Additional speakers are being added regularly

WATCH THIS SPACE  

Dr Leanne Hides

Dr Leanne Hides (BBehSc(Hons), PhD(Clin), MAPS (Clin)) is the clinical and research coordinator of the Substance Use Research & Recovery Focused (SURRF) Program at the ORYGEN Research Centre, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne. She has over 10 years of clinical and research experience in the assessment and treatment of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in young people. Over the past 5 years, Dr Hides has managed a large project which developed new services for young people with depression and substance use in Melbourne. Dr Hides developed, implemented and evaluated a mental health screening tool and cognitive behaviour treatment and training program for co-occurring disorders. To date, over 2.0 million dollars in treatment funding has been awarded to the initiative including a large beyondblue funded study examining the effectiveness of the youth comorbidity service model.

Dr Sue Goldstein 

Dr Sue Goldstein is a medical doctor who specialised in Public Health at the University of the Witwatersrand. She worked in primary health care in Alexandra and Soweto for 10 years prior to specialising. She then became interested in health communication and health promotion and has worked as Community Education Manager at the Johannesburg City Council and at Soul City: Institute for Health and Development Communication since 1995.  She has co-authored a book on Health Promotion in South Africa, and taught Health Promotion and research over many years as an honorary lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand and Pretoria. She has also been an external examiner for the University of the Cape Town.

Through working with Soul City Dr Goldstein has developed experience in producing adult and children’s “edutainment” and also has focused on the evaluation of the impact of Soul City and of health communication in general. She also has vast experience in communication around AIDS, having worked with both the government “Beyond Awareness” campaigns and the “Khomanani” campaigns, as well as in communicating with children, though the development of the Soul Buddyz vehicle. As an individual she has always been concerned with social justice and was a founder editor of Critical Health as well as an active member of the NAMDA emergency medical services, an active member of the Progressive Primary Health Care Network and a board member of the PPASA. Dr Goldstein has presented papers at many National and International conferences.  She is married with three wonderful daughters.

Dr Sarah Parker

Dr. Parker is originally from Australia where she worked in social policy research primarily relating to the analysis and evaluation of disability policies and programs.  She is now an Assistant Professor at the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago where she teaches courses in theories and perspectives of disability studies, and disability policies and legislation.  Her research focuses around comparative disability policies and legislation, and human rights and disability.  Recent projects have included a national analysis of supported accommodation options for people with disabilities; an examination of the use of UN human rights treaties for people with disabilities; and an overview of disability services across the world.
She is currently heading up a project which is analyzing the impact of welfare-to-work policies on participation opportunities for people with disabilities across four countries; and is co-editing a book on international disability policy.

Professor Lesley Chenoweth

Lesley Chenoweth BSocWk, MSocWk, PhD is the inaugural Professor of Social Work and Co-Director of the Griffith Abilities Research Program at Griffith University. She has more than thirty years experience as a social work and human service practitioner and academic, twenty of these in the disability area.
 
Lesley’s research has spanned disability issues, human services and rural communities, welfare reform, recruitment and retention in human service organisations, and social work practice. She has conducted research on disability policy analysis, deinstitutionalisation, families, violence and abuse, human services in rural communities, the impact of welfare reform and recruitment and retention in child welfare. Her work has been translated into Japanese and Korean.  Lesley is on the editorial board of International Journal of Comparative Social Welfare, Journal of Adult Protection, Review of Disability Studies and is a regular reviewer for several other international journals in the social work and disability fields.  She is co-author, with Donna McAuliffe, of a leading social work text: The road to social work and human service practice: An introductory text.
 
Lesley is a regular consultant to government and community organisations and has served on numerous boards and committees for disability, legal and family welfare agencies. She is a regular invited speaker at conferences both in Australia and overseas

Alison Peters

Alison Peters is the Director of the Council of Social Service of NSW (NCOSS) a position she has held since November 2007. Prior to this Alison was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Unions NSW for seven years.

Previously, Alison has held many positions within the trade union movement including Secretary of the Australian Services Union (NSW & ACT Services Branch), National Chairperson of the ASU and Vice President of the Labor Council of NSW (now Unions NSW). She has also been a delegate to several ACTU Congresses.

Alison holds degrees in Commerce (Industrial Relations) and Law from the University of NSW. She was director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and has also been a director of Sydney Water and the NSW Working Women’s Centre. She has been a member of the Premier's Council for Women, the Cooperatives Council, the Privacy Advisory Committee, the Advisory Council for the International Year of the Volunteer and the Sydney University Work and Organisational Studies Advisory Board.

Professor Colleen Cartwright

Professor Colleen Cartwright is Foundation Professor of Aged Services and Director of the Aged Services Learning and Research Centre at Southern Cross University, Coffs Harbour. She has extensive teaching and research experience in ageing, ethics and medical decisions at the end of life, at national and international levels, with publications in major journals and a number of book chapters. Colleen regularly runs information and training sessions for community and health professional groups on ethical and legal issues, including advance care planning, informed consent and capacity.

Vince Ponzio

Mr Vince Ponzio is the current Director of the Integrated Services Project, a cross agency Project led by NSW Dept of Ageing Disability and Home Care.  Prior to taking up this appointment in June 2007, Mr Ponzio worked in a variety of senior management and coordination roles within South East Sydney Illawarra Area Mental Health Services. These included those of Deputy Director and Acting Director of Mental Health at St George and Area Coordinator, Multicultural Mental Health. Mr Ponzio's professional background is in clinical psychology and he has worked as a clinician in mental health and intellectual disability services. Aside from his interests in these clinical areas, he has special interest in building the capacity of services to work with people with complex needs and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.  

For the main part of Lana's working career she has been involved in Public Housing and specifically Aboriginal Housing. During the past four years Lana has managed the Strategic Policy Unit of the Office for Aboriginal Housing (formerly the Aboriginal Housing Authority). There has been an overwhelming need to establish a form of supportive housing to tenants within the context of Aboriginal Housing and even in the context of public housing. Lana's role within the Common Ground Adelaide project has been to research and implement a supportive housing model, which is now expanding to incorporate the program management of their first site – the Franklin Street Units

Sally McManus, Secretary, Australian Services Union of NSW

Sally McManus is a graduate of Macquarie University where she completed her Philosophy Degree. Sally has worked in the trade union movement for 14 years and began working as an Organiser with the ASU in 1994.

She gained a thorough knowledge of a diverse range of industries during this time in both the private and public sector, and blue and white collar industries. She was involved in organising and campaigning in the social and community services, information technology, shipping/travel, ports, local government, water and transport industries. Most of this time was spent organising workers in emerging industries with low union density.

Sally was appointed Assistant Branch Secretary in 2002, elected to the position of Executive President in 2003 and became Branch Secretary in 2005. She is a member of the ASU’s National Executive and has been a representative on the ACTU Executive.

Merryl Wilson

Merryl Wilson is Coordinator of the Accord and Older Persons Strategy with NSW Department of Housing.  She is a qualified Social Worker with experience working in SAAP funded accommodation services, community health and education. She joined Housing NSW 10 years ago and has worked in Client Service and Project Development.

Julie King

Julie King is a private Rental Brokerage Specialist in Lismore has worked with Housing NSW for 7 years and previously has worked in the community sector with neighbourhood centres, respite services, youth and accommodation services in the northern rivers area for the last 20 years