Executive Committee

Anna Miedecke (President)

Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist, Queensland Children's Hospital

Anna grew up and completed her training in Tasmania. A little extra training in QLD led to getting happily stuck in Brisbane. She is a Paediatric and Paediatric Cardiac Anaesthetist at the Queensland Children’s Hospital. She has been on the Executive of SPANZA since 2016 and has fulfilled the roles of Secretary, Vice President and is the current President.

Her interests include pre-assessment (particularly of cardiac patients for non-cardiac surgery), simplifying management of patients, and in her past life policy, processes and guidelines. She also has an interest in ieMR.

She strives to have fun at work, enjoys teaching and works in private once a week to try to keep some balance. She has a busy home life and enjoys food, travel and almost anything to do with the ocean.

Tanya Farrell (Treasurer and Vice President)

Head Of Department, Perth Children's Hospital

Tanya graduated from Melbourne University in 1995 and worked at RMH for 2 years before moving to Perth for love. Once there, she completed her training including a fellowship at the Royal Children’s hospital, got married, did an MBA and had two children (but not in that order!) She has worked at Perth Children’s Hospital since long before it was called that, and is now the Head of Department. Her interests are in cardiac and neonatal anaesthesia, and service improvement and redesign. She loves a gritty negotiation where everyone manages to get what they need, and she especially loves living in Perth.

Philippa Lane (Secretary)

Senior Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist, Women’s and Children’s Hospital Adelaide

Philippa (Pip) is a Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital Adelaide and has a small private practice. She graduated from the University of Adelaide and spent her resident years indulging her love of travel, including working in Dublin, Ireland for a year. She returned to Australia to start her anaesthesia career in the South Australia and Northern Territory regional anaesthesia training program and completed paediatric anaesthesia fellowships at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne.

She loves her job which includes being part of the scoliosis team, running the WCH peri-operative simulation program and Chair of the WCH/SAMI Vascular Access Service Governing Group.

She is happiest when she is at the beach with her kids or scuba diving with her husband (as long as it is in warm tropical waters!)

Matt Jenke (Member)

Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist, Royal Darwin Hospital

Matt is a Northern Territory Staff Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist based in Darwin. After graduating from The University of Western Australia he journeyed to Melbourne where he developed a cliched passion for anaesthesia, bikes and coffee. After completing his fellowship at The Royal Children’s Hospital, he went troppo and succumbed to the allure of the Never Never. On his way there he had time to explore the power of the subconscious and completed a Diploma of Clinical Hypnosis through the South Australian Society of Hypnosis. Within the paediatric anaesthetic group at Royal Darwin, he takes a special interest in patients requiring management of peri-operative anxiety and is part of the paediatric vascular access team.

Matt enjoys the challenge of mixed anaesthetic practice with days (and nights) serving up anything from neonatal laparotomies to croc bite victims. Being witness to the health inequities that exist in rural and remote areas, Matt has focused on education and developing resources to improve delivery of healthcare throughout the Top End and beyond.

Andrew Martin (Member)

Specialist Anaesthetist, Health Waikato

Andrew is a paediatric anaesthetist in Waikato. He completed his paediatric fellowship at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead in Sydney, before returning to Hamilton where he has a mixed paediatric and adult practice shared between public and private.

His clinical interests include paediatric pain and end of life supportive care and decision making. He is a member of the PANNZ National Committee and has a strong interest in education and furthering the development of paediatric anaesthetic practice in New Zealand.

When not at work, Andrew can be found with his family, skiing, mountain biking, or being walked by their pack of 5 hounds.

Kylie McGregor (Member)

Specialist Anaesthetist, Starship Children’s Hospital, Auckland

Kylie is a Specialist Anaesthetist at Starship Children’s Hospital in Auckland.  Her Anaesthetic training began in Wellington, then Auckland and completed with fellowships in the UK.  Her Paediatric Anaesthetic experience in the UK was at St George’s Hospital in London, the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Kylie’s is part of the Quality-Assurance group at Starship and is involved in providing the weekly and on-call rosters.

Work helps to fund Kylie’s enjoyment of travel, especially to places with amazing scenery and wild-life.

Dr Simon Morphett (Member)

Senior Staff Specialist and Paediatric Anaesthetist, Royal Hobart Hospital

Simon did his undergraduate degree in Adelaide before moving to Sydney for internship. A love of bushwalking took him with his partner to Tasmania and his anaesthetic training was done there albeit with 2 years in the UK. Initially pursuing an interest in adult ICU, paediatric anaesthesia came later when following his partner back to Adelaide for a year in 2006. There he found a position at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital that ended up being partly in the Anaesthetic Department and partly in PICU.

