Sandy Walker, BSc. (Hons)
Scientist
61 3 9418 1109
sandy@nrl.gov.au

Sandy completed her studies in biological sciences at La Trobe University, majoring in Microbiology. She then completed an honours thesis before joining Victorian Institute of Animal Science (VIAS), Agriculture Victoria where she worked for five years as the National Coordinator (and deputy Quality Manager) of the Australian National Quality Assurance Program (ANQAP).

In 1999 Sandy joined NRL to coordinate the NRL's Quality Control Programme and the External Quality Assessment Scheme for laboratories in the South-East Asian and Western Pacific region. In 2001 Sandy became PEMS Team Leader and as such co-ordinated all functions for the Performance, Evaluation and Monitoring of Serology Team. In this role Sandy played an integral part in designing and implementing new business systems for the NRL such as the internet based applications EDCNet and DigitalPT.

Sandy has become a specialist in developing training programmes for national and International aid groups such as the WHO and CDC and has conducted training in many countries including Cambodia, India, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. In 2007 Sandy became the team leader of the External Training team. This team, in conjunction with collaborating organisations, develops integrated laboratory training and quality assurance programmes that are modified to meet specific needs of resource limited countries or laboratories.