Peers and Executive
Adjunct Professor Tanya Farrell
Tanya Farrell is Chair of Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity (CCOPMM) and Senior Maternity Advisor. Tanya is also a midwife and a nurse, and holds two key roles that focus on improving healthcare for women, babies and children across the state.
As the Maternity Advisor Tanya provides strategic clinical leadership and advice on issues related to maternity services and midwifery, particularly in relation to safety and quality improvement.
As the Chair of CCOPMM she oversees the investigation and reporting of all maternal, perinatal and paediatric mortality and morbidity as well as providing advice to the Minister for Health, Safer Care Victoria (SCV) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) on strategies to improve clinical care and avoid preventable deaths and significant morbidity in Victoria. The Council also manages the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection (VPDC), a population-based surveillance system that collects and analyses comprehensive information on the health of mothers and babies, in order to contribute to improvements in their health.
Tanya is also an Adjunct Professor in Nursing and Midwifery at La Trobe University. Prior to these appointments she was the Executive Director of Midwifery and Nursing at the Royal Women’s Hospital, Victoria.
Professor Michael Permezel
Michael Permezel is a specialist Obstetrician Gynaecologist and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Melbourne. He is Head of the University Antenatal Clinic, and is Director of Teaching, Training and Research at Mercy Hospital for Women. Michael’s research profile spans the areas of perinatal epidemiology, fetal surveillance, regulators of term and preterm birth, and gestational diabetes. In these and other areas he has contributed over 150 peer reviewed publications to the literature. Michael is a passionate educator of medical students for University of Melbourne MD Program and Obstetrics and Gynaecology trainees. He has mentored countless trainees through their clinical and academic careers.
Michael is the immediate past president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. He has served in this role for an unprecedented two terms, having previously served on the RANZCOG Board for over a decade. In this role he has made an extraordinary contribution to the discipline, as well as previous RANZCOG leadership roles. He has served the RANZCOG community for over 20 years including Chair of Training and Accreditation Committee, Exams Committee and Women’s Health Committee.
He serves on both the Stillbirth and Maternal Mortality Sub-Committees, Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity (CCOPMM), a committee that reports directly to the Minister of Health. His extraordinary academic, clinical and leadership expertise has resulted in appointments to expert advisory groups in many areas of women’s health and his opinion has led and guided state and federal parliamentary reviews.
Dr Alexis Shub
Alexis completed her PhD in Western Australia investigating the relationship between periodontal health and preterm birth. She is the lead obstetric clinician in the endocrine clinic and has a special research interest in diabetes and obesity in pregnancy. This research area is of great importance given the rising obesity epidemic in pregnancy. Alexis has led and published several randomised controlled trials examining the impact of simple interventions such as self-weighing and dietary advice on gestational weight gain and pregnancy outcomes.
In 2013, Alexis spent a year in Timor Leste, working to expand the maternal health workforce as part of the Royal Australian College of Surgeon's ATLASS program. She has subsequently published on stillbirth in this low resource setting. She has also worked in the Northern Territory, bring her much needed subspecialist expertise to women from remote Indigenous communities.
Since returning to the Mercy Hospital for Women in 2014 Alexis has established the Telehealth clinic in the Department of Perinatal Medicine, providing tertiary imaging and counselling support to the clinicians at the Royal Darwin Hospital. She is currently undertaking a Masters in Public Health at the University of Melbourne.
She also sits on the Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity - the advisory body to the state Minister of Health - and is a member of the CCOPMM Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity Subcommittee.
Alexis is a passionate teacher and is term co-coordinator (with Dr Elizabeth McCarthy) of the Women's Health rotation for medical students at the University of Melbourne. As well as carrying out her many clinical school teaching commitments and coordinating Year 3 medical student examinations, she regularly supervises vocational selective and MD research project students who are interested in a career in obstetrics.
Dr Elske Posma
Dr Elske Posma is Head of Obstetrics at Sunshine Hospital in Melbourne. She obtained her qualifications in the Netherlands and did her subspecialty training in Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University Hospital Groningen as well as the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.
After working 9 years in Maternal Fetal Medicine, she has recently taken up the role of Head of Obstetrics at Sunshine Hospital. Besides her interest in managing high risk pregnancies, she is also actively involved in improvement of pregnancy care at a local and regional level.
Furthermore, she has an active teaching role of medical students and junior medical staff and is part of the PIPER team as Obstetric Consultant.
Dr Mark Tarrant
Dr Tarrant graduated in Medicine from Monash University in 1985. Having completed his Fellowship training at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne in 1994, he commenced his specialist practice in the Berwick area 25 years ago.
Dr Tarrant currently holds a public appointment at Monash Health in both Obstetrics and Gynaecology. In addition to his clinical role he is also the Head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at both Casey Hospital and more recently Dandenong Hospital.
Dr Tarrant is an advisor on numerous committees including: the Neonatal Mortality Sub-Committee of the Consultative Council of Obstetric Perinatal Morbidity & Mortality since 2008 and is the current chair of the Maternity Clinical Review Panel and Perinatal Morbidity & Mortality Meeting at Monash Health. He is also the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee of St John of God Hospital and is an active member of the Obstetric and Midwifery Steering Committee for the St John Of God Healthcare Group.
Dr Anthony Woodward
Anthony is a fully qualified specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist and is a Fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand college of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Anthony works in public Obstetrics and private Gynaecology. He is a consultant obstetrician at the Women’s hospital Parkville where he is the Medical Director of the Birth Centre. Anthony is involved in undergraduate medical student teaching and the teaching of trainee specialists.
Dr Lauren de Luca
Dr Lauren De Luca is a consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the newly opened Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s at Western Health. She completed her specialist training primarily at the Royal Women’s Hospital and Western Health. She accepted the position of Acting Head of Obstetrics prior to commencing in her current role of Clinical Lead in Safety and Quality for Women’s and Children’s division; a position she has held for 4 years.
Lauren has an interest in high risk obstetrics and is nearing completion of a Diploma of Diagnostic Ultrasound (DDU) through the Australian Society of Ultrasound Medicine. She is also actively involved in teaching at all levels, from medical students through to advanced specialist trainees and currently also holds an honorary position as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Melbourne.
A/Prof Michael Stewart
Director, PIPER
Michael is a Neonatologist who trained in Australia and Canada before taking up Consultant appointments at the Royal Children’s Hospital and the Royal Women’s Hospital in 1995. He was appointed Director of the Newborn Emergency Transport Service in 2000 and in 2016 was appointed Director of the Paediatric Infant and Perinatal Emergency Retrieval service. His interests include medical retrieval, surgical and complex medical neonatology, and the management of pregnancies complicated by foetal anomalies. In 2015 Michael completed a Masters in Health Services Management with an emphasis on Quality and Safety in Health care.