Subsequently pursuing a mixed adult and paediatric anaesthetic practice in Hobart, he has been Clinical Lead of the Paediatric Anaesthesia service at the Royal Hobart Hospital since 2013.

He is interested in the challenges of providing a tertiary level paediatric service in a mixed hospital and in anaesthetic education, including in low resource settings, having made multiple educational trips to Laos with Dr Tom Mohler.

Outside of work he continues to enjoy all the outdoor opportunities on offer in Tasmania (within the limits of an ageing body).

Priya Sreedharan (Member)

Senior Staff Specialist Paediatric anaesthetist, Townsville University Hospital

Priya completed her MD in anaesthesia from the University of Mumbai in 2003. She followed her anaesthetist husband to Townsville in North Queensland and immediately fell in love with the easy pace of life, the breadth of practice the anaesthetic department offered and decided to call it home.

She completed her FANZCA in 2007 and obtained her paediatric anaesthetic fellowship from Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne in 2012. She then joined the faculty back in Townsville and was lucky enough to oversee the establishment of PICU and the formation of the paediatric anaesthetic group in the department. She has been the clinical lead of paediatric anaesthesia at TUH since 2015 and takes great pride in the growth of this group with the inclusion of some amazing paediatric anaesthetists from all over the world.

She is passionate about promoting paediatric anaesthetic skills in regional centres and making the perioperative experience a smooth one for the families. She very much enjoys her mixed anaesthetic practice across public and private sectors but does find high risk obstetric anaesthesia stressful.

Outside of work, Priya is passionate about travelling, baking and cooking and treats her colleagues and friends with home cooked goodies regularly.

Catherine Olweny (Co-opted)

Consultant Anaesthetist, Registered Counsellor & Clinical Hypnotherapist, Royal Children’s Hospital

Catherine studied medicine at Flinders University of South Australia and was part of the first cohort of graduate medical students in Australia. Catherine is a staff specialist anaesthetist at the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne with a special interest in the prevention and management of procedural anxiety and distress and the prevention of medical trauma. She is passionate about Trauma Informed Preventive Care, a framework for the delivery of care that promotes emotional, physical, and cultural safety for patients, their families and staff thus supporting the wellbeing for staff and patients alike. Catherine actively promotes safe high quality perioperative care for children through her work with the SPANZA Guidelines Sub-committee. She is a registered counsellor with a small private practice offering clinical hypnosis and counselling for children. Catherine also offers supportive counselling to medical students, doctors, and other healthcare workers.

In her spare time, Catherine enjoys swimming, surfing, and yoga. She is an adult piano learner although she is yet to be convinced to perform in public.

Stuart Ross (Co-opted)

Senior Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist, The Childrens Hospital at Westmead, Sydney

Stuart (Stu) is a Senior Specialist Paediatric Anaesthetist at The Childrens Hospital at Westmead, Sydney. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 2000 and after having worked in Johannesburg for 2 years, moved to London, UK to complete his registrar training in anaesthesia at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital and some of the UK’s central south coast hospital’s. He spent his final year of training in Paediatric Anaesthesia at the Evelina Childrens Hospital, London and after gaining his Certificate of Completion of specialist Training, decided to get some sunshine and moved to Sydney in 2010.

At Westmead Children’s hospital, Stuarts primary clinical interest is paediatric cardiac anaesthesia and cardiac catheter procedures, however you will also find him doing scoliosis surgery, complex ENT procedures, liver transplant surgery and some of the other day-to-day work where he prides himself in getting through the work in a safe, timely and efficient manner.

Outside of the operating theatre, Stuart is known as ‘The IT guy’ where his expertise lies electronic anaesthesia record keeping, the electronic medical record, electronic medication management systems and the clinical governance related to these in the context of safer paediatric anaesthesia practice. Stuart also has an interest in medical equipment and you will often find him tinkering with the latest TIVA pump, making drug libraries safer, optimizing the latest patient monitors or deciding which anaesthetic machine to trial next.

Stuart is dedicated to making paediatric anaesthesia a safe, friendly and thriving environment for all children in Australia and New Zealand.

Outside of work you might find Stuart spending time in the outdoors with his son, flying general aviation aircraft, tending to his needy chocolate miniature dachshund or looking after his bees.