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Dr Melanie Boursnell is deeply committed to improving health and social outcomes across various sectors and uses her lived experiences in her role as Chair of the Carers Advisory Council. Melanie has an extensive and diverse career spanning the public sector. From senior leadership roles to her governance portfolio, she is an esteemed and trusted advisor. Melanie thrives on tackling big, complex, system-wide issues, relishing challenges where change potential is high, yet risks are unpredictable. With over 20 years’ experience across the UK, New Zealand and Australia, she specialises in robust governance, systemic issue resolution, and strategic direction development, ensuring organisational sustainability and fostering strong cultures.
An experienced executive leader and strategist, Melanie has a proven track record of overseeing and delivering innovative solutions that transform complex organisations. Her governance background, coupled with extensive board experience, underscores her commitment to equity and equality advocacy, fuelled by a drive for change.
Beyond her leadership roles, Melanie has contributed significantly to academia. With more than 100 conference presentations and publications covering health, mental illness, risk associated with parental mental health, violence, abuse and neglect, she demonstrates a dedication to advancing knowledge in critical areas.
Tanya Walford is a passionate entrepreneur and business owner. Her extensive experience as a carer is the result of being a mum to three young people with disabilities.
From early in her career Tanya was faced with the challenges of needing to care for her family and wanting to extend her career. This formed a strong need to advocate for and recognise carers in every part of her work. In 2014, Tanya started her own National Disability Insurance Scheme registered business to support participants, families and carers with a focus on building quality outcomes. Her business employs more than thirty people including a large number of carers and people with disability from diverse backgrounds. This is a recognition of the value that lived experience brings to the workplace and the wider community.
Tanya is an engaged board member of Disability Intermediaries Australia and an Australian Institute of Company Directors Graduate. In addition, Tanya has been nominated for a number of awards recognising her contribution to collaborative leadership. She also devotes time to working as an advocate for carers within various committees and platforms within the NDIS community.
Hugh Bainbridge is an Associate Professor in the School of Management and Governance at the University of New South Wales. He has more than 20 years of research experience and professional engagement with carers and carer groups and he currently works extensively with Carers NSW to support initiatives including the biennial National Carers Survey and the Carers Knowledge Exchange.
Previously, Hugh served in the project management group that oversaw the development of the NSW Government 2020-2030 Carers Strategy and supported the creation of the Carers NSW Employers and Carers Network. His research focuses on the workforce experience of people who provide unpaid care to family members who have disabilities or are elderly. His work specifically contributes to an evidence base on carer decisions about exiting and re-joining the workforce. This research covers issues such as carer friendly employer branding, flexible work arrangements, job relevant skills developed during caring, community and employer perceptions of carers, and how current and former carers search for work.
Dianne Brookes is a Yorta Yorta woman who prides herself on her ability to assist communities to achieve positive outcomes through planning, education and advocating.
She has lived in the Nepean region for most of her life and started caring at a young age, for her mother who lived with a psychosocial disability. This was great preparation for the birth of her first child living with autism.
Dianne has facilitated small groups in support of other carers so their voices can be heard. She has been invited to participate and share her knowledge and experience in various roundtables to support the sharing of information through research. As a carer she has supported members of her family to reach their full potential in many areas of diversity.
Susan Goldie has worked in the community sector for almost 30 years in a wide range of management, executive and governance roles. She has led numerous programs in mental health education, psychosocial and peer support for people affected by cancer, emergency relief and referral to reduce the impacts of disadvantage, better outcomes at end of life, circular economy social enterprise, to name a few. A golden thread that is present in all of these programs has been the role carers play and their unique challenges, which often go unaddressed by service provision.
Susan has a wealth of experience in community engagement and capacity building through education and peer-to peer-initiatives. Familiar with change at organisational and systems level, Susan is also experienced in services design and evaluation for maximum impact.
