to improve the quality of lung cancer care, undertaken with the LUCAP (Lung Cancer Clinical Quality Data Platform) team. She is interested in all aspects of lung cancer, including multidisciplinary team decision making and lung cancer screening, and believes that all patients should have access to best practice and equitable healthcare.

A/Prof Vidya Navaratnam is a respiratory physician and trained epidemiologist. Her research interests focus on utilising routinely collected health data (including the use of electronic healthcare records) to conduct large-scale epidemiological studies and health services research in people with chronic lung disease.

Ms Betty Poot is a Nurse Practitioner at Te Whatu Ora Capital Coast and Hutt Valley and adjunct teaching fellow at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand (NZ). She is a committee member of the TSANZ NZ branch and is a TSANZ fellow. With extensive experience in both patient care and clinical leadership, Betty has been on working groups, contributing to the development of best-practice guidelines in Asthma, COPD and Bronchiectasis.

Betty has a particular interest in bronchiectasis, actively contributing to research to enhance patient outcomes. Betty also leads nurse-led clinics, providing expert care, education, and support to patients with complex respiratory conditions in a multidisciplinary team setting.

As dedicated advocate for nursing, Betty is committed to promoting advanced nursing practice and nurse-led services particularly in respiratory nursing. Betty actively supports the profession, working to elevate the visibility, recognition, and impact of respiratory nurses in multidisciplinary teams.

Dr Amy Pascoe is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Group at Monash University and Alfred Health in Melbourne, Victoria. Her research interests include symptom-supportive care, health service delivery, and healthcare equity in chronic respiratory disease.

Dr Lena Ly is a Post-doctoral Research Assistant in the Chronic Respiratory Disease Research Group at The School of Translational Medicine, Monash University and Alfred Health (Melbourne, Australia). She is the project manager of the Australia New Zealand Respiratory Audit Program (ANZRAP). Lena completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2025, exploring the benefits of non-pharmacological approaches for people with severe non-malignant lung diseases, such as singing for lung health programs. Her research interests include advanced chronic respiratory diseases (particularly chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) and palliative care.

Dr. Sanjay Ramakrishnan is a respiratory physician and clinician scientist at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and the University of Western Australia. He specializes in asthma and COPD exacerbations, focusing on improving biological assessment and biomarker-guided treatments for these critical conditions. After training in Australia, he earned his PhD at Oxford University. He led multiple groundbreaking clinical trials in COPD during his time in Oxford. His research has led to national and international guideline change.

Sanjay is the current deputy convenor of COPD TSANZ Special Interest Group. He also has extensive editorial experience, acting as a COPD associate editor for Respirology, member of the COPD editorial board at Chest, and a junior editor for the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Now based in Perth, he leads his research group, aiming to ensure biomarker-guided treatment for every patient, in every clinical setting.

A/Prof Stephen Milne is an Associate Professor at The University of Sydney, a specialist Respiratory and Sleep Physician at Westmead Hospital, and is one of Australia’s emerging leaders in respiratory health. After completing clinical and PhD research training in Sydney, Stephen undertook a four-year postdoctoral research fellowship at the Centre for Heart Lung Innovation in Vancouver, Canada. He now leads the Airways Diseases Biology Group in the Ludwig Engel Centre for Respiratory Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, Sydney. Stephen’s research combines clinical, physiological, and molecular profiling of patients with airways diseases, with the aim of developing personalised treatments for people living with these conditions. He is a highly collaborative researcher and mentor to junior medical and research trainees.

A/Prof Eli Dabscheck is a respiratory and sleep physician at Alfred Health. He is the co-chair of the Australian COPD guidelines (COPD-X). A/Prof Dabscheck contributed as an invited expert on the COPD care standards. A/Prof Dabscheck co-wrote the COPD section for the Therapeutic Guidelines.

Dr Stuart Jones is a Respiratory and Sleep Physician working for Te Whatu Ora at Counties-Manukau where he started in 2008 and is the current clinical head of the department. He has been an active member of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand, having served on the local NZ executive from 2010-2020 and previously holding the position of Branch President between 2017-2019. He was a board member of the society from 2017-2023. Stuart served as Medical Director for the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ between 2017 and 2021 and still sits as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board to the Foundation. He has been a member of the writing committee for the New Zealand Asthma and the New Zealand COPD Guidelines and was on the organising group of the first National Asthma Audit. Stuart is passionate about New Zealander’s respiratory health and is committed to seeing the burden of respiratory disease in our community drop.

Dr Annie Walker is a specialist respiratory and sleep physician at the Central Adelaide Local Health Network in South Australia, having completed her specialist training at The Royal Adelaide and The Alfred Hospitals. She is currently completing a PhD through Monash University, examining new models of integrated palliative care and breathlessness management for people with lung cancer.

She has a post-graduate degree in medical education and is a clinical senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide. She serves on the executive committee for the South Australia and Northern Territory Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ), as well as the National TSANZ Lung Cancer Working Party. Her clinical and research interests include breathlessness, non-invasive ventilation and integration of palliative care in lung cancer and advanced respiratory diseases.

Prof Vanessa McDonald is a Professor of Nursing in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Newcastle, Australia and an honorary clinical nurse consultant in the Department of Respiratory and Sleep Medicine at John Hunter Hospital. She is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Asthma Treatable Traits, and the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s Asthma and Breathing programme.

Vanessa’s research interests are centred around the development of innovative approaches to the management of chronic airway diseases. She is passionate about the development and implementation of personalised medicine strategies that place the person at the centre of health care delivery.

Over 25 years Vanessa has developed expertise in respiratory clinical nursing practice and education, has contributed extensively to respiratory health advocacy and health policy and, is recognised as an internationally recognised respiratory researcher having published over 250 manuscripts or book chapters. She is committed to improving the health and quality of life of people with lung disease in our region and internationally, and to the mission of lung health.

Associate Professor Shivanthan Shanthikumar is a paediatric respiratory physician and researcher specializing in childhood asthma. He is the lead of the Complex Asthma service at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and head of the Respiratory group at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. Associate Professor Shanthikumar is passionate about bridging the gap between scientific discovery and clinical practice, ensuring that new insights translate into tangible benefits for patients. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, authored to paediatric asthma guidelines through the Paediatric Improvement Collaborative, assessed quality of asthma care in Victoria, and served as a clinical lead of the SaferCare Victoria Improving Childhood Asthma Management program. He regularly delivers education to clinicians regarding childhood asthma. He also works closely with consumers via multiple collaborations with Asthma Australia. Through his clinical care, research, education, and advocacy, Associate Professor Shanthikumar hopes to significantly reduce the burden associated with childhood asthma.