Presenters
Anna Ryan
A/g Assistant Commissioner, APS ReformAustralian Public Service Commission
Brian is a Director at Services Australia where he leads the team responsible for the development and implementation of the Agency’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and monitoring of the agency’s ongoing commitments to reconciliation. In this role, Brian is looking forward to building on the significant work the agency has undertaken over many years as they progress on their reconciliation journey.
Brian commenced in the public service in 1991 at the Australian Taxation Office where he worked across multiple teams and offices. In November 2022 he transferred to his current role at Services Australia.
Bridie Dawson
Assistant Secretary Human ResourcesAttorney-General’s Department
Bridie Dawson is the Assistant Secretary for Human Resources (HR) in the Attorney-General’s Department having held senior HR roles since 2008. As a HR generalist, Bridie is often called upon to share her insights in HR strategy and how to create strong workplace cultures.
Bridie led her HR team to win HRD Magazine’s ‘Most Innovative HR Team’ in 2018 and 2019; and has presented at the National HR Summit and Innovative Australia Conferences in 2019, 2022 and 2023. Bridie has supported the Australian Parliament in a delegation to Philippines, Laos and Myanmar and was the delegation head for the World Intellectual Property Office to Myanmar to form foundational human resource strategies for the opening of the Myanmar Intellectual Property Office. Bridie has been a Certified Fellow of the Australian Human Resources Institute since 2017.
Catherine is the Director of the ATO’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Team. Catherine and her team work closely with RAP deliverable owners, the RAP Working Group, RAP and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Champions, and other key stakeholders to drive and coordinate the development, implementation, and governance of the RAP.
Prior to becoming Director of the RAP Team, she led the ATO Corporate Plan Team, as well as a Design team and Behavioural Insights Unit.
Claire Stephens
Acting Director, Sex and Gender Section, Human Rights BranchAttorney-General’s Department
Claire Stephens is the Acting Director of the Sex and Gender Section within the Human Rights Branch at the Attorney General’s Department. Claire has been involved in the development and passage of two tranches of legislative reforms that have implemented recommendations of the Respect@Work Report, including the introduction of the positive duty in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
Claire has been at the Attorney-General’s Department for almost 10 years. Prior to working on Respect@Work implementation, Claire worked on the proposed Religious Discrimination Bill, domestic and international anti corruption policy and Commonwealth criminal law policy and legislation.
Clayton is the Director of Inclusion and Diversity at Services Australia.
He has over 26 years of work experience in the Australian Public Services (APS) in various roles including service delivery, technology services and human resources.
For the past 14 years, Clayton has dedicated himself to the important areas of workplace diversity and inclusion. He has employed his knowledge and unique leadership approaches to improve employment opportunities of people from key diversity groups, in particular APS employees with disability.
In the 2018 Queens Birthday Honors list, Clayton was awarded a public service medal for his work in creating more inclusive and accessible workplaces for employees with a disability.
He is a graduate of Queensland University of Technology Business School with a postgraduate business qualification, majoring in Public Service Management.
Clayton is also a professional member of the Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) and the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD).
Daniel Marklew
HR Manager and Capability & Work Practices Lead, Thriving Minds teamAustralian Taxation Office
Daniel is a HR specialist, currently leading a multidisciplinary team of psychologists and human resource practitioners. With a particular focus on developing employees to thrive while managing the challenges of work and life, achievements in his current role includes leading:
- Successful delivery of a series of work practice-based initiatives to reduce the impacts of fatigue and burnout
- Design and rollout of learning events for leaders to identify and take action to address psychosocial hazards within their business, and
- Rapid design and delivery of responsive webinars providing social and wellbeing support for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Daniel has over 20 years of experience as a HR specialist in the public service with a focus on the employee experience and its influence on behaviour and good decision making. He has worked across a broad range of HR functions including leading teams supporting employee engagement, performance, culture, and conduct.
Ella Kucharova
Director, Legal, Respect at Work Implementation TeamAustralian Human Rights Commission
Ella Kucharova has worked in the Legal team of the Australian Human Rights Commission for 6 years and is presently the Director (Legal, Respect at Work Implementation Team) of the Commission’s Respect@Work Implementation Team.
Hannah Venn-Brown
Assistant Director - HR Strategy, Workforce Modernisation BranchServices Australia
Hannah is a self-confessed serial networker and lover of all things Disney, who believes deeply in people and their stories, and says through story telling we learn every person is a door to another world.
She has worked for Services Australia for 20 years and has not followed a traditional career path, and attributes her vast opportunities to being a people person and having relentless enthusiasm.
Hannah’s past careers in Services Australia include working on the frontline in service delivery, to being a member of the pioneer team for the agency’s first innovation program. She will tell you she has done the “sexy work” for government and afforded multiple opportunities simply because she was prepared to say YES, and do it afraid! Not climbing the corporate ladder, but moving scaffold-to-scaffold moving only when the work has been rewarding and interesting.
Hannah is now responsible for Service Australia’s EVP program of work where she has been passed the baton from the legends before her, to continue embedding the key messages the agency wants to share about why Services Australia is a great place to work.
Joelle is a Program Manager at Reconciliation Australia where she leads the RAP Program’s Partner Success portfolio; an area of work that supports RAP organisations to engage genuinely with reconciliation commitments.
