Our Team
Project Team
Mary Quinlan
Director
Chair
Russell was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Uniting Church Homes trading as Juniper in December 2022 and is an ex-officio member of the Board. Russell has an extensive background in the aged care and community services sector. He was previously the Chief Executive of a faith-based aged care provider serving metropolitan and regional Western Australian communities. Prior to this role, Russell was Chief Executive of an Aged Care education provider, overseeing operations in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand. Prior to this role, Russell held several senior executive and CEO roles in not-for-profit and faith-based aged, disability and community services organisations in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. Russell has worked in the aged and community services sector since 2001.
Deputy Chair
Mark is the Deputy Chair of the Remote Accord. He has worked extensively in the community services, health, and aged care sectors in five state and territory jurisdictions over the past 40 years. He has held General Manager, Executive Director, Regional Director and CEO roles in both metropolitan and rural public and non-government organisations. He has worked at state and federal level in undertaking system level reform and advocacy as well as responsibility for the development and delivery of services at regional and local levels.
Mark has skills and experience in hospital, health service and aged care management in metropolitan, regional and isolated remote areas, and has skills in leadership, operational management, project management, change management and service redesign. He has a strong interest in rural and remote health, mental health, Indigenous health, primary health care and aged care. He is a Fellow and Life Member of the Australasian College of Health Service Management after having served on the Board for over 10 years. He holds a post graduate degree in Social Work, is a former quality assessor with the Australian Council on Health Care Standards and has been a member of the Aged Care Remote Accord leadership group since its inception in 2018.
Mark’s work experience includes the management of regional health and aged care services based in Orange NSW, and Clare and Port Pirie in South Australia. He was the inaugural General Manager of Australian Regional and Remote Community Services Ltd (ARRCS) based in Darwin, and more recently the CEO of the National Rural Health Alliance – the peak national representative body for rural health in Australia. Since 2012 he has operated his own consulting business out of Adelaide – work which has included participation in the Commonwealth Service Development Assistance Panel providing assistance, training and support to aged care services in remote and very remote locations.
Praveen has held various senior roles with QANTAS, Amity Group, Sodexo, Uniting, Aurrum and Summit Care over an aged care career that has spanned more than 20 years in Australia. He has direct experience managing COVID outbreak sites within rural and remote community and residential aged care services and has extensive experience in culinary and auxiliary hospitality services across Aged and Community care spectrum.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Hospitality Management and holds formal tertiary qualifications in Gerontology, Quality Management, Project Management, Accounting & Strategy, and holds a Masters degree in business administration.
Praveen has spent over five years implementing and improving access to aged care services for remote and very remote indigenous communities in Northern Territory, New South Wales, and Victoria.
Wendy Hubbard is the General Manager at Australian Rural and Remote Community Services (ARRCS), a not-for-profit Aged Care organisation with affiliations with Uniting Care Queensland. Wendy has significant management experience in Acute, Sub-acute, Community Services, and Aged Care with a particular focus on governance and systems to support quality care. She served on the Victorian Quality Council for 6 years and was also a member of the Clinical Incident Review Panel and the Cancer Survivorship Program Advisory Group in Victoria.
A qualified Physiotherapist with a Masters Degree in Business Administration, over her almost three years at ARRCS Wendy has become very familiar with the issues and challenges of providing culturally appropriate aged care in the Northern Territory, and in particular for indigenous people in regional and remote areas.
In her time at ARRCS Wendy has recognised the challenges of substantial workforce issues, skills shortages and transport and accommodation costs, and has worked to ensure ARRCS is addressing these challenges in sustainable ways that meet the consumer’s needs while meeting Aged Care Quality and Safety Standards.
Ben Poona has been employed with Tangentyere Council Aboriginal Corporation in Alice Springs, Northern Territories for almost 10 years, where he currently co-manages the Family Safety & Social Services Division – 17 programs from various sectors that deliver services to local community members. Some of these programs include Aged & Community Services, Disability, Chronic Disease Care Coordination, Family Violence Prevention, Family & Kin Care, Harm Minimisation, Tenancy Sustainability, Emergency Relief and Creative Arts. With over 20 years of operational experience working in the Health, Business & Arts sectors, Ben is excited to share experiences of working with an extremely diverse and vulnerable cohort of people living in rural and regional areas of Central Australia.
Sandra Glaister is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in health, aged, and community care. Her career is driven by a passion for empowering individuals and safeguarding organisations, with a focus on creating environments where people can truly thrive.
With a strong background in strategic and operational leadership, governance, quality management, and risk, Sandra has held executive and board positions across Australia and New Zealand, primarily in the not-for-profit sector. Currently, as Chief of Governance, Risk and Research at Southern Cross Care Queensland, Sandra leads initiatives supporting care and services in regional, rural and remote communities, driving continuous improvement and ensuring compliance. She also assists selectability, a NATSIFAC-funded provider, in delivering essential services in the Cape York Peninsula and the Lower Gulf of Queensland.
Sandra serves as a Board Director for both North and West Remote Health (NWRH) and Catholic Care Central Queensland (CCCQ), offering governance expertise and strategic oversight.
Outside of work, Sandra enjoys quality time with her family and finds relaxation in birdwatching during her quiet moments.
Director
Mary begun her career working with asylum seeker children in community detention, and then with children and families in out of home care programs across the ACT, with a strong focus on cultural safety and trauma informed care.
Mary was involved in the redevelopment of Mental Illness Education ACT’s program to reduce instances of eating disorders in young women. Mary was also involved in the establishment of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the University of Canberra, which is a research and advocacy centre with a focus on achieving equal representation of women in leadership and key decision-making roles in all levels of government and public institutions around Australia.
With a background in direct service delivery, Mary was drawn to policy and advocacy as a way of addressing the systemic challenges commonly faced by services in the not-for-profit space. Mary is an alumni of the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University, where she completed a degree in Public Policy, specialising in economic policy.
Mary has been working with the Remote Accord since late 2019.
