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Chris Gibbs, Chief Executive Officer
As MHPN’s CEO, Chris oversees all of the activities of the Mental Health Professionals Network.
Chris has held significant leadership positions in the public health sector. He has undertaken roles at Melbourne Health and within both the Victorian Public Service and the community services sector. For 8 years, Chris was the Director of North Western Mental Health, one of the largest publicly-funded providers of mental health services in Australia with a clinical workforce of 1300.
Chris is currently Chair of VATMI Industries, a commercial business service employing 420 staff - 350 of whom have a disability. Chris commenced as CEO of MHPN in August 2008.
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Amanda Osciak, Office Manager / Executive Assistant to the CEO
Amanda manages the business operations of MHPN and provides support to the CEO. Her work experience centres around administration and customer service within the private health insurance industry and, more recently worked as an Office Manager specialising in corporate event management, OH&S, and office operations for a 120-seat venue.
Amanda is keen in contributing her organisation and people skills to the success of the MHPN project.
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Stewart Potten, National Project Manager
Stewart is responsible for the national rollout of the MHPN project through state and territory project teams.
Prior to joining MPHN, Stewart was State Manager, Victoria Faculty at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. He actively supported and resourced member-based general practice 'specific interest' sub-committees to identify educational needs of GPs with a focus of delivering workshops, forums and conferences that are relevant and responsive to day-to-day general practice.
Stewart also worked in the Northern Territory between 2002 - 2008 as Manager, Workforce Programs with General Practice and Primary Health Care Northern Territory, to recruit and support GPs working in indigenous communities in remote areas.
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Trevor Donegan, Finance Manager
Trevor is responsible for overseeing the financial operations of the MHPN project. Prior to joining the program, Trevor served for 8 years as Chief Financial Officer at Northern Health (Victoria). He is a former President of the Australian Health Services Financial Management Association (AHSFMA).
Trevor applies his financial experience to a variety of concurrent roles including consulting to Australia Zoo on Management Accounting, working as Chief Financial Officer for Headspace – the National Youth Mental Health Foundation and serving as Board Member and Chair of Audit and Risk Committee for SGE Credit Union.
Trevor is a CPA, a Fellow of the AHSFMA and a member of both the Institute of Internal Auditors Australia and the Australian Mutuals Institute.
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Ian Macwhirter, Finance Officer
Ian joined MHPN in September 2008 as a Finance Officer. He has worked in a range of finance, systems implementation and change management roles in major public heath organisations. Ian is delighted to be part of the MHPN team and is looking forward to the challenges of supporting the success of this project.
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Tanya Reardon, Communications Manager
Tanya oversees all marketing and communications activities for MHPN, including the website and online events.
She has an extensive background in marketing and copywriting including operating her own business for eight years. Tanya has also worked for a boutique marketing agency, a global pharmaceutical company and has tackled writing assignments for organisations of all sizes and from many industries in between.
Tanya brings her passion for writing and marketing strategy to a project she believes has the potential to make a real difference in the community.
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Claire Murphy, User & Project Support
Claire's role involves assisting users of the MHPN website, and supporting webinar and project teams internally in an administrative capacity.
Claire comes from an administrative background within the IT consulting and the philanthropic sectors.
She is very happy to be working for the non-profit sector again, particularly as she believes MHPN has the potential to positively impact mental health care collaboration and patient outcomes.
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Nicky Bisogni, Clinical Liaison and Professional Development Officer
Nicky acts as the liaison between MHPN and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Nicky has worked in mental health for most of her professional life. Trained as a social worker, she has worked in a range of mental health settings including management of a suite of inner urban community mental health programs, teaching mental health at Melbourne University, Wodonga & NMIT TAFE, and working as a mental health project officer with a Division of General Practice.
Nicky is excited about her role with the Mental Health Professionals Network and in particular, the prospect of offering mental health professionals the opportunity to get together.
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Bianca Romanyk, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Bianca’s role with MHPN is to support ongoing networks in Northern Territory and Queensland.
Bianca is a registered psychologist and has previously worked in the public mental health system. She has been based in Hamilton, Victoria and Inner North Brisbane, Queensland.
