Each member of our dedicated team has a wealth of knowledge and experience related to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child protection sector in Queensland. Together, we have shared understandings, experiences and relationships developed from working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We use this solid framework to support our members to improve the lives of children and families in their communities. You can find out more about working with us here.
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Garth has dedicated his professional career to improving health and community services from the government and not-for-profit sector. He has significant executive experience, including on several boards across health (including mental health), housing, media and recruitment. Garth is passionate about supporting organisations to improve their strategy implementation, strategic and operational governance, and manage change.
As well as being our CEO, Garth also leads the evaluation of the Youth Justice Family Led Decision Making trial, the establishment of our Centre of Excellence and the development of 33 Family Wellbeing service catchment profiles. Garth provides high-level evidence-informed policy analysis and strategic advice on issues and opportunities that positively impact on the rights and needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
+61735180073
Candice is a Social Worker with over 15 years’ experience working across government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander affairs. Candice has strong family connections to Yarrabah in North Queensland.
Candice manages and leads our Innovation and Practice Development team. Inspired by the advocacy and leadership shown by every worker in this sector, Candice leads and coordinates the development of appropriate sector responses in the areas of training, external supervision etc. She also supports the development of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Kinship Care Program.
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Justin is of Aboriginal and Torres Strait heritage. On his mother’s side, he is a proud descendant of the Birri-Gubba Juru (Bowen), Janga (Mt Coolon), and Birri (Collinsville) peoples in North Queensland. He also has strong ties to Ugar Island in the Torres Strait. His father is a Darumbal man from Rockhampton and has connections to Santo Island in Vanuatu.
Having a strong Aboriginal and Torres Strait upbringing Justin has spent most of his career working in programs and policy areas within the Queensland Government, to improve engagement and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, families, and community.
Justin aims to give back to the community and use his skills and knowledge to demonstrate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practices, protocols are our way of life and can co-exist to improve systems that better support his people. To help with this journey Justin is currently completing a Bachelor of Laws at QUT.
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Lisa is a Social Worker and Senior Research Fellow at the QATSICPP Centre for Excellence. Lisa has demonstrated expertise in inclusion of the voices of lived experience in the co- design, implementation and evaluation of innovative large-scale programs. As a highly motivated, professional driven by a strong commitment to human rights and social justice Lisa has led and managed multiple human services organisations and has been a contributor to social policy change.
She has been the Chair of the Child and Family Welfare Association of Australia and Chair of the Child Protection Committee in Queensland. In 2006 Lisa completed a Churchill fellowship to study effective models of residential care.
Lisa has a passion for the voice of children and young people, harnessing co-design principles that preference the wisdom of our First Nations people and survivors of trauma as the means to creating meaningful knowledge, evidence and policy that leads to real change.
+61731537783
Kylie has joined QATSICPP after 25 + years in the Qld public service – primarily in child safety. Kylie’s commitment is to quality, culturally sound services to children and families and has dedicated her career to working towards that.
She is deeply humbled to have the opportunity to work with QATSICPP and to contribute to the organisation achieving its strategic goals and to learn from her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues and the sector.
Kylie is from NZ and grew up there and in Papua New Guinea – both countries setting the foundations for her values and beliefs and the way she sees the world.
+61731537787
Jen brings a wealth of executive public and community sector experience to her role, ranging across justice, health and education. She is inspired by the work of her colleagues and our community in advocating for organisational and systemic change that will ensure improved and sustainable outcomes for our children, young people and families.
Jen leads our executive services and administration function.
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Sheree is a proud Kullilli Kooma Gungarri woman with over 15 years experience within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander administration sector. Sheree provides executive support to our team and members.
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Stevie’s family hails from Bundajung Country in Northeastern New South Wales. Stevie provides administrative support to our team and is the first point of contact for people reaching out to and visiting QATSICPP.
+61735180076
Lenny is a descendant of the Quandamooka Nation (North Stradboke Island) and Koa peoples (Winton area) and has connections to Cherbourg where his mother was born and raised. Lenny says the best part of his work is knowing that we are having a positive impact on the lives of our children, young people and families.
