Champions

Lucinda Brogden
Co-Chair & Commissioner
National Mental Health Commission

Lucy has a strong commitment to helping others and building stronger communities. She takes an evidence-based approach to problem solving and social investment.

Chez Curnow
Mental Health & AOD Manager
Suicide Prevention & Low Intensity Strategies

Chez is a passionate advocate for equity in access and encouraging help-seeking behaviours in regional and rural communities.

Maria Cassaniti
Centre Manager
NSW Transcultural Mental Health Centre

Maria’s key area of interest is in the development of mental health services that promote access and equity of service provision and that respond to the needs of culturally diverse populations.

Bronwen Edwards
CEO
Roses in the Ocean

Bronwen is the Founder and CEO of Roses in the Ocean, a leading lived experience organisation in the suicide prevention sector. She is a key advocate for the inclusion of lived experience in all aspects of suicide prevention.

Mark Leopold
Head of Growth and Innovation
Transitioning Well

With leadership experience across a broad range of companies, including leadership roles at Beyond Blue and SuperFriend, Mark understands that effective, visible action on mental health and wellbeing improves organisational performance. He is a collaborative, positive leader focused on stakeholder engagement and business development. He is a passionate advocate for better mental health.

Mark has been fortunate to work on workplace mental health initiatives with major commercial organisations and government agencies across Australia. He actively advocates for better mental health and wellbeing and has presented at over 100 events including numerous keynote addresses at national conferences. Mark openly shares his experience and the sometimes messy intersections of work and life, helps others to achieve their best possible mental health.

Dr Zac Seidler
Director of Mental Health Training
Movember

Dr. Zac Seidler is a Clinical Psychologist, the Director of Mental Health Training at Movember and a Senior Research Fellow with Orygen at The University of Melbourne. Zac has devoted several years to the goal of reducing the staggering male suicide rate, treating and researching men’s mental health with over 50 peer-reviewed articles published.

Clare Kinsella
Director, Communications and Media Relations
Suicide Prevention Australia

A passionate and experienced mental health and wellbeing advocate, Clare leads the communication strategy at the national peak body, Suicide Prevention Australia. Her experience spans across public health campaigns, advocacy and stakeholder engagement. The use of safe language, stigma reduction and advocating for responsible media reporting around suicide and mental ill health is an important part of her work.

Nikki Hogan
Director, External Relations
Mental Health Australia

Nikki is a skilled communications and fundraising professional with diverse experience across public administration, the tertiary sector and not for profits. At Mental Health Australia, she manages all aspects of communications, marketing, and stakeholder relations as well as oversight of the Embrace Multicultural Mental Health Project and the national World Mental Health Day awareness campaign. A natural collaborator, Nikki’s interests lie in how we speak about mental health, the importance of elevating vulnerable voices and the confluence of politics, government, and community to achieve change.

Christopher Rainbow
Lived Experience Researcher (PhD Candidate)
Centre for Social and Early Emotional Development (SEED), Deakin University

Christopher has spent over a decade working in the mental health sector in both Australia and New Zealand. An experienced and person-centered researcher in the field of mental health and suicide prevention, he has provided leadership in effective communication, collaboration and messaging about suicide. With a background in building and managing a large national online peer support service, he has also demonstrated expertise in service management and peer support, leading the development of the Beyond Now safety planning app and Beyond Blue's online peer support forum.

Professor Nicholas Procter
Chair Mental Health Nursing
University of South Australia

Professor Procter is Chair: Mental Health Nursing and leader of UniSA’s Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Research Group. He is a former member of the writing team for Australia’s National Suicide Prevention Strategy (LiFE Framework) and the Steering Committee for the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Own Motion Investigation into Suicide and Self-Harm across the Australian Immigration Detention Network. In addition to many other activities Professor Procter is an advisor to Australia’s National Suicide Prevention Taskforce and Australia's National Representative to the International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP) to 2023.

Samuel Hockey
Youth and lived experience researcher
University of Sydney Brain and Mind Centre

Samuel endeavours to always amplify the voice of real people's experiences in mental health to change healthcare systematically. He is invested in the change occurring respectfully and with the knowledge of who the change serves in front of mind.

Rebecca Wood
Marketing Manager
R U OK?

Rebecca Wood is the Marketing Manager at R U OK? and is passionate about creating integrated campaigns to educate, empower and inspire meaningful conversations, particularly to targeted and vulnerable population groups. She has over 20 years’ experience across corporate, tertiary and not-for profit sectors and is a casual lecturer in Marketing at Western Sydney University and Macquarie University.

David Burroughs
Chief Mental Health Officer
Westpac

David has worked as a psychologist across community, military and workplace mental health for around 20 years. His speciality has been operating at the nexus of clinical and organisational psychology to help design, implement and evaluate strategies to support positive workplace mental health and proactively manage mental ill-health. Dave is also actively involved in the small business and men’s mental health domain and has a passion for the practical application of psychological research.

Jemma Collova
Research Associate
Bilya Marlee School of Indigenous Studies - The University of Western Australia

Jemma has Italian heritage, and was born and raised on Whadjuk Noongar Country, in Perth. Jemma completed her PhD in Psychology at UWA, and is now working as a postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre of Best Practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention, led by Professor Pat Dudgeon. Jemma is passionate about supporting Indigenous-led approaches to suicide prevention, and collaborative research which supports and empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Erin Halligan
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Director
LGBTIQ+ Australia

Darren Black
CEO
Superfriend