Prior to her mental health experience, Bianca’s health-related employment included roles as a paediatric sleep scientist, biology laboratory instructor and psychophysiology technician. During her time as a mental health clinician she was both challenged and inspired by those affected by mental health issues. Bianca aspires to put her clinical skills into practice again in future.
Bianca is excited to be a part of the Mental Health Professionals Network and is motivated to help develop and sustain a high standard of collaborative interdisciplinary networks, which contribute to better outcomes for consumers and carers.
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Geoff Ward, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Geoff’s role is to support the sustainability of networks in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Geoff draws upon a diverse background working in property management, finance and the not-for-profit sector. Geoff is excited to be involved in the MHPN project and to observe the positive impacts interdisciplinary collaboration can make.
He is also inspired by the level of commitment and goodwill shown by those who are involved in the project.
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Lydia Venetis, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Lydia's role with MHPN is to support ongoing mental health networks in Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia.
Lydia has a strong background working in the not-for-profit sector in administration and human resources. Recently she worked with The George Institute for International Health, an organisation aimed at developing improvements to areas of chronic disease, mental health and neurological disease, through research, evidence-based policy development and a range of capacity development programs.
Lydia is inspired by the vision of the MHPN project and dedicated to contributing towards the creation of local mental health networks.
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Val Brown, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Val’s role with MHPN is to actively support the sustainability of networks predominantly across Western Australia and South Australia. She has firsthand knowledge of the remote regions of both states.
Val is a qualified counsellor with a focus on social sciences, having previously worked as a psychosocial rehabilitator undertaking intensive group work, individual counselling and advocacy.
Most recently Val was a volunteer counsellor and co-facilitator incorporating behaviour change for drink driving offenders. The role involved work at a correctional facility in Gippsland. She continues to volunteer with a trauma psychology interest group which runs seminars nationally.
Prior to retraining in the social sciences, Val’s background had a strong administration and quality management focus in government.
Val is keen to contribute to the continuing expansion of interdisciplinary networks and she welcomes the development of mental health knowledge sharing with a focus on better client outcomes.
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Tracy Macfarlane, Senior Project Officer
Tracy Macfarlane is responsible for the NSW and ACT rollout of the Mental Health Professionals Network project, and acts as the liaison between MHPN and the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses.
Trained as a psychologist, Tracy has worked in a variety of paid and voluntary roles in health and academic settings for most of her professional life. Prior to joining MHPN in October 2008 Tracy completed a Masters in Community and Health Development and a consumer and carer engagement project with Mental Health ACT. She has also worked at Lifeline and as an Academic Associate for both Wollongong and Charles Sturt University.
Tracy is excited about her role with the Mental Health Professionals Network and in particular, offering key stakeholders the opportunity to network and create change at a local level.
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Amanda Raward, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Amanda’s role with the MHPN project is to support network sustainability in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and the engagement of mental health consumers and carers.
Amanda has an educational background in Psychology and has worked in a variety of paid and voluntary roles in the Australian Capital Territory community and public sectors over the past 10 years.
Most notably she has worked as a Project Officer with the ACT Council of Social Service on a number of projects including the mapping support services to address disadvantage across the ACT, and the establishment of a representative body for not-for-profit mental health organisations in the ACT.
Amanda has also worked as a statistician in the Mental Health Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and most recently as a Trainer/Advocate with Canberra’s support service for refugees and survivors of torture and trauma.
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Brooke Seivers, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Brooke's role with MHPN is to support the sustainability of ongoing networks in New South Wales and Canberra.
Brooke comes from a strong background in administration and project co-ordination with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Aging. Experienced in event management, Brooke is very keen to bring her strong communication and co-ordination skills to the team.
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Jennifer See, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Jennifer joins the MHPN team to support the the sustainability of ongoing networks in New South Wales and Canberra.
Jennifer recently worked as an Event Coordinator at Parliament House in Canberra coordinating various meetings, parties, conferences and other major and important events. Prior to this, she worked at Crowne Plaza Canberra in hotel reservations. She has a strong administrative background and has spent time working in Canada.
