The Hatchery

Dr Silke Meyer is the Leneen Forde Chair in Child and Family Research and a Professor of Social Work at Griffith University. She is the former Deputy Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and continues to hold an adjunct appointment with the Centre. She is a criminologist and social worker by training, bringing practical and theoretical expertise to her research, teaching and writing. Her research centres on different aspects of domestic and family violence, including women and children’s safety, wellbeing and recovery, men’s accountability in their role as perpetrators and fathers, experiences specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the role of domestic and family violence-informed practice in child protection, policing and court proceedings.

Silke has delivered evaluations for a number of government and non-government organisations, including police, child protection, perpetrator intervention and victim support services. She is a Subject Matter Expert for the Raising Children Network and a former non-government member of the inaugural Qld Domestic and Family Violence Death Review and Advisory Board. Her research has been published and cited across disciplines and continues to inform policy and practice in areas of victim, perpetrator and family-related service delivery.

Since 2015 Jacqui has led NTV through transformational change, doubling the size of the organisation and building credibility as a national voice leading best practice in men’s family violence interventions.

With solid people leadership and change management skills, and over 30 years working in the community and government sectors in both Australia and UK, she says she is loving the challenge of leading a men’s organisation at a time of national focus to end family violence.

This is Jacqui’s third CEO role with previous peak roles advocating for community housing. Jacqui has worked in the fields of alcohol and drugs, mental health, disability, social housing and social enterprise.

Jacqui holds an honors degree in Social Policy from University of Edinburgh and a Masters in Management and Social Responsibility from Bristol University.

Jacqui is a GAICD (Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors)

Ken has over thirty-five years’ experience working at the cutting edge of intervention work with men who are violent and who sexually abuse. He is known for his innovative practice ideas and the ability to translate theory into practice.

He has held positions as a member and Chair of the Family Violence Advisory Committee/ Te Rangai Whiriwhiri Tukinotanga a-Whānau. He was also a founding member of the National Network of Stopping Violence Services/Te Kupenga Whakaoti Mahi Putanga and is a past chair. Ken was a member of the regulations working group for the Domestic Violence Act (1995). In addition, he has worked as a part-time lecturer in Social Work at Canterbury University and is now involved full-time with HMA as manager, writer of materials and principal trainer. He has been a member of the Domestic Violence Act Program Approvals Committee for the Ministry of Justice.

Ken McMaster has published two books on Domestic Violence – A Private Affair, GP Books: Wellington (1989) and Feeling Angry, Playing Fair, Reed: Auckland, (1988). He has co-edited a book with Arthur Wells titled Innovative Approaches to Stopping Family Violence, Steele Roberts: Wellington (2003), and with Leon Bakker titled Will they do it again: Assessing and managing risk, HMA Books: Christchurch (2006). In 2011 Ken co-edited with David Riley Effective Interventions with Offenders, Steele Roberts: Wellington (2011).

Ken has an extensive publishing record and regularly undertakes conference presentations. He has had involvement in training corrections staff dating back to 1985 and has led the design of a number of large corrections initiatives in Australia and New Zealand. Ken is MINT trained and is currently Chair of MI Oceania, a voluntary group of MINT members tasked with supporting MI practice within this part of the world.

Ms Creamer is a Waanyi/Kalkadoon woman. She is the CEO of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Alliance, Lawyer and Adjunct Professor in Public Health at the University of Queensland. She was awarded a Member of the Order Of Australia (AM) award in the Queens Birthday Honours 2019 list by the Attorney General of Australia for her work with Indigenous women and peoples.
Ms Creamer is an advisor for the Seventh Generation Board Fund, is on the Board of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum and is on the Advisory team for the Queensland Human Rights Commissioner.

Ms Creamer has been passionate in her work for Indigenous women and peoples and supports Indigenous women globally through her board/advisors positions.

Mr Rigney is a proud Ngarrindjeri man from South Australia and is the Chief Executive Officer of the notfor-profit organisation KWY Aboriginal Corporation.

Mr Rigney was appointed an Our Watch ambassador in May 2022. He is passionate about engaging with men on how they can challenge disrespect towards women. He wants to see an increased awareness of how gender and racial inequality and the ongoing impacts of colonisation contributes to the higher rates of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Mr Rigney is a representative on the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Strategy and is on the board of Child and Family Focus SA – the South Australian peak body for Child and Family well-being.

