Chronic Pain Australia Board

Dr Coralie Wales

Acting President

Coralie is a founding Director of Chronic Pain Australia. She has a PhD through Sydney University  in Community and Behavoural health.  She is an executive member of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation Pain Network. Coralie works with the Hunter New England Health District in Armidale on a project which explores the use of the NBN in delivering better health care to ordinary Australians. Coralie also teaches health professionals about the complex neurophysiology of chronic pain in the SquareCogs Project. 

Dr Mandy Nielsen
General member

Mandy lives with chronic pain and is based in Brisbane in Qld. Her PhD thesis explored the social context experienced by people living with pain. With a social work background, Amanda is currently employed as a researcher in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland. She has a deep interest in health literacy and chronic back pain, and has been involved in researching online information for people experiencing long term pain. Mandy has published work on the stigma of chronic pain and speaks regularly in the community and at conferences about the challenges experienced by people in pain in their daily lives as they experience common social barriers associated with chronic pain.

Mr Peter Gregory
Secretary and Director, West Australia

Peter has been living with pain since age 3 when he suffered neck and lower back injuries in motor vehicle accident. A second accident in 1985 caused further whiplash injuries and Peter has been out of work on a disability pension since 2002. Before he left work, Peter was in the food industry, mainly in quality assurance and control, and also worked as a meat inspector for the WA Government Health Dept and the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service. Peter has spent a long time searching for answers regarding his chronic pain and in 2006 he found relief when he was put in touch with the Fremantle Hospital Pain Clinic. Since then he has been self-managing his chronic pain with moderate success, using the STEPS program as a refresher, which he attended in 2010. STEPS has helped Peter to manage some other health issues.

Ms Rene Lolesio
Treasurer

Rene's interest in Chronic Pain come from her association with her aunt, who suffers Fibromyalgia. Rene was born in California USA and enjoys reading books, cooking and going out for walks. Rene has always worked in the accounting fields.

Dr Chris Hayes
General Member

Chris Hayes has a background in anaesthesia before undertaking training as a pain medicine specialist. He works in Newcastle NSW and has been Director of Hunter Integrated Pain Service since its foundation in 1997. He is a current board member of the Faculty of Pain Medicine and is also medical co-chair of the Agency for Clinical Innovation's Pain Network in NSW. His interests include a "whole person" approach to pain and the redesign of health systems to achieve greater integration between community and primary levels and the specialist sector. Outside of medicine he is an obsessional sea kayaker and a very bad singer.

Ms Fiona Hodson
acting Vice President

Fiona Hodson is a Pain Management Clinical Nurse Consultant with the Hunter Integrated Pain Service NSW, Australia. Fiona has worked in all aspects of pain service delivery including inpatient, outpatient, procedural, research, aged care, community, health promotion, education, strategic planning, redesign and management. Fiona has developed strong links with the University of Newcastle, General Practice and the rural sector within Hunter New England Local Health Network (HNELHN) regarding Pain Management resources and practice. In 2010 Fiona was awarded the Judith Meppim Nursing and Midwifery Travel Scholarship and recently completed an international study tour of pain services in New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom. Her most recent role has been as a Pain Project officer involved in the development, coordination and implementation of an Integrated Persistent Pain Model (IPPM), which incorporates a lifespan approach to persistent pain management that is culturally sensitive includes prevention, assessment and management of complexity from the Primary to Tertiary sector for HNELHN. This work is now ongoing within HNELHN, known as SKECH: “Supporting Knowledge and Empowering Communities in Pain for the Hunter Project. Fiona continues to be actively involved in a number of nursing and pain related working parties that represent consumers, patients and clinicians in the pursuit of change which is evidenced based in the pain specialty. Presently she is a member on the Executive for the Agency for Clinical Innovation (ACI), NSW Pain Management Network and working parties and was recently appointed to a Taskforce for Pain Management in NSW. Fiona is also currently a NSW Director for the Australian Pain Society. Fiona is the special Chronic Pain Australia Board liaison delegate to Painaustralia.

Ms Mary Wing
General Member

Coming originally from a health background, Mary taught music (her second passion) for many years while her children were growing up because it meant she could work mostly from home and work her own hours. Eventually back problems prevented her from playing, so she could no longer teach. Mary has worked in a variety of health organizations in a voluntary capacity since then. She coordinated two diabetes screening and awareness projects with the Rotary Club of Stirling in SA in 2002 and 2005 for which she won an SA Great regional health award. Mary became incapacitated with chronic neuropathic pain following spinal surgery in 2004 and that led her to university to study chronic condition management from a self-management perspective. She completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Chronic Condition Management in 2011 and she has been facilitating Stanford Chronic Condition Self-Management groups since 2009. Mary is about to undertake training to facilitate online Stanford self-management courses for the American Council on Aging.

Ms Tracey Croke
General Member

Tracey Croke is a writer and journalist with Ankylosing Spondylitis and a chronic addiction to adventure. She says her life's ambition is to hug the person who put full suspension on mountain bikes. She cut her writing teeth in marketing at Guinness and they grew when she wrote for trade media in a freelance consultancy role. After studying journalism and media law at the London School of Journalism, Tracey has settled in Australia to write features and reviews about travel, adventures and lifestyle for publications in Australia, UK and the US. When Tracey's not working, she likes to update her upbeat blog www.Chronic-Adventures.com to entertain and share her "gain from pain stories. You can follow Tracey on twitter @traceycroke.

Ms Stella Fava
General Member

Stella's start in the workforce was origanlly in Merchant Banking, specialising in the Treasury Division Trading. Having spent over a decade in that field decided to retire from that business to raise a family. Later fullfilling a dream of working in the creative industry, went back to study to become a Graphic Designer/Web Developer which she is currently enjoying.

A.C. Smith
General Member

AC Smith is a current PhD student with the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. Her PhD is an investigation of how to improve health literacy and pain education outcomes for members of the community that have persistent pain. Angela is an executive member of the NSW Agency for Clinical Innovation, Pain Management Network, representing consumers with Coralie Wales; and is also on the Community Partnerships Working Party.  Shaped by her professional experience as a high school teacher, Angela seeks to contribute to Chronic Pain Australia through a dedication to quality teaching, development, and communication of pain specific material and services, a determination to ensure positive and value-added learning outcomes for members of the community that have persistent pain, and a commitment for equitable access for, and with, nationwide pain education, resources, training, and services.

Ms Hayley Cafarella
General Member