Board
The Australian Self-Care Alliance is a collaboration between healthcare consumers, health promotion charities, policy experts and industry partners.
Karen Booth, RN
President
Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association
Karen Booth, RN – Independent Chair
Karen Booth is a Registered Nurse with a keen interest in health policy, workforce development and advocating for the role of the nurse in primary care. Karen is currently the President of the Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA), a position which she has held for the past six years. She has worked as a manager in general practice and has set up systems to support a team approach to care, including nurse clinics for preventative health and supporting people with chronic health conditions. Karen is currently a member of the Primary Health Reform Steering Group advising the Commonwealth on the National Ten-Year Primary Health Plan and the primary care committees of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Health Care. Karen is passionate about self-care because prevention is a key role for nurses.
Dr Andrew Cottrill - Director
Dr Andrew Cottrill is Chief Medical Officer for HCF, Australia’s largest not-for-profit private health insurer. He joined HCF in 2004 and during that time he has been responsible for chronic disease management programs, clinical governance, doctor networks and utilisation review (analytics). Andrew is a pioneer of self-care having initiated Australia’s largest chronic disease management program which has supported 51,000 people with chronic conditions to reduce complications leading to hospitalisation. He is a reviewer for the HCF Research Foundation, a fellow of the International Federation of Health Plans and is a member of their Expert Panel on Clinical Effectiveness and High-Cost Drugs. Since 2017 he has been a member of the Research Advisory Committee for the National Foundation of Medical Research and Innovation.
Chief Medical Officer
HCF
Ben Harris
Director, Policy and Research
Private Healthcare Australia
Ben Harris – Director
Ben Harris is the Director, Policy and Research, at Private Healthcare Australia. An economist by training, Ben has been working in health and community services policy for over thirty years. He has worked for governments, professional associations and consumer groups, as well as a stint with the Australian Health Policy Collaboration where he contributed to the development of ‘Self-Care for Health: A National Policy Blueprint’, which underpins the work of the Alliance. Ben has long promoted self-care, health equity and reducing the burden of treatment. His publications include Australia’s Mental and Physical Health Tracker, and Australia’s Health Tracker by Socio-economic Status.
Professor Sharon Lawn – Director
Professor Sharon Lawn is a lived experience researcher at Flinders University and is Executive Director of Lived Experience Australia. Her research has included a focus on the service system interface, self-management, physical health and mental health, peer work, service user and family perspectives, and addictions. She is a former SA Mental Health Commissioner and Director of Flinders University’s Psychiatry Research Unit. Prior to academia, Sharon worked in mental health, aged care, and disability services. She has led many research projects examining the involvement of service users and their families in shared care, with a particular focus on the person’s expertise and experience in self-care. Sharon is a passionate advocate who believes that human rights sit at the core of self-care.
Professor Sharon Lawn
College of Medicine and Public Health
Flinders University
A/ Prof Steve Morris
CEO
Pharmaceutical Society of Australia
A/ Prof Steve Morris – Director
Steve Morris is currently CEO of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia. Previous roles include those of CEO Arthritis South Australia and CEO NPS Medicinewise. Prior to that he was Executive Director SA Pharmacy and Chief Pharmacist, SA Health, having responsibility for the delivery of statewide pharmacy services to the public sector within South Australia. He has worked in numerous clinical and managerial roles within health spanning pharmacy practice, including community, hospital, primary care, industry and NGO sectors. Prior to moving to Australia, he was the Deputy Chief Executive of the National Prescribing Centre in the UK an organisation which supported pharmacists working within General Practice . He has a keen interest in self-care, medicines safety, health literacy and strategies which enhance the impact of pharmacists on patient outcomes.
Judy Stenmark, BSc, MPH – Director
Judy Stenmark is the CEO and nominee director of Consumer Healthcare Products Australia. Prior to joining CHPA in January 2025, Judy served as Director General of the Global Self-Care Federation (GSCF) in Switzerland from 2018 to the end of 2024. During that time, she directed a restructure and re-branding of the organisation and implemented a new direction, The Future of Self-Care Strategy, which enabled self-care to be considered an integral part of global health policy.
Judy has a background in health with a degree in physiotherapy and a master’s degree in public health. A long-standing career leading global and national NGOs in the health arena, with an eight-year tenure as head of the International Osteoporosis Foundation in Switzerland (before GSCF) and nine years leading Osteoporosis Australia.
An Australian national, Judy has just returned home after spending 16 years living and working in Switzerland. In this time, she established a strong network within global healthcare institutions, including the World Health Organization, international scientific academia and among many global health organisations.
Judy Stenmark
CEO
Consumer Healthcare Products Australia
Professor Rosemary Calder, AM
Professor of Health Policy
Mitchell Institute of Health
Victoria University
Professor Rosemary Calder, AM – Policy Advisor
Professor Rosemary Calder is a respected health and social policy expert. She is Professor of Health Policy at the Mitchell Institute of Health at Victoria University in Melbourne, Victoria. She is also director of the highly successful Australian Health Policy Collaboration after which the Australian Self-Care Alliance is modelled. Rosemary has extensive experience working in and with peak non-government organisations in health and social issues. She has held positions as a senior executive in health policy and administration in both state and Australian departments of health and was head of the Office for the Status of Women in the Australian Government and served as Chief of Staff to a state minister for Health. Rosemary and her team at the Mitchell Institute have conducted the foundational research into self-care in Australia including the 2017 literature review, The State of Self-Care in Australia, and most recently, our landmark 2020 report, Self-Care for all: A national policy blueprint. Rosemary is committed to self-care because she believes it is important that consumers and clinicians ‘listen to one another’. She says, ‘the best way to change healthcare is to change how we support people to navigate their way through the system’.
Randall Pearce, MPA, GAICD – Chief Executive Officer
Randall Pearce has been a driving force behind the Alliance for over a decade, helping to establish it as a registered charity and company limited by guarantee in 2021. Since then, he has served as a non-executive director, company secretary, and public officer. From 1 July 2025, Randall assumes the CEO role on a part-time basis, continuing his consultancy work through THINK: Insight & Advice.
Randall brings deep leadership experience, including as the former CEO of the 63,000-member Ontario Society of Engineers. With a career spanning Australia and Canada, he has worked with health charities, industry groups, professional associations, and grassroots organisations. He holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University and governance qualifications from both the AICD and the Governance Institute.
Randall believes that the time for self-care has come. It can help us all prevent disease, manage chronic conditions, and reduce the burden of disability. Just as importantly, it can help the government ease pressure on the health budget and support the sustainability of Australia’s world-class healthcare system.
Randall Pearce
Managing Director
THINK: Insight & Advice Pty Ltd