The President and Board of Directors of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) today announced the appointment of Dr Isabelle Skinner as ICN’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of 1 August 2018.  

 

Dr Skinner, a registered nurse and a registered midwife, is a member of the Australian College of Nurses. She is currently Senior Research Fellow at James Cook University in Mount Isa, Australia and has served as Associate Dean Research and Research Training and the Director of the Office of Learning and Teaching at Charles Darwin University. She is an experienced leader and innovator in health and higher education with expertise in leading innovation across health systems and high impact research to address complex health and social concerns.   Dr Skinner holds a PhD from La Trobe University, a Masters in Public Health and Tropical Medicine from James Cook University, a Graduate Diploma in Professional Communications (multimedia) from the University of Southern Queensland and an Executive MBA from Melbourne Business School. She specialises in digital health and has researched and evaluated telehealth services, designed mHealth (mobile health) and eHealth (electronic health) services.  

With 32 years of experience as a nurse, including progressive leadership, consulting and board experience, Dr Skinner has run her own research and consultancy business for the last four years, for which she was a finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the Year for the Northern Territory. Dr Skinner was the State Commissioner for the Northern Territory and has extensive experience on the Boards of not-for-profit member organisations such as Girl Guides Australia and CRANAplus.  She is a Fellow of CRANAplus, the Australian national health professional 

 

organisation for remote health practitioners and is an Aurora Award recipient for her leadership and advocacy for remote health.  

 

Dr Skinner is passionate about improving access to specialist health care services for people in remote and rural communities around the world. She has worked with health care teams and students in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Zimbabwe and China. The health promotion Facebook page she edits has nearly ½ a million followers in 49 countries.  She was selected as ICN’s Chief Executive Officer among highly qualified candidates from around the world. 

 

“I am delighted to welcome Dr Skinner as the new head of ICN.  The ICN Board and staff look forward to working with her in this new role as CEO, as she continues and advances the tremendous work of Interim CEO Professor Thomas Kearns, leading nurses and the populations they serve to quality health care for all”, stated ICN’s President Annette Kennedy.   

 

“I look forward to working with the ICN Board and all of our National Nursing Organisations to advance the standing of nurses and nursing globally. “ Dr Skinner said, “Nurses are the health systems’ biggest resource and are there in communities around the world preventing illness, monitoring, treating and caring for people across the lifespan. This is an exciting time for nurses to use our collective voice to lead in transforming our health systems and improving the health of our global community.”  

 

Dr Skinner takes up the position currently being held by Interim CEO, Professor Thomas Kearns, who has led the organisation for the past nine months, continuing the transformation and structural changes needed to ensure that ICN continues as the global voice of nursing. 

 

Note 

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations representing the millions of nurses worldwide. Operated by nurses and leading nursing internationally, ICN works to ensure quality care for all and sound health policies globally. 

 

For further information contact Julie Clerget at: [email protected] Tel: +41 22 908 0100 Fax: +41 22 908 0101 www.icn.ch www.icnvoicetolead.com 

ICN/PR2018 #24