Laura is one busy person – a mum of two little girls, a Laboratory Manager, a house renovator, soccer coach and cheerleader of her people. She’s committed to leading her Wyong team and providing an amazing pathology service to the growing Central Coast community.

What do you do and why does it matter?

I am the new lab­o­ra­to­ry man­ag­er at Wyong Hos­pi­tal. I believe that an inte­gral part of the role of lab man­ag­er is to build and lead strong, cohe­sive teams, because this leads to bet­ter pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and bet­ter care for our patients. You must val­ue every indi­vid­ual in your team, lis­ten to their views, appre­ci­ate their expe­ri­ence and take feedback.

Wyong is no longer “a small lab” the pop­u­la­tion on the north­ern end of the Cen­tral Coast is grow­ing at a rapid rate – it’s a great place to work and live! To ensure we pro­vide an amaz­ing pathol­o­gy ser­vice for this huge­ly grow­ing area, I need a team that sup­ports each oth­er. I need to con­tin­ue to empow­er and upskill all mem­bers of my team and ensure they can take on the chal­lenges we face but also be proud of our achievements!

With­out empow­ered moti­vat­ed, engaged teams we can­not main­tain the high lev­el of pathol­o­gy ser­vices and that is why my job matters.

Tell us about your sci­en­tif­ic career path and what inspired you to work in pathology?

My pas­sion for sci­ence and pathol­o­gy began in high school and was cement­ed dur­ing work expe­ri­ence at the Nepean Lab­o­ra­to­ry. I start­ed my career as a trainee sci­en­tist at Gos­ford, pro­gressed into trans­fu­sion sci­ence, and expand­ed my exper­tise as a sci­en­tist at Westmead.

I obtained my Master’s in Health Lead­er­ship, and took on lead­er­ship roles at Horns­by and Gos­ford, where I became Haema­tol­ogy Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er. In June 2025, I stepped into my cur­rent role as Lab­o­ra­to­ry Man­ag­er at Wyong. I’ve proud­ly been with NSWHP for 14 years.

A proud moment or inter­est­ing case?

One of my proud­est moments has been the recent rede­vel­op­ment of Wyong’s lab­o­ra­to­ry. What was unique about this project was the way the lab tran­si­tioned into a tem­po­rary space and then back to the new­ly rebuilt per­ma­nent facility.

Mov­ing a lab­o­ra­to­ry is com­plex and chal­leng­ing on its own, but Wyong also faced addi­tion­al hur­dles with staff changes and the retire­ment of our long­stand­ing man­ag­er and the retire­ment of our super­vis­ing chem­i­cal pathologist.

Despite the chal­lenges, the resilience of the Wyong team was noth­ing short of inspir­ing. They were ded­i­cat­ed and com­mit­ted to their roles and showed excel­lence and team­work every day.

This, com­bined with the incred­i­ble sup­port from oth­er NSWHP lab­o­ra­to­ries, assist­ed us in bring­ing the new lab to life. We received vital assis­tance from pathol­o­gists and senior sci­en­tists at RNSH, utilised the relief squad from Hunter, and had sup­port staff from Gos­ford laboratories.

Some­thing I’ve learnt in recent months was to nev­er let the fun fade. This is some­thing that has real­ly res­onat­ed with me since join­ing the Wyong team – the pos­i­tive atmos­phere and cama­raderie of this team is some­thing tru­ly spe­cial, and I am com­mit­ted to nur­tur­ing this pos­i­tive culture.

What do you like to do to unwind out­side of work?

I am a very busy mum of two ener­getic lit­tle girls, who are 18 months and 5 years old. My hus­band also works for NSWHP and we are in the thick of jug­gling full-time jobs, shift­work and parenthood!

Out­side the lab, I’m either coach­ing ath­let­ics and soc­cer, or rac­ing between gym­nas­tics and swim­ming lessons. On the rare occa­sion I do get a moment to wind down, I’ll be by water with an espres­so mar­ti­ni in hand, watch­ing some awful real­i­ty tele­vi­sion… or plan­ning anoth­er house renovation!

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