General Assembly
Representing respiratory nursing expertise from across international healthcare systems.
Secretary
Carol Stonham MBE, RN, MSc, QN. PCRS Policy Lead
Following 26 years nursing in general practice Carol now works at Gloucestershire ICB Respiratory Clinical Programme Group and is CYP Asthma Clinical Lead. Carol is also a co-clinical lead of the NHSE Southwest Respiratory Network.
Carol is past Executive Chair of PCRS – the first non-doctor and first female to take the chair. She is current a trustee of the charity. She is vice chair of the Lung Health Task Force and also co-chairs the Taskforce early and accurate diagnosis group.
Carol received Queen’s Nurse award in 2007 and in 2016 was awarded an MBE for Services to Nursing and Healthcare.
Advisor
Georgia L. Narsavage PhD, APRN, FAAN, ATSF, FNAP
Dr. Narsavage is Professor Emerita retired from the West Virginia University (WVU) School of Nursing where she served as Dean of the WVU School of Nursing and founding Director of InterProfessional Education for the WVU Health Science Center.
In 2018, she served as Interim Associate Dean at the College of Nursing, University of South Carolina., She is a Fellow in the American Thoracic Society, the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) and the National Academies of Practice, recently re-appointed to the Global Health panel of the AAN. Her education includes: BSN – University of Maryland; MSN in community/adult health- Misericordia University; PhD in Nursing and post-doctoral work-University of Pennsylvania, post-masters Adult Nurse Practitioner (ANP) – Case Western Reserve University.
As an Adult Nurse Practitioner and researcher, she has had the privilege of directly caring for patients, educating the next generation of health care providers and researchers, and contributing to scientific discovery of best practices for out-of-hospital care for patients with lung disease.
She has been a founding member of the International Coalition of Respiratory Nurses (ICRN), the Respiratory Nursing Society and Interprofessional Collaborative (RNSIC), receiving the Founders Award in 2018 and serves on their Board of Directors. She is on the Board of Campus Community Partnerships for Health (CCPH).
Her research focused on chronic disease management in community settings, working with evidence-based medicine and nursing. She has received over $7 million in external federal grants, exploring nursing interventions for patients and families with end-stage COPD and lung cancer, as well as nursing education and practice. She has been Co-PI on an NCI R15 project (CA150999): Telemonitoring Following Hospital Discharge in Patients with Lung Cancer, and continues to work as a consultant on projects with HRSA funding.
Her educational expertise centers on developing and testing effective measures of service-learning/ community-based care education, and in establishing clinical partnerships that make it possible to recruit and track multi-disciplinary students’ development over time. In 2013-2014, she obtained funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to support Community-Based Care and Interprofessional Practice projects that changed healthcare practice in WV, and from The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation to support a workshop to introduce faculty in Appalachia to InterProfessional Education. She remains active in nursing as a consultant and grant reviewer for PCORI and HRSA.
General Assembly Member
Malin Axelsson
Malin is an Associate professor and Senior lecturer in Care Science at Malmö University, Sweden.
Malin is a registered nurse, bachelor in pedagogy and has a PhD in Respiratory Medicine/Allergology.
Her main focus is nursing education and research on health psychology i.e. personality, adherence, health-related quality of life and epidemiology linked to obstructive lung disease.
Education:
Undergraduate and postgraduate nursing education
Doctoral education
Research leader for the research area of Physical Health.
Member of the Interdisciplinary research platform Research Informed Development of Higher Education (RIDHE).
Member of the Nurses Group, European Respiratory Society.
General Assembly Member
José Miguel Padilha
Miguel is a Doctor of Nursing, a Nurse Specialised in Nursing Rehabilitation and a Nurse Specialised in Medical-Surgical Care to the person with chronic conditions.