Associate Professor Myra Hamilton is an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney. She is a sociologist and social policy scholar with 18 years’ experience conducting research across all aspects of care, carers and care services in Australia and internationally.
Her research has involved working with diverse groups of carers and has focused on how policies and services can improve the lives of carers of a person with a disability, chronic illness, mental illness, or an ageing relative, with a strong focus on lived experience. Her research has focused on the impacts of unpaid care (such as on education, paid work, and financial security), and on carer policies and services (such as the NDIS, aged care services, the Carer Gateway, respite services, leave policies, carer recognition, and others).
She sits on the Board of COTANSW and is an adviser to Carers NSW. She has extensive experience working with and for the NSW Government and community sector organisations in NSW on legislation, policies and issues concerning carers.
Since retiring from corporate life in 2018, Sanjay Lele has been involved in a range of health and community causes and activities including; volunteering for the Cancer Council, as a member of the Bankstown Hospital’s executive project control group, disability and carer committees at district and local level. He has also been an executive member of the District Community and Consumer Council, as well as Co-Chair of the Inclusion Council of Australian Foundation for Disability.
Sanjay is also a committee member for the Keeping People Healthy South West Sydney Local Health District Prevention Plan 2023-2027 and the Get Skilled access program, Dylan Alcott Foundation, at Bankstown Lidcombe Hospital.
Sanjay and his wife are carers for their 34-year-old daughter who has an intellectual and physical disability with uncontrolled epilepsy.
Sanjay is a passionate advocate in his community, using his experience as a carer to help improve the lives of people suffering from disabilities and mental health issues and their dedicated carers.
Levina Pham has been a carer since she was eight years of age. Alongside her mother, Levina is a carer for her younger brother who is diagnosed with level 3 autism spectrum disorder and a severe intellectual disability.
Coming from an Indonesian and Vietnamese background, her family has struggled in navigating the disability care landscape as a culturally and linguistically diverse family (CALD). She hopes to raise awareness of the issues faced by CALD carers in carrying out their duties and the need to improve multilingual resources.
Levina is a passionate advocate for young carers and has personal experience in juggling study and work alongside her carer responsibilities. Levina aims to continue to improve the level of support and recognition they receive from the community.
Levina previously served as a Liverpool City Youth Counsellor from 2016-2018, providing feedback and advice on issues and developments in the community affecting young people. Levina is currently an Investment Analyst at a Sydney-based investment management firm.
Tilda Sikes is the Director, Communications and Change for the Legislative Assembly in the NSW Parliament and has extensive experience in the education and community sectors. She is a carer for relatives and is particularly interested in advocating for the accessibility of digital transformation projects for vulnerable people. Her professional experience in corporate communications and building new digital platforms will bring new insights, at a time when so many support services are transitioning to online processing of requests for assistance.
She is also currently on the board of Youth Off the Streets and has been on the Boards of organisations such as Arts and Cultural Exchange, Multicultural Arts Alliance, Community Arts Marrickville and the Greek–Australian Lemnian Association of NSW. Her professional experience includes working at the Department of Education, Premier and Cabinet, Belvoir St Theatre and Sydney Festival and Carnivale. She is passionate about community development, advocacy, the arts and education. Tilda is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Institute of Community Directors.
Outside of work, Tilda is supporting her parents by helping them with the running of their farm, is a member of the Country Women’s Association and the local Landcare network.
Stacey Touma is a passionate advocate for empowering families of children with disability, developmental delays and medical needs. With a background in the not-for-profit sector, she leads an organisation that provides peer support to families who are caring for children with disability.
As a member of the Carers Advisory Council, Stacey is committed to drawing from her own lived experience and understanding of the unique challenges faced by carers and their families. She aims to promote better outcomes and support for carers and ensure that every family has access to the support and resources they need to thrive. Stacey is particularly interested in ensuring that support reaches parents of children with disability who may not identify as carers and are missing out on valuable support.
07 Jun 2024