Dr. Simone Collier is a former Special Education teacher who taught in special school settings, and mainstream classroom settings and worked as a Special Education and Behaviour Advisor. Simone worked as a Deputy Principal and as a Guidance Officer before moving into the social work sector, initially in homelessness and domestic and family violence and then into child protection.
Simone has a varied career working with children and young people in residential facilities and in complex care settings as well as in out-of-home-care with foster and kinship carers. Simone has worked in Team leader, Program Co-ordinator, and Program Manager roles in child protection and more recently as a State Project Manager and a Specialist Practice Compliance Manager with Act for Kids. These latter roles were focused on setting up Individual Programs for children and families with multiple and complex needs. Currently, Simone is working in her own private practice providing child play therapy and working to reduce the impact of cumulative harm in children and families.
Simone was involved in an extensive pilot research project in partnership with the University of Southern Queensland trialing an evaluative risk measuring tool for cumulative harm exposure in children and young people. Simone is a specialist consultant advising schools and early education centres on becoming trauma-informed educational facilities, including complex case analysis, coaching, and mentoring staff, and providing ongoing professional supervision services.
Simone works as a lecturer and course examiner in child abuse, trauma and education, and child mental health subjects at the University of Southern Queensland and continues to be involved with a range of research projects to further knowledge and skill in the sector.