As we welcome 2026, we also celebrate a new chapter for the Arts Health Network NSW ACT (AHNNA). A new year brings renewed energy, fresh leadership, and a shared commitment to strengthening the vital connections between arts, health, research, and community. We are delighted to introduce the 2026 AHNNA Executive and Committee, a group of deeply experienced, generous, and visionary practitioners whose collective expertise spans creative practice, health research, education, lived experience, and community care. Together, they will guide AHNNA through the year ahead with curiosity, collaboration, and care.

2026 AHNNA Executive & Committee

President – Dr Barbara Doran
Dr Barbara Doran is a key voice in Australia’s creative health landscape, contributing to a pioneering network advancing arts-based approaches that strengthen collective wellbeing and cultural connection. With more than two decades across public health, psychology, planning, and creative practice, she works alongside communities as co-creators of knowledge, honouring lived experience, culture, and story. An award-winning artist with deep roots in visual and performative practice, she brings an embodied understanding of the arts’ power to heal, connect, and transform. As Lead Curator of the SPHERE Knowledge Translation Platform and Director of Creative Intelligence & Strategic Innovation at UTS, Barbara is committed to elevating the arts as essential public health and cultural infrastructure – central to connection, care, and flourishing.

Vice President & Membership Officer – Michelle Jersky
Michelle Jersky is the Program Manager: Arts in Health & Community Development in the Department of Community Child Health, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (Randwick). She has managed the Ngala Nanga Mai pARenT Group Program in the Department of Community Child Health, since 2009. The program uses art to engage with Aboriginal families in La Perouse and surrounds to build a strong social network, facilitate access to health services and opportunities for strengthening education and cultural wellbeing. Michelle is an artist and has a Master’s Degree in Art History, with a background in arts education and community arts. Michelle is interested in art as meaning making and as a driver for social change. Michelle has served on the AHNNA Executive since its inception.

Secretary – Martha Waugh
Martha is a dance health practitioner and health researcher and works across age groups and settings, with clinical and non-clinical populations. She conducts practice-focused research to guide the design and delivery of accessible and engaging arts programs that optimise health impacts. Martha has a professional dance background, graduate degrees in Dance, Psychology, and Public Health research, and is currently completing a PhD in Health Sciences at Western Sydney University focused on community dance for older people.

Treasurer – Alice McAuliffe
Alice McAuliffe is an artist, creative producer and arts health manager. As an artist she creates public art and participatory events that encourage individuals to connect with their community and environment through curiosity and play. As an arts health manager, Alice leads award winning arts programs across public hospitals, with experience in adult and paediatric settings. Her work connects artistic voices and ways of working with clinical staff and patient experience, positioning arts as an active contributor to the delivery of quality healthcare. With graduate degrees in Art Theory and Visual Arts, Alice is currently completing a Masters in Health Leadership and Management, School of Population Health, UNSW.

Events Officer – Nerida Walker

Media Officer – Elyssa Sykes-Smith
Elyssa Sykes-Smith is an interprofessional artist based between London and the Shoalhaven, working across sculpture, installation, public art, performance, education, and health research. Her multidisciplinary practice explores the relationship between art, psychology, and the sciences—transforming complex emotional and psychological states into multisensory experiences in the built and natural environment. Through dynamic sculptural forms that appear in motion, Elyssa creates works that animate space, inviting audiences to experience their environment from new perspectives.
Working in partnership with institutions, companies, and communities, Elyssa develops public artworks, exhibition, socially engaged initiatives, and participatory projects that connect art with everyday life. Her practice is grounded in collaboration, research, and education, seeking to deepen human connection, foster wellbeing, and advocate for social and environmental care through the transformative power of art.

Website Officer – Claire Hooker
Claire Hooker was Chair of the Arts Health Leadership Group NSW when it was established by the Institute for Creative Health in 2016, and became Founding President of AHNNA from AHNNA’s inception as an incorporated Association in 2019 until stepping back at the end of 2025. Claire is Associate Professor Health and Medical Humanities in the Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney and conducts research across a range of topics in arts and health.

