Congratulations to Mater Director of Infectious Diseases Associate Professor Paul Griffin who won in the Leadership Excellence category of the Mater People Awards.     

The award sought to recognise an individual for excellence in leadership through guiding team members by motivating and inspiring them to engage in the organisation’s strategy and vision while demonstrating commitment to building spiritual, emotional, social and physical health in self and others at Mater.

This year you can’t have missed Paul appearing on nearly every television news network and program in Australia totalling nearly 4 000 media articles reaching over 1.8 billion people across the world.

In addition to this Paul has been working tirelessly at Mater and he has been recognised for his leadership excellence particularly in the areas of safety culture, innovation, leadership, care, and wellbeing.

In the early days of the pandemic Paul helped formulate Mater’s COVID-19 response, writing and reviewing numerous guidelines for infection control and use of PPE. He led the Infectious Diseases team in managing all Mater’s COVID-19 patients safely and effectively in hospital and via Hospital in the Home.

He promoted COVID-19 safety protocols (e.g. how to wear a mask, how to wash hands), educating staff via a range of channels including a weekly video update seen by all Mater staff across Queensland.

Paul was the Principal Investigator on four COVID-19 vaccine studies including the Southern Hemisphere’s first COVID-19 vaccine trial along with The University of Queensland’s own candidate vaccine trials and therapeutic trials including monoclonal antibody therapy. He also assisted in the development of an app as an early screening tool for COVID-19.

Throughout the pandemic he has guided the Infectious Diseases team to manage Mater’s COVID-19 case load safely and effectively. In addition to public wellbeing advice during the pandemic, Paul counselled Touch Football Australia and the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, providing COVID-safe plans and educational materials to aid a return to sport and safe travel.

Congratulations to the other finalists for these awards including,

• Jo Costello, Midwifery Unit Manager Midwifery Group Practice
• Jackie Moon, Director of Speech Pathology
• Donata Sackey, Director of Mater Refugee Health Service
• Sue Thurbon, Executive Director of Nursing Rockhampton