Maria is a registered nurse and midwife with over 30 years’ experience of the National Health Service in the UK and has a Master’s Degree in Healthcare Management. She has held leadership roles in nursing, midwifery and allied health and worked in general and commissioning management and as a quality performance manager and accreditor. She has led a multitude of services within acute, primary care, mental health and ambulance services.

As part of the European Hospital and Healthcare Federation (HOPE) Exchange Maria worked in Sweden and Austria to study European methods for sharing and learning from clinical incident management. Before moving to Australia, Maria commenced a Clinical Doctorate Research Fellowship (PhD), using Quality Improvement Science methodologies to enhance the programme Fundamental Care in Hospitals. She did not complete the PhD programme having been offered a lifelong dream of a role contributing to healthcare in Melbourne. However, she remains actively involved in research and QI fields.