NSW Health Pathology has farewelled Meredith Caelli, who is retiring after a 42-year career working across multiple roles in the health sector.

Staff gath­ered at NSW Health Pathology’s New­cas­tle office in May 2025 to cel­e­brate the four decades Mered­ith has ded­i­cat­ed to the health and well­be­ing of patients across NSW.

She round­ed out her career as the Dis­as­ter Coor­di­na­tor for NSW Health Pathol­o­gy, where she has worked for 10 years.

“I am proud to have worked as part of an organ­i­sa­tion where every­one shows up not to just do a job, but to sup­port each oth­er, to serve some­thing big­ger than them­selves, and to strive for excel­lence in every­thing they do,” she said.

“What has always stood out for me is the atti­tude that says – talk to us about what you need, and let’s work togeth­er so we can be the best ver­sion of ourselves.

“That mind­set; open, prac­ti­cal, and qui­et­ly ambi­tious, shapes the way the teams across Pathol­o­gy work and is some­thing I have gen­uine­ly admired.”

Mered­ith thanked her col­leagues at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy who she praised for act­ing with open­ness and col­le­gial­i­ty, help­ing her to suc­ceed in her role.

“Dur­ing my time in health I have worked as a nurse, infec­tion con­trol nurse prac­ti­tion­er, pub­lic health nurse con­sul­tant, patient safe­ty man­ag­er, enter­prise risk man­ag­er, inter­nal audit man­ag­er, pan­dem­ic pre­pared­ness offi­cer, and final­ly as a mem­ber of the Emer­gency Man­age­ment Unit.”

She says she is most proud of her work to ini­ti­ate the design and deliv­ery of a mass vac­ci­na­tion clin­ic in a rur­al com­mu­ni­ty, which paved the way for sim­i­lar clin­ics to be estab­lished dur­ing the COVID pan­dem­ic, com­plet­ing her PhD, and help­ing to devel­op the first statewide infec­tion con­trol data­base in NSW.

“Over the years I have learnt a lot, shared wins, com­mis­er­at­ed when we have fall­en short, but through­out it all I have felt safe, val­ued, respect­ed and appre­ci­at­ed at NSW Health Pathol­o­gy. I have tru­ly been very fortunate.”

We wish you all the best for the future Mered­ith! You will be missed.

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