Professional & Scientific activity:
Professor Coordinator at the Nursing School of Porto (ESEP) where he coordinates the Master in Rehabilitation Nursing;
Executive Director of IP ALLIANCE
Member of the Scientific Board of ESEP
Member of the Scientific Board of Associated Laboratory RISE
Principal Investigator of the Health Education and Simulation Technologies Group
Coordinator of the Nurses Group of the Portuguese Society of Pulmonology
Chair of the Nurses Group of the European Respiratory Society (2022-2025)
Published more than 30 articles
General Assembly Member
Mariana Paula Rezelj
Born in Argentina where she graduated as a nurse. There she worked in the emergency unit, teaching at the University and in the management of a University hospital.
In 2007 she moved to Slovenia where she works in the Clinic for pulmonary diseases at the University Clinic Golnik. As a respiratory nurse, her fields of interest and research are mainly allergies and asthma.
Since 2022 she is President of the Nurses’ Section in Pulmonology of Slovenia.
General Assembly Member
Dr. Gamze Oğuz - PhD, Assistant Professor İstanbul, Turkey
Gamze Oğuz serves on the Nursing Task Force of the Turkish Thoracic Society. She has been a member of the European Respiratory Society since 2021 and plays an active role on the ICRN executive board, where she also leads the education committee. She works on advancing pulmonary nursing practices and education in Turkey and participates in international meetings. Her areas of focus include COPD, asthma, quality of life, oncology, and palliative care, and she is employed as an assistant professor in the Department of Nursing at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Istanbul Atlas University.
General Assembly Member
Aleksandra Gawlik-Lipinski
Aleksandra is a Respiratory Consultant Nurse in Primary Care with 20 years of healthcare experience. She is currently completing a PhD at the University of Leicester (UK), focusing on asthma mortality and predictors of asthma-related deaths in children.
Her career spans emergency, acute, and primary care settings, with a specialist focus on respiratory disease management. Aleks is Vice-Chair of the Research and Education Committee at the Association of Respiratory Nurses (UK) and a Clinical Fellow with the National Respiratory Audit Programme for Children and Young People’s Asthma (UK).
She is committed to improving respiratory outcomes through research, education, leadership, and clinical excellence.
General Assembly Member
Lindsay Zurba
Lindsay Zurba is a Respiratory Nurse Consultant and international educator specialising in lung function testing and quality assurance. She is the Founder of Education for Health Africa (EFHA) and works globally to strengthen respiratory training systems and clinical standards. Lindsay contributes to international respiratory initiatives through FIRS, ERS, IPCRG, ARTP, PATS and others with a focus on improving diagnostic quality and advancing patient-centred respiratory care.
General Assembly Member
Ricardo Salgado
Ricardo Salgado is a Senior Lecturer and researcher at La Source School of Nursing in Switzerland, with expertise in digital health, respiratory care, and health professions education. He is a PhD candidate in Nursing Sciences, focusing on self-management digital interventions to promote physical activity in people living with COPD.
Ricardo contributes to national and international initiatives in respiratory care, digital health, and nursing education, with a strong interest in evidence-based practice and patient-centered models of care. His work bridges clinical practice, research, and innovation to strengthen training systems and improve health-related outcomes.
General Assembly Member
Iain Wheatley
Iain qualified as a nurse in 1996 after a short career in the military and worked in general medicine before becoming a critical care nurse and developing the role as part of what was then the new critical care outreach team. With critical care skills Iain set up the Medical Acute Dependency Unit and later set up the Sleep and ventilation service. He has published and presented papers on various aspects of sleep and ventilation. Currently, Iain is an NHS Nurse Consultant for sleep and ventilation, as well as managing teams in Health Improvement, Tobacco dependency, and Tuberculosis specialist nurses.
Iain is the Chair of the Association of Respiratory Nurses (ARNS). He is a co-chair for the OSA Alliance, as well as a member of the Clinical Reference group for Respiratory specialist commissioning. Iain has worked with NICE on Diagnostic guidance Home-testing devices for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnoea hypopnoea syndrome DG 62, NG202 Obstructive sleep apnoea/hypopnoea syndrome and obesity hypoventilation syndrome in over 16s (2021), and has worked with NCEPOD on the Non-invasive Ventilation Inspiring Change (2017).