Mr Rigney is a member of the Department for Correctional Services, Aboriginal Reference Group. He is also a member of Specialist Homelessness Services Sector Reference Group, representing key homelessness areas including Aboriginal, youth and domestic and family violence.

Andrew has been working, teaching, and researching in offender rehabilitation since 1993. As a member of the Social Work & Human Services team at the Ara Institute, Aotearoa NZ he is currently developing a suite of postgraduate Family Violence Intervention micro-credentials. Prior to this he led a team of educators in the postgraduate programs in the same filed at CQUniversity, Australia. His practice and award-winning research into groupwork with violent offenders, along with the establishment of a forensic therapeutic community, has spawned a range of publications across books and academic journals. Theoretical models and other outcomes from this work have been used by state, NGO, and independent service providers to inform practice. Andrew is co-author of a recently published textbook on domestic and family violence for students and practitioners.

Elizabeth Ayom Lang is the founding CEO of Diversity Focus, a research and training consultancy specialising in workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion at the intersections of gender and race. Elizabeth is also a speaker and the author of the upcoming book ‘Wired for Bias’ which explores how algorithms and artificial intelligence perpetuates injustice.

In recognition of her work, she was named Global 100 Under 40 Most Influential People of African Descent and represented Australia in the UN Fellowship Program (2020), celebrating the Decade for People of African Descent.

Elizabeth has a background in community development, tertiary academic teaching (Social Sciences), and qualitative research. She is passionate about grass-roots research that leads to positive outcomes. As an early career researcher, Elizabeth has published in international advocacy and domestic and family violence. She is currently completing her PhD at Curtin University, focusing on conceptualising domestic and family violence in collectivist contexts.

Hala is the founder and director of Global Echo Consultants, and the Institute of non-violence. Her focus is gender equity and antiracism, acknowledging these are linked to economic and environmental justice. She specialises in working with individuals who use family and domestic violence, as well as providing professional training and clinical supervision to practitioners in the space.

Since 2003, Hala has spoken at various local, national, and international conferences as well as various radio and TV programs, in Australia and overseas. A receiver of several awards including the Victorian Award for Multicultural Affairs, an attendee at the Australian 2020 Summit in 2008, and a Vincent Fairfax Fellow since 2009. Hala is also the presenter of Groupwork Centre’s podcast Facilitate This!

A lover of languages, people and creativity, Hala has lived, travelled, and worked in more than 50 countries and across the not-for-profit, public and private sectors.

Kate Fitz-Gibbon is Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and Professor of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University.

She also holds affiliated research appointments with the School of Law and Social Justice at University of Liverpool (Honorary Research Fellow, 2016-2020) and the Research Center on Violence at West Virginia University (2019).

Kate’s qualifications include a Phd in Criminology (2012), Masters of Human Rights Law (2019), Graduate Certificate of Higher Education (2013) and she is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Kate has been a visiting scholar in the Centre for Criminology at Oxford University (2013), The Faculty of Law at University of Auckland (2015) and the School of Justice at Queensland University of Technology (2015).

Kate conducts research in the area of domestic and family violence, femicide, responses to all forms of violence against women, and the impacts of law reform in Australia and internationally. This research is undertaken with a key focus on issues relating to gender, constructions of responsibility and justice. The findings of Kate’s research have been published in books, academic journals, funded reports and presented at national and international criminology conferences.

Mr Rigney is a proud Ngarrindjeri man from South Australia and is the Chief Executive Officer of the notfor-profit organisation KWY Aboriginal Corporation.

Mr Rigney was appointed an Our Watch ambassador in May 2022. He is passionate about engaging with men on how they can challenge disrespect towards women. He wants to see an increased awareness of how gender and racial inequality and the ongoing impacts of colonisation contributes to the higher rates of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Mr Rigney is a representative on the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Strategy and is on the board of Child and Family Focus SA – the South Australian peak body for Child and Family well-being.

Mr Rigney is a member of the Department for Correctional Services, Aboriginal Reference Group. He is also a member of Specialist Homelessness Services Sector Reference Group, representing key homelessness areas including Aboriginal, youth and domestic and family violence.

Michael Willis is a proud Aboriginal Man and father from the Ngemba and Ualarai nations. He has 20 years’ experience in Community Services ranging from Employment, Disability, Education and youth services, and the last 4 years working directly with Aboriginal Men in Crisis within the Illawarra region.

