Originally from the UK, as an expedition doctor she has worked everywhere from Morocco to Mongolia, New Zealand and Nepal.

As a mother of two, she described life with her family as a "crazy adventure" complete with animals, a berry farm and the occasional surfing trip. But perhaps her greatest challenge to date came with Dr Reed's appointment as the director of emergency medicine at Launceston General Hospital. 

After two-and-a-half years in the role, she admitted it's been a "tough few years" in the ED. "I've been determined to hang on, for many reasons," she said. 

"Because our department is such a friendly, supportive environment. Because I had an opportunity, I guess, to make a difference. 

"I suppose I thought I could make a difference, and I took that on a little bit blinded, I suppose.

"A little bit leading people into the dark. We are against the odds in picking ourselves back up, but we have."

Last week LGH was granted provisional emergency medicine training accreditation, almost a year on from being stripped of its status with the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine.

The decision was contributed, largely, to the leadership of Dr Reed. 

Describing it as her "big win", she said the achievement didn't come easy, but deserved recognition. 

"I offer that as a happy point of leadership, of women in leadership particularly," she said. 

"It's my department I got this accreditation and I feel very strongly that this is good for us. We still have work to do and we will be inspected down the line. 

"But this is one of my wins, as a woman in the workplace, that is a big win for me.

"It would have been a big win for a male."

With her medical training behind her, along with a few years of travel and fun, Dr Reed decided to pursue a career in emergency medicine in 2003. As part of her training she left England behind for New Zealand, where she spent a year in pediatrics before taking up her first consultancy job - four months after the birth of her first child, Rosie. 

The career change also coincided with a wedding to husband Andy, a paramedic, and not long after the birth of their second child, Finn. 

While New Zealand was only supposed to be a temporary move, Dr Reed said the family haven't set foot back in England since. Instead, they decided to move to Tasmania. 

"We kind of thought it would be for a couple of years," she explained.

"We thought we would have this crazy adventure and that would be it. I don't know what happened, but we just got settled.

"We bought a crazy old run down farm outside of Launceston and now have a massive berry orchard and a small holding of animals. We live this crazy life. We both work shifts. Me, less so now as director. The children go to school, the animals get fat. I sometimes think we muddle through life, but it is fairly focused."

While her transition into leadership happened quite gradually, Dr Reed joked that she sometimes felt like a "professional mother" - at home and in the ED. 

But despite the demands of both her roles, she remains focused on the positives. 

"Launceston is very good in medicine, but in general we are very good at picking out what we have done wrong," she said.

"We are in a really privileged position, particularly in emergency. We do a lot of good and I think we forget to celebrate that sometimes.

"I feel like we are on an upward trend at the moment and I really think I have a sort of purpose in that. I have a feeling that we can do this.

"We have a great basis in our department. We have fantastic people and generally we run an extremely good, tight team.

"Medicine is always going to be my passion. I am going to have to be near to patients, because that is where we really make a difference."