MHCS Staff Profiles

Lisa Woodland, Director

Lisa Woodland is Director, Health Equity, Promotion and Prevention Service, South Eastern Sydney Local Health District and NSW Multicultural Health Communication Service as well as Conjoint Lecturer, Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, UNSW. Lisa has over 20 years’ experience working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. This includes developing, implementing and evaluating health promotion and community education programs; policies and plans; research projects; and tailored service models to meet the needs of CALD communities.

lisa.woodland@health.nsw.gov.au

Jesusa Helaratne, Deputy Director

Jesusa has 18 years of experience running major multicultural health media campaigns for MHCS featuring stories of culturally diverse people with lived experiences combining innovative arts and health initiatives. Jesusa is also working within the NSW Ministry of Health COVID-19 Communications and Media Team for 3 years now. She plays a critical leadership role in delivering accurate and timely COVID-19, public health information and multilingual resources across NSW. Since 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks, she has been moderating the ongoing Multicultural Media Online Conference. As an award-winning broadcast journalist for 13 years, Jesusa brings expert knowledge to her role having worked with news organisations such as CNN, SBS, ARD German TV, ABS-CBN News Channel and other major TV and radio stations.
jesusa.helaratne@health.nsw.gov.au

Rajan Manickarajah, Systems Manager

Rajan has been working as Systems Manager with MHCS since 2006 and over 15 years with SESLHD Health ICT as IT Manager. He has expert knowledge of information technology and network administration within the health system and health care industry. He utilities advanced videography / photography skills to cover key multicultural campaigns and events. In addition, Rajan has been managing the MHCS translating service since 2006.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has provided high-level information systems support and actively collaborated with MHCS and Ministry of Health (MoH) COVID-19 Communication Team to provide high quality in-language resources for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. He has actively supported PaCH services and SESLHD Executive in relation to online webinars and the development of audio-visual resources. Rajan has worked in partnership with Local Health Districts, Cancer Institute NSW, Multicultural NSW, and Department of Customer Service to improve communication to CALD communities across NSW.
rajan.manickarajah@health.nsw.gov.au

Jie Cao, Media and Communications Manager

Jie has over 10 years’ working experience in communications and marketing, with a specialisation in health communication within culturally and linguistically diverse communities. With her extensive experience in media relations, stakeholder communications, event management, translation projects, and campaign management, she brings in strong skills of developing communications strategy and delivering evidence based, insight driven communications projects and campaigns to effectively communicate with CALD communities.

Jie holds a Master’s degree in strategic public relations from the University of Sydney and a Master’s degree in Linguistics and Foreign Languages.

jie.cao1@health.nsw.gov.au

Tammy Yam, Program Manager Cancer Initiatives

Tammy Yam joins the team as Program Manager (Cancer Initiatives), spearheading our partnership project with Cancer Institute NSW until June 2025. With over 17 years of experience as a Senior Communications Specialist, Tammy has a proven track record in crafting impactful strategies targeting general population and multicultural communities. Her expertise includes strategic communication planning, brand management, relationship cultivation, project management, and leadership. In her past roles, Tammy has led successful initiatives such as joint aviation marketing programs for Destination NSW, COVID-19 safety campaigns addressing vaccine hesitancy, impactful efforts for Hearing Australia, and effective communication for BreastScreen NSW, driving community engagement and fostering healthier outcomes.

Tammy.Yam@health.nsw.gov.au

Gayathri Dharmagesan, Senior Project Officer

Gayathri (Gaya)Dharmagesan is Senior Project Officer, has over 25 years of project management expertise in Australia and abroad. Gaya has a wealth of experience working with multicultural and refugee communities both within health and in the community sector and have exceptional skills in co-design of health information with communities. She has been a part of numerous projects, including those focused on COVID-19, Women's Health, Domestic Violence, and Cancer Screening.

gayathri.dharmagesan@health.nsw.gov.au

Glaiza Perez, Digital Project Officer

Glaiza has been working on MHCS social media since 2018. She brings to the team her extensive experience around coordinating social media campaigns and project work with diverse communities having worked with non-for-profit organisations such as Diversity Arts Australia.

glaiza.perez@health.nsw.gov.au

Na Pham, Translation Project Coordinator

Na Pham holds a Doctorate in Philosophy (Education) from the University of Western Sydney, a Master of Arts in TESOL from the National University of Singapore and is a NAATI Accredited Translator. She brings over 26 years of extensive experience across five major fields: translation/interpreting, language teaching, researching, consulting, and teaching material design. She has taught language courses in Australia, Singapore, and Vietnam universities and serves as a language consultant for numerous language research projects. From 2020 to 2024, Dr. Na Pham held various managerial and coordinating for Family Planning NSW and ACPSEM. She is now Translation Project Coordinator at Multicultural Health Communication Services.

na.pham@health.nsw.gov.auna.pham@health.nsw.gov.au

Heidi Yaqi Han, Social Media Project Officer

Heidi is a seasoned multicultural media and communications specialist with over a decade of experience as a bilingual journalist in community media, SBS, The Australian, and in consultancy roles for major CALD marketing and public information campaigns, events, and cultural policy initiatives. She has worked with organizations such as the City of Sydney and PR and marketing agencies including Cultural Perspectives.

yaqi.han@health.nsw.gov.au