At Gawura Aboriginal Corporation formally known as Illawarra Koori Men’s Support Group. He has worked at all levels of leadership mainly in strategic direction in growing the organisation and implementing Men’s Behaviour Change through our Brother Against Domestic Violence program.

Dr Silke Meyer is the Leneen Forde Chair in Child and Family Research and a Professor of Social Work at Griffith University. She is the former Deputy Director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre and continues to hold an adjunct appointment with the Centre. She is a criminologist and social worker by training, bringing practical and theoretical expertise to her research, teaching and writing. Her research centres on different aspects of domestic and family violence, including women and children’s safety, wellbeing and recovery, men’s accountability in their role as perpetrators and fathers, experiences specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and the role of domestic and family violence-informed practice in child protection, policing and court proceedings.

Silke has delivered evaluations for a number of government and non-government organisations, including police, child protection, perpetrator intervention and victim support services. She is a Subject Matter Expert for the Raising Children Network and a former non-government member of the inaugural Qld Domestic and Family Violence Death Review and Advisory Board. Her research has been published and cited across disciplines and continues to inform policy and practice in areas of victim, perpetrator and family-related service delivery.

With over almost 30 years’ experience in the domestic violence and child welfare fields, David and his Safe & Together Institute focus on improving systems’ responses to domestic violence when children are involved. David has developed the Safe & Together™ Model to improve case practice and cross system collaboration in domestic violence cases involving children. He has identified how a perpetrator pattern-based approach can improve our ability to help families and promote the development of domestic violence-informed child welfare systems.

David and the Safe & Together Institute have worked with governments and NGOs in Canada, the US, Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom. Through their live training, organisational consulting, elearning, and Trainer Certification and Partner Agency Program, the Safe & Together Institute provides organisations and systems with a wide range of tools to partner with adult and child survivors, and intervene with perpetrators. Currently the Institute supports almost 300 Certified Trainers and 80 Partner Agencies worldwide. David hopes that his work ends the use of “failure to protect” mentality in domestic violence cases, and helps systems better work with complex cases involving mental health issues, substance misuse and domestic violence. Recent work with the national Family Court of Australia has brought the same child centred domestic violence lens to custody and access matters. Using an intersectional analysis, the Model is designed to be flexible and relevant across diverse situations.

Jodie Harrison has been the Member for Charlestown since 2014.

Jodie’s commitment to social justice was developed at home and enhanced while a member of the Salvation Army during her teens.

She worked for the United Services Union and subsequently United Voice (now the United Workers Union) where she organised early childhood educators to gain proper recognition and wages for the very important work they do.

In 2012, she became the first female Mayor of Lake Macquarie City.

She is currently the Shadow Minister for Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, Seniors and Women.

Abigail is a Greens MP in the NSW Legislative Council. Abigail’s areas of policy interest include climate change, economic inequality, domestic and family violence, animal welfare, disability and young people. Before running for parliament, Abigail worked for 20 years as a corporate and finance lawyer, specialising in global banking regulation. Abigail is well known for her work on universal basic income, which she sees as a vital step towards recognising unpaid work in our economy and enabling the financial independence of women.

After 18 months of extensive consultation with the domestic violence sector, academics and victim-survivors, in 2020 Abigail introduced into NSW Parliament the first Bill in NSW seeking to criminalise coercive control, and has been working with stakeholders since to ensure that our laws appropriately recognise coercive and controlling behaviour as the harm that it is.

The Hon. Natalie Ward MLC is the Minister for Metropolitan Roads and Minister for Women’s Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence in the Perrottet Government, appointed in December 2021.

Prior to this appointment, Minister Ward was Minster for Sport, Multiculturalism, Seniors and Veterans in the Berejiklian Government.

She joined the Legislative Council of NSW Parliament in November 2017 and was re-elected at the March 2019 state election.

In 2019, Natalie Chaired the Joint Select Committee on Sydney’s Night Time Economy, which ultimately led to the development of the NSW Government’s 24-hour Economy Strategy.

Natalie Chaired the Joint Select Committee on Coercive Control in 2020. In an Australian-first, the committee unanimously recommended that coercive control be criminalised along with 23 recommendations relating to domestic abuse in 2021.