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Jo Haslam, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Jo is a Network Sustainability Project Officer working in the ACT/NSW office. In this role she supports networks across NSW from Central Sydney to Wilcannia.
She comes from a diverse background in private industry, from hospitality management at Parliament House to contract project administration. Working with MHPN is a role Jo enjoys as she has the opportunity to build professional relationships with people from diverse backgrounds and support collaborative practise in mental health.
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Belinda Puniard, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Belinda’s role with MHPN is to support the sustainability of ongoing networks in New South Wales and Canberra.
She came to MHPN after working as a Project Support Officer in the Business Process Review Team of the Department of Health and Ageing.
Belinda has a strong background in administration support, quality improvement initiatives and project support, having worked in administrative roles within ACT Health, specifically Mental Health ACT and Community Health. She was employed as a Consumer Liaison Officer in the Patient Safety and Quality Unit of ACT Health.
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Nic Ridge, Senior Project Officer
Nic’s role with the project is to coordinate the sustainability of ongoing networks in Victoria and Tasmania, and to act as the liaison between MHPN and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
Nic worked for many years for the Schizophrenia Fellowship of Victoria (now the Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria) as a community worker at Rossdale, a long term rehabilitation program for people with chronic mental illness. In this role he worked directly with clients in developing individual service plans, connecting clients to outside services, organising in-house programs and writing policies and procedures.
Nic moved from Rossdale into a secondary school setting, eventually running a large English department catering to a culturally diverse clientele.
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Phil Flanagan, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Phil’s role is to support ongoing networks in Western Australia and South Australia.
His work history is primarily health related, having worked for the NHS in the UK for almost 10 years. There he undertook roles including project work with the NHS's National Training Authority, Executive and Board level support at a large teaching hospital, and involvement in emergency heath planning and purchasing primary & secondary level health care services at a regional level.
Since migrating to Australia in 1997, Phil has worked on the commissioning team responsible for the redevelopment of the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, and within the Educational Services Directorate of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
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Lauren Tyrrell, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Lauren's role with MHPN is to support network sustainability in Victoria.
Lauren joins MHPN with a background in employment policy and research and public relations. She has previously worked for the Brotherhood of St Laurence, coordinating a research project, and University of Melbourne, evaluating community sector employment programs, social enterprise activity in Australia and social connectedness at the local level. Lauren has also worked as an account manager in the public relations field.
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Emma Galligan, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Emma supports the current networks in Victoria and Tasmania and also works to establish new networks where they may benefit local mental health clinicians.
Prior to joining MHPN, Emma worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a Medical Representative promoting medications for cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases. Emma is a qualified Secondary School Teacher with several years experience teaching VCE Biology, Science and Maths in a public school.
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Sarah Moore, Network Sustainability Project Officer
With tertiary qualifications in hospitality and tourism, and a substantial history in customer service, Sarah brings a talent for administration and coordination to her role as a Network Sustainability Project Officer. She focuses on a group of Victorian networks.
Before joining MHPN, she ran teams in major sports venues and for three years directed staff in entertainment and leisure programs for an international tourism operation. At any one time, Sarah was responsible for event coordination, activities and safety for up to 3,500 cruise passengers.
She sees MHPN’s central tenet of interdisciplinary collaboration between mental health clinicians as complementary to her own team oriented approach. Sarah has part time study plans for a Certificate IV in aged care to build on her management skills. She is keen to accompany MHPN on its journey to equality for mental health in the national imagination.
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Angela Miller, Network Sustainability Project Officer
Angela is a Network Sustainability Project Officer with the Victorian and Tasmanian team.
Queensland born and educated, her professional qualification in social work gives her a direct focus on the objectives and goals of MHPN.
She has wide-ranging experience in practical matters surrounding mental health, homelessness and emergency accommodation. Beginning with a university placement in Brisbane’s Inner North Mental Health Service’s psychiatric ward, she went on to spend more than four years with the Salvation Army and NGO, Homeground, working on crisis housing issues.
Angela is investigating further studies in social sciences to complement her work with MHPN. She enjoys the challenge of taking networks to full sustainability while supporting newer groups in their establishment phase.
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