Meet Our Team
Our Board
Christine Zahren, MAppSc (Acu), BSN, RN
ClinTrial Refer, Business Development Manager Founder and Director White Coats Foundation
Christine has a background in nursing with over 25 yrs experience in healthcare. She has worked in various areas of health including aged care, acute care, rehabilitation medicine, dermatology specialist clinics, and surgery. Christine has extensive experience as a clinical trial nurse coordinator, and spent 5 years managing the Dermatology Clinical Trials Unit at the Skin & Cancer Foundation Inc in Victoria. She also holds a Master of Applied Science in Chinese Medicine (Acupuncture) and spent 4 years in private practice.
Christine is currently the Business Development Manager for ClinTrial Refer- a mobile app and website platform connecting doctors and patients to current clinical trials. She joined the team in September 2018 following a merger between her participant recruitment company ‘Clinical Trials Connect’ and ‘ClinTrial Refer’. The move was part of a joint vision to provide a central hub where people could access current clinical trial information.
She is passionate about helping advance medical research and ensuring that people have access to medications and new therapies in their development phase.
Fiona Cameron BBus CPM
Founder & Director White Coats Foundation, Director The Acme Collective
Fiona Cameron has over 20 years of experience as a Marketer, specialising in the retail and consumer sector, she has been a part of the strategic development of several key Australian brands.
Fiona has extensive knowledge and expertise in marketing, strategic planning, and business management. She has worked with traditional, digital and mainstream media and has had what she calls “the advantage” of working within a field that has adapted, grown and reinvented itself several times over.
Fiona and Christine developed the initial Thank you video, and this involvement ignited in her a keen interest in raising awareness of clinical trials, patient participation and their link better health. The initial video idea then expanded and White Coats Foundation was created.
Fiona also has a personal connection to clinical trials, becoming even more passionate, while watching close family and friends go through diagnosis and treatment of illnesses.
“When I say to people now, ‘If you have ever taken prescription medicine, you have a clinical trial volunteer to thank’, it really resonates, makes people stop and think. If we can just for one minute, have one short conversation dropped into the community around this fact, it puts the importance of clinical trials into a day to day, relatable perspective, and in turn, raises awareness.”
Associate Professor Peter Foley MBBS, MD, FACD
Director, White Coats Foundation, Research Director, Board Member Skin & Cancer Foundation Inc
Associate Professor Peter Foley is a clinical dermatologist and has a wealth of experience in dermatology, particularly in the treatment of psoriasis.
Associate Professor Peter Foley is the Director of Research at the Skin Health Institute and the Head of Dermatology Research at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor Department of Medicine at The University of Melbourne and is the Director of Research at the Skin Health Institute (formally Skin & Cancer Foundation) and is a visiting dermatologist at the Photobiology, Phototherapy and Biologics Clinics at St. Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and the Phototherapy and Biologics Clinics at the Skin Health Institute.
As the Director of Research, A/Prof Foley directs a rapidly expanding clinical trials program and the Australasian Psoriasis Registry. He has well over 60 peer reviewed publications and has been an investigator in over 80 clinical trials. He is a world renowned expert on psoriasis and has been invited to speak at numerous meetings in all corners of the globe. he also runs his own private practice in Melbourne.
Our Advisory Committee
Elizabeth Wilson
Director of Prime and Partner Sites for IQVIA, Australia & New Zealand ,Advisory Board Member White Coats Foundation,
Elizabeth leads IQVIA’s clinical research relationships with many of ANZ’s leading clinical research organisations and hospitals. The key focus of her role is to engage with site leaders and sponsor organisations to help ensure their clinical development programs deliver new medicines to patients faster with better health outcomes.
Elizabeth has 25 years’ experience in clinical hospital pharmacy and drug development, specialising in clinical cancer services for paediatric and adult patients. Elizabeth began her career in hospital and retail pharmacy. She worked in clinical development and management roles with Agenix and Progen Pharmaceuticals for 8 years before joining IQVIA.
Elizabeth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from the University of Queensland and has postgraduate qualifications in clinical pharmacy designed to advance skills in evidence-based practice, high-quality use of medicine, practice-based research, as well as provision of clinical pharmacy services at a high level.
Richard Verrelli
Clinical Trial Manager- Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Advisory Board Member White Coats Foundation
As Head of Operations – Clinical Research and Clinical Trials Centre at The Royal Melbourne Hospital for more than 5 years, Richard was instrumental in the setup, development and ongoing management of the RMH Clinical Trial Centre. Richard has recently taken up a position with Bristol Myers Squibb as Clinical Trial Manager. This will be a return to industry, having worked at PPD for 7.5 years prior to RMH.
With an expansive range of experience across all trial phases and therapeutic areas, combined with strong working relationships with a broad array of stakeholders, Richard is highly motivated to achieve a positive impact on the clinical research industry in Australia to ensure that safe and effective drugs/devices reach the market for those who need them most. Richard is also a strong advocate for enhancing the perception of clinical trials, and is passionate about increasing the awareness of clinical trials throughout the community.
Michelle Ouellette
Advisory Board Member White Coats Foundation, Associate Director, Site & Patient Access, Syneos Health
Michelle leads advocacy and community outreach programs for Syneos Health, a top three Contract Research Organization (CRO) that combines comprehensive and integrated outsourcing solutions for both clinical development and commercialization. Syneos Health (formerly INC Research/inVentiv Health) and CISCRP co-hosted the “Inspiring Hope” Ideathon of which White Coats was a finalist.
Patients are at the heart of Michelle’s work. She helps build mutually-beneficial relationships between sponsors and advocates with the goal of encouraging patients to take a proactive role in clinical research for themselves and future generations. Michelle also brings deep communications marketing experience from prior work with firms including Edelman.
Keith Donohoe
Consumer Advocate and Advisory Board Member White Coats Foundation
Keith Donohoe is a long term IT professional whose principal activity has been as CEO of a software development company he founded many years ago. This company provided large scale bespoke software for a wide variety of corporations, predominately Banking, Finance, and Funds Management clients both in Australia and USA. Keith has also served on a number of private company and not-for-profit boards and has a strong involvement in governance issues. He has previously been a long term member of AICD.
Several years ago Keith underwent significant hospitalisation, and was consequently invited to combine his strategic corporate background with his interest in representing consumers in decision making within the health system. He now contributes in many areas of health service decision making, sitting on a wide variety of management, research, and governance committees, including as a consumer advocate on a Melbourne Health Board advisory committee and a VCCC Board advisory committee.