2024 Victorian Immunisation Seminar

Ms Philippa Holland is the Immunisation Coordinator for the City of Melbourne Council since 2015. She oversees all aspects of immunisation including school, childhood, flu and catch-up immunisation programs. Philippa has taken a keen interest in catch-up immunisations for migrant and refugee children and the inequalities and barriers of the current system.

She has built a partnership with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute to co-design the “Migration Immunisation Access (MIA) Project: determining the extent and impact of migrant children’s vaccination ‘catch-up’ schedules”. This project won the GSK Immunisation Award in 2020. To date findings of this project have been published in ‘Vaccine’ and ‘Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health’. She is also a tutor at the Australian College of Nursing where she helps mentor nurses and pharmacists to become authorised nurse immunisers across all states.

Prior to 2015 she has worked as an Immunisation Educator with the Australian College of Nursing. She has experience in clinical research and helped lead vaccine clinical trials for Nucleus Medical. Philippa has also worked as the lead for travel immunisation as a practice nurse at Goldman Sachs in London.

After choosing to specialise in Immunisation in 2003, Ms Sonja Elia became an integral part of the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) Immunisation service and in 2017, became Victoria’s first Nurse Practitioner (NP) in the field of Immunisation.  She has a particular interest in vaccine hesitancy, special risk groups, needle phobia, BCG vaccination and immunisation education.  Sonja has received multiple awards including the Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Nursing Development scholarship and the RCH Chairman’s medal. 

She is a current member of the Immunisation Coalition, a policy advisor with the Australian College of Nurse Practitioners, teaching associate with Monash University NP program and holds honorary positions with the University of Melbourne, Department of General Practice and the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute.

Ali Maggs has been a Practice Nurse for 17 years, with immunisation as a key core work skill.  She became a Nurse Immuniser in 2012 and has continued to work in private practice and for Gold Coast’s, School Based Immunisation Program (Queensland Health), with a 2 year secondment to Public Health, CDC department where she learned how to assess cold chain breaches and vaccine management protocols. Ali joined Benchmarque Group in 2021 as an Immunisation Trainer / Assessor and is currently working as their Learning & Development Manager.

Karen is a Melbourne based Registered Nurse with extensive general practice experience including immunisation and wound care. As an approved immuniser provider Karen has a depth of knowledge in the National Immunisation program, travel vaccinations and developing comprehensive catchup plans. Karen is a lead trainer for our 5 Day Immunisation Program supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners to become approved providers in Victoria.