Lenny builds and nurtures productive working relationships with member organisations and ensures our projects and services are responsive to their needs. He develops effective partnerships with our key external stakeholders, shares research and advice with our community. Lenny is also responsible for developing and distributing the QATSICPP newsletter.
Arnold is humbled for having the opportunity to support children and families impacted by the child protection system across Queensland for the past 20 years in a variety of roles. This includes providing direct support to children and families, leading and managing teams who deliver programs to our communities as well as supporting individual staff, services and organisations to use best practice standards that prioritise maintaining a culturally safe focus for our mob.
Arnold is keen to continue supporting the improved outcomes for our kids and families through his role with QATSICPP by collaborating with Community Controlled organisations in Northern Queensland to deliver the best possible service when walking alongside our mob on each of personal and collective journeys towards healing and self-determination.
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Joshua is a proud Murriwarri & Kullilli Man with a wealth of knowledge and years of experience working across the Community Controlled Sector and Social Services. Previously, Joshua worked as the Youth Justice Family Led Decision Making Program Manager for ATSICHS Brisbane working closely with families, young people and Youth Justice in the ATSIFLDM framework to lead self-determination towards greater self-agency.
Before this role, he held several other positions across ATSICHS Brisbane, including Deadly Choices Officer, Youth Specialist as part of ATSICHS Youth Services and working for the Indigenous Youth Mobility Pathways Program (IYMP) to support Young Adults to access vocational studies. Joshua aspires to continue learning from others for greater outcomes while developing his skillset to support where he can across the sector.
Jenna is a proud Burra Burra woman from Gundungurra Country, a beautiful part of Australia west of Sydney. Jenna has worked in the social development and youth work space for 10+ years in the pacific, middle east and Aotearoa.
Most recently, Jenna worked as a Youth Development Specialist in the Wirrimanu Aboriginal Community in Central Desert, WA, and as an Impact Consultant for Proven Change. Jenna’s passion lies supporting Indigenous Australians to thrive individually and collectively.
Reno is a project officer that is working on the implementation of Delegated Authority. Reno has worked in the Community Controlled, Federal Government and Local Government with experience in management and government initiatives.
Reno is qualified in Child Youth and Family intervention space and has worked in the family prevention space and Community Develop space for 12 years. Reno’s passion is in prevention and creation of long term sustainable change and supporting children to be at home with their families.
Kristin is from Boigu Island, Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait). With her father’s side from Boigu Island and her mother is Australian, Kristin understands what life is like walking in two worlds; observing and experiencing the challenges first-hand of navigating and accessing systems and services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. As a result, Kristin has a passion for systemic reform to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
Over the past 13 year, Kristin has been working with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities linked to designing and implementing outcomes linked to closing the gap targets. Most recently, Kristin was embedding cultural safety and addressing racism in national health regulation for registered health practitioners.
Kristin is the Senior Policy Officer for Closing the Gap at QATSICPP. Kristin works closely with the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Coalition and respective Senior Policy Officers identifying opportunities to embed the voice and needs of children and families into the Queensland implementation of the Close the Gap priority reforms, outcomes and targets.
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Lucas Moore has been working and volunteering for 20 years in systemic advocacy, community development and the media. He worked for over 12 years with the CREATE Foundation, a national advocacy body promoting the voices of children and young people with a care experience. While with CREATE Lucas undertook a variety of roles, including as Queensland Coordinator for CREATE, where he worked with a network of young advocates around the state, listening to them about their experiences in the care system and working alongside them to create systemic change.
In 2014 Lucas’s work was recognised by National Children and Youth’s Law Centre Outstanding Contribution to Advocacy Award and in 2019 he won the Non-Government Professional category at Queensland Child Protection Week Awards.
Lucas is a passionate supporter of self-determination and pursuing the implementation of Indigenous Data Sovereignty.
Colleen is a strong Aboriginal woman from the Birrigubba Nation, and a proud descendant of the Biri and Jangga people through her mother and Juru and Ugar people in the Torres Strait through her father.
