Michelle Gunn

Head of Nursing Practice and Regulations

RN, B(Nursing), LLB, Grad Dip (Legal Practice), Lawyer QSC, GNLI17, MACN, PhD

Michelle is the Head of Nursing Practice and Regulations at the International Council of Nurses (ICN), where she leads global efforts to strengthen professional nursing practice, regulatory systems, and scope of practice frameworks. She was the Lead Consultant for ICN’s landmark Definition of Nursing project and plays a key role in advancing international standards that support safe, effective, and accountable nursing practice worldwide.

Michelle is a registered nurse and lawyer with over 25 years of experience spanning clinical care, health law, professional regulation, education, workforce strategy, and executive health leadership. She holds a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours and a PhD in health law and ethics, with doctoral research focused on clinical decision-making and the equitable allocation of health resources. A recipient of the Louis Waller Medico-Legal Scholarship, she was the highest-ranked candidate on admission to the Supreme Court of Queensland.

She is a former Chief Nursing Officer with national and international experience in legislative reform, professional governance, and health workforce development. Her work has included advising governments, international agencies, and multilateral institutions on nursing and health system reform. As a Technical Advisor to the World Bank, she contributed to a major health systems strengthening project in the Pacific, supporting the development of national clinical guidelines and clarification of primary health care workforce scope in Kiribati.

Michelle was a Global Nursing Leadership Institute (GNLI) scholar in 2017 and has played a central role in ICN’s World Health Assembly campaigns and global policy platforms. Her work is grounded in a commitment to nursing as both a discipline and a profession. She brings a unique capacity to bridge frontline care, law, regulation, and global policy, contributing to health system transformation through nursing leadership, professional integrity, and regulatory excellence.