The experience of chairing the Coercive Control Inquiry provided a unique opportunity to engage with a wide range of stakeholders, which she brings to her role as Minister for Women’s Safety and the Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence.

Prior to entering Parliament, Natalie practised law, specialising in commercial litigation, for over twenty years, as well as working in Financial Services and Government. She graduated from The University of Adelaide with Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts (Jurisprudence) in 1996.

Natalie’s community service and personal interests are broad. She has served on the Boards of the Rugby Australia Foundation, Women Lawyers, Rotary Club of Sydney and The Scots College Foundation. Natalie continues to raise two teenagers with her husband David.

Dr Michael Flood is an internationally recognised researcher on violence against women, violence prevention, and men, masculinities, and gender. He has made significant contributions to scholarly and public understanding of men’s involvements in preventing violence against women and building gender equality, and to scholarship and programming regarding violence and violence prevention. Dr Flood also is an educator and advocate. He is the author of Engaging Men and Boys in Violence Prevention (2019), the co-author of Masculinity and Violent Extremism (2022), and the lead editor of Engaging Men in Building Gender Equality (2015) and The International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities (2007).

David has a strong commitment to social justice and advocating for social policy which addresses inequity and unfairness, reflected in his record of innovative service design in the areas of family and domestic violence, homelessness, family support, financial counselling, and fathering.

He has worked in senior positions in government and the community sector and understands the context of both, giving him a unique understanding of how best to shape relationships and outcomes for the community.

In addition to his role as Communicare’s Executive Director Service Delivery and Design, David is the State Co-chair for Anti-Poverty Week and is on the Board of WACOSS.

David has also worked in major system change as part of the child protection reform agenda as well as transformational change programs at UnitingCare West and Communicare.

Communicare’s values of HOPE strongly align with David’s personal values. Hope is about the ability to generate optimism, about holding a positive view on the shared future that we can create. One in which we hold and share a collective responsibility for one another.

David believes leadership is a privilege and the opportunity to lead, enable and inspire so many great people and programs drives him in his work every day, and he has great pride in Communicare’s contemporary, values driven, inclusive and bold approach.

David has qualifications in Social Work, Public Sector Management and is a Company Directors Graduate. He has also completed the Cranlanna Executive Colloquium.

Damian Green is a passionate advocator and researcher of perpetrator responses in Australia with a key vision of instilling a high standard of excellence across the sector. Through his work at SFV, and previous role as a Research Associate within the Social Work discipline at Curtin University, Damian has been involved in an array of national research projects exploring perpetrator interventions in both an advisory and investigatory capacity. Prior to this, Damian worked for nine years at Communicare as Executive Manager for Accommodation and Therapeutic Services. Here, he was responsible for a directorate that included a Professional Training Institute, Psychological Services, Family and Domestic Violence Services and Justice Services.

Prior to commencing employment at Communicare, Damian worked in out of home care with youth and spent 10 years in the management of child care services. Damian is also a Board member of Starick, a not for profit organisation that provides support services to women and children affected by FDV. Damian is a registered psychologist and board approved supervisor with AHPRA and in this role provides clinical supervision and training. He is an accredited Safe & Together Trainer, a Caring Dads trainer, and an experienced group work facilitator and trainer having worked extensively in the areas of violent offending, MBCPs and parenting over the past 15 years. Damian is strongly committed to the goal of ending violence towards women and children.

Marcus has worked in the social work, education and public safety sector for over thirteen years and worked alongside the most amazing people to ensure the safety and wellbeing of some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

Marcus’ current role is the National Family Violence Specialist in the Family Violence Stream for The Salvation Army Australia Territory. This role involves reviewing current services, contributing to planning and development of national frameworks and operating models to enhance service delivery. Previous to the National Specialist role, Marcus was a Practice Leader working with practitioners, consulting and supporting practice in engaging men who chose to use violence. This role was also with The Salvation Army Family Violence Stream but based in the Safety Hubs that were developed as a result of the Royal Commission into Family Violence, Victoria 2015.

Previous to that, Marcus spent just over a decade developing his practice in the Child Services sector and in Education for Victoria.

Marcus has a passion is the Family Violence space specifically, working with men who use violence. More broadly, Marcus is committed and dedicated to contributing to program development and growth in the area of men’s services to not only support men understand the impacts of their violence but to improve the overall safety of women and children.