Profiles Officer – Jermy Pang
I am a deaf clinician-researcher who uses arts-based research methods to explore how young people who are deaf/hard of hearing navigate the transition from paediatric to adult hearing healthcare. My work is grounded in lived and living experience, curiosity, and a belief that creativity can hold what words sometimes cannot. Creativity runs in my family, and as a parent of three teenagers I see daily how social prescribing, routine creative time, and protected space for expression can quietly strengthen mental wellbeing. I am grateful to be part of the Arts and Health Network NSW, a place of shared practice, kinship, and collective care.

Social Media Officer – Maryann Piper

Lay Member – Dr Emma Barrett
Dr Emma Barrett is a psychologist and Associate Professor at the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney. Dr Barrett leads an internationally renowned program of research to understand and address the mental health impacts of trauma, with 20 years of clinical research experience. Recently she completed a Diploma in Art Therapy and has led rigorous studies evaluating the efficacy of creative expressive therapies and arts-based approaches in improving mental health and wellbeing.

Lay Member – Dr Paulina Larocca
Paulina Larocca is a practice-led artist, researcher and creative facilitator. As a part-time academic at the University of Technology Sydney, she works across creative health, grief and more-than-human relations. She designs participatory projects that use movement, making and conversation to help people navigate complex experiences of illness, care and change.

Lay Member – Ludmila Ovchinikova
Ludmila is part-time academic at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health. She values holistic healthcare and integrates arts-based activities into her teaching to inspire creativity, empathy and engagement among students. Ludmila has an ardent interest in the connection between art and health and is eager to collaborate with others to enhance the wellbeing of communities.

Lay Member – Rebekah Palmer
Rebekah has over 20 years of educational expertise in primary and secondary settings within Catholic and Government systems, including both mainstream and complex learning settings. Recently completing her Master of Education (Research), her work focusses on arts-informed research methodologies that explore innovative approaches to teaching, learning and wellbeing. Currently, Rebekah teaches at The University of Sydney, where she works with pre-service teachers in both Primary and Secondary education programs, integrating her commitment to arts-informed pedagogy and research practice.

Lay Member – Christine Smith
Christine studied music and became a dance teacher in her early 20s. One of her most uplifting achievements was dancing in Sydney 2000 Olympics Opening Ceremony with Australia’s “Tap Dogs”. Christine attained a B.Sc and her science career started in healthcare sales and progressed rapidly to senior leadership roles involving coaching, project management and customer experience. In parallel Christine attained a lean six sigma green belt, an IT diploma and a Certificate IV in training and assessment and has always been curious about the intersection of science and the arts. She is now focused on transferring business expertise to the arts sector, reflecting both a professional evolution and a personal commitment to supporting creative communities and sustainable cultural growth.

Lay Member – Diane Busuttil
Diane Busuttil is a leader in socially engaged dance practice, specialising in movement-based programs for older adults across aged care, community and hospital settings with a strong focus on dementia support. Founder of Creative Caring Australia, Diane develops person-centred, evidence-based programs that enhance wellbeing and connection.
With over three decades of experience in performance & community arts, her training is in contemporary dance, physical theatre and somatic movement. She has worked internationally with pioneers in dance theatre across Europe and Asia. A qualified Dance for Parkinson’s teacher, she has completed various dementia and arts training through the University of Tasmania (MOOC).

Lay Member – Jia Ballentine
Jia Ballentine-Zhu wears many professional hats as a dance artist, thinker and policy professional working at the intersection of movement, health and community.
She recently founded Lyrebird Moves Studio, an inclusive movement practice based in the Blue Mountains, grounded in the belief that movement builds connection, joy and wellbeing across the lifespan.
Previously, she facilitated inclusive movement programs with Dance for Parkinson’s Australia and devised place-based performances in Sydney exploring culture, diversity and belonging.
Her practice is guided by care, equity and a deep respect for lived experience.

We warmly welcome the 2026 Executive and Committee and thank them for their commitment to AHNNA. We invite our members and partners to connect, participate, and collaborate with us in 2026 as we continue to champion the role of arts in health and wellbeing.

 

Feature image: Will Hendrik, Unsplash

Co-written by Alice McAuliffe and Elyssa Sykes-Smith. Biographies contributed by AHNNA members as listed.

Posted by Elyssa Sykes-Smith.

  • Alice McAuliffe is an artist, creative producer and arts health manager, and Treasurer at AHNNA.
  • Elyssa Sykes-Smith is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and researcher, and Media Officer at AHNNA.