Colleen has over 10 years’ experience in the Foster and Kinship Care space working within the Non-Government Sector. Prior to this, working within QLD Government across different areas, as a Human Resource Officer with the Department of Child Safety, Project Officer with Emergency Services, Vocational Education & Training and the Tertiary Sector.
The cultural authority that’s been passed down to Colleen from her ancestors, in particular her mother and father has guided Colleen’s journey keeping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, young people in the care system, strongly connected to their culture and family.
Working as a Project Officer in the Workforce Development Team with QATSICPP has given Colleen the opportunity to work in a dynamic team who are passionate about self-determination and empowerment for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people. Colleen is inspired to advocate and actively work towards reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the child protection sector with a positive outcome of families caring for families.
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Tamara is a strong Kalkadoon/Waanyi woman who hails from North West Queensland. Tamara joins QATSICPP with a teaching background and over six years experience in the child protection sector. Tamara is inspired about being at the forefront of change and empowerment for Indigenous Australian families involved in child protection.
Tamara is passionate for addressing not only the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in the Child Protection space but also empowering our sector and communities to have their voices heard when making decisions about our children. It is important to Tamara that our kids are cared for by mob so they can grow up having an understanding of self, this understanding builds identity, identity equals strength and we want future generations to be strong in who they are.
Tamara’s role will see her supporting the sector in the QATSICPP professional scholarship, the QATSICPP Workforce Strategy and working alongside members of the team in the identification of emerging best practice.
+61735180075
Tiresa is a proud Samoan woman who hails from the village of Sataua, Savai’i and raised in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Greatly influenced by the matriarchs of her family, she was encouraged to pursue knowledge, help others unassumingly and challenge ideals that conflicted with their cultural norms. These values and connection to family have kept her well-grounded in her culture.
Since completing her bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Tiresa worked in government and not-for-profit organisations and has almost 15 years’ experience in the areas of case management, alcohol and other drugs counselling, health promotion and research. Tiresa is excited about her journey with QATSICPP as she is passionate about social justice and empowering individuals to become their own independent selves having worked extensively with children, young people, and family groups in regional Australia and New Zealand.
Tiresa looks forward to helping reinforce the importance of Indigenous culture within the child protection sector and strengthen innovative practice with our members.
Olivia is a proud woman of Fijian descent and is grounded in strong cultural values. Finding many similarities between her own Indigenous culture of Fiji and that of the First Nations people, she is eager to learn more through her love of family road trips, taking the roads less travelled and is seeking to make connections with locals to gain more cultural knowledge.
Olivia has worked for over 10years in Youth Justice and has a passion to help children, young people and their families survive, strive, and thrive in their communities. Starting out as a Detention Youth Worker, her enthusiasm to improve service delivery has created many opportunities to undertake other roles within Youth Justice. From her work experience in Youth Detention and seeing first-hand the overrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the justice system, Olivia has developed a desire to turn her focus towards prevention and early intervention in our communities.
Olivia joins QATSICPP as a Project Officer (part-time) with the Strategy and Workforce Development team. She is excited to invest her time and effort into a role and an organisation that will create systemic change, support, and empower First Nations children, young people, and their families to continue to build stronger, safer communities through cultural knowledge, guidance and family-led decision making.
+61731537768
Lacreicha Major is a proud Kalkadoon/Mitakoodi woman from North West Queensland. She has worked within the not-for-profit social services sector and the community controlled sector for over 10 years in Finance, HR and Administrative related roles. Holding a Bachelor of Commerce, she is currently studying to become a Chartered Accountant.
Lacreicha has a strong desire and is determined to enhance finance, HR and governance areas within our sector specifically, financial literacy and the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Paula is a South African woman who migrated with her family as a child in 1989 and joined the QATSICPP team in 2018 with a background in hospitality, event management and community radio. Since joining our Team, Paula and has held roles as Office Manager, Project Officer, and Quality Manager.
Paula is passionate and committed to investing her creative gifts and talents into co-ordinating professional communications and events which showcase and promote our vision and the work of our Sector and Team.
As Communication and Events Co-ordinator Paula looks after our social media and communications, and supports our Event Committee to co-ordinate our Members’ Conference and Awards.