Joelle leads a team to deliver training and networking opportunities including the annual National RAP Conference. Joelle is passionate about driving understanding and learning outcomes and creating spaces where people can listen to each other. Prior to Reconciliation Australia, she worked as World Vision Malaysia’s Child Protection and Participation Lead, working in partnership with Indigenous communities in East Malaysia.
Laura Sleeman
Psychologist & Director, Thriving Minds teamAustralian Taxation Office
Laura is a registered Psychologist and the Director of the ATO’s Workplace Mental Health team ‘Thriving Minds’.
Laura has over 10 years’ experience as a practicing psychologist, specialising in Organisational Psychology, with a background in private sector consulting prior to joining the ATO. Laura led the design of the ATO’s Mental Health Strategy and has shaped the ATO’s approach to minimising the impacts of fatigue and burnout on our workforce. This work program has leveraged psychosocial risk research to understand key drivers of workplace stress within the ATO and deployed a series of work practice pilots which have led to increases in wellbeing, and reduction in reports of workplace stress and burnout.
Laura and the team have led the implementation of the ATO’s Psychosocial Risk management program which has included:
- the design of a bespoke Psychosocial hazard survey instrument,
- the creation of hazard management processes under the WHS system, and
- creation and delivery of best practice psychosocial risk controls tailored to the psychosocial risk climate in the ATO.
Beyond these programs, the Thriving Minds team provides a substantial service offer to staff, managers and leaders in the ATO to uplift Mental health capability (through learning products, events and workshops), address and reduce stigma associated with mental illness (anti-stigma campaigns and events such as RUOK day) and provide highly responsive services for staff through our EAP provider, in house psychologists and tailored support services
Les Lisz, is Outreach Engagement Lead at the APS Academy and is passionate about aligning people’s performance with an organisation’s strategic direction. He is a commercially astute and results driven senior manager with extensive global experience in Change Management, Learning and Organisational Development (OD) across a range of sectors in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Strengths include partnering with clients to develop and implement their capability strategy, broad experience in best practice instructional design and facilitation, strong relationship building skills and customer focus, commercial awareness and budget management skills, a passion for leadership and people management, proven project management experience and cultural transformation.
Les has a Masters in Adult Education and qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Luka Campbell
Director, National Regulatory Programs, Regulatory Operations GroupComcare
Luka Campbell is the Director National Regulatory Programs, and leads Comcare's proactive psychosocial inspection program. This program aims to improve health and safety by monitoring and enforcing compliance and providing advice to duty-holders on management of psychosocial risks including workplace bullying, harassment and sexual harassment. The program provides data and intelligence to develop and enhance Comcare’s guidance and resources.
Luka is a seasoned work health and safety professional, with substantial experience in public administration and regulation. Prior to joining Comcare’s Regulatory Operations Group, Luka’s focus was directed towards preventing harm and improving health and safety across NSW public and private sector workplaces. In his recent capacity as Assistant State Inspector Health and Safe Design for SafeWork NSW, Luka led a number of initiatives to tackle complex work health and safety issues and regulatory challenges in the health care and social assistance sector. Luka’s prior experience as Senior Research Officer for the Centre for WHS and as Manager Systems and Performance, Fire and Rescue NSW has provided him the knowledge and skills to apply evidence-based approaches to the management of contemporary and emerging work health and safety issues, including psychosocial risks.
Luka holds a Master of Public Health (University of Sydney), is a recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship in Strengthening Health Systems (McMaster University, Ontario), and is currently completing a Juris Doctor (Macquarie University).
Lyndall is an Assistant Director in the Inclusion and Diversity Team at Services Australia. Lyndall responsible for the agency’s disability inclusion portfolio which includes the Aurora Neuroinclusion Program.
Lyndall has over 21 years of experience working in the Australian Public Service, in a variety of roles including human resources, recruitment, service delivery and project management.
Lyndall is a leader in the inclusion and diversity space, with specialist knowledge of disability inclusion and how it intersects with individual identity. She is the lead on disability inclusion initiatives including the implementation, delivery, management and ongoing development of the Aurora Neuroinclusion Program and co-creator of several other employment programs which support the employment of people with disability into trainee and graduate roles.
Lyndall is Jawun Alumni and was a key contributor to the creation and implementation of the agency’s Indigenous Apprenticeship ProgramShe is the facilitator for the SES Changing Mindsets: Direct Experience Program. This is an immersive training program which encourages senior executives to think differently about the recruitment, career progression and overall workplace experience of people with disability.
Lyndall is Jawun Alumni and was a key contributor to the creation and implementation of the agency’s Indigenous Apprenticeship Program
Meredith Turner
Acting Director, Inclusion Policy teamAustralian Public Service Commission
Meredith Turner is currently the acting Director of the Inclusion Policy team within the Australian Public Service Commission.
Meredith played a major role in the development of the current Australian Public Service Gender Equality Strategy 2021-26 including an action area focused on respectful workplaces. She has over 30 years’ experience in the APS in both large and small agencies and has contributed to a wide range of diversity and inclusion policy and strategy initiatives.
Nick Campbell, Assistant Director, and HR Practitioner Australian Taxation Office
Nick has over 10 years’ experience in HR Strategies and led the development of the ATO Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.
Now focused on mental health, Nick’s team led the creation and rollout of the ATO’s first mental health survey - identifying and addressing factors at work that impact mental health. He is also leading work on the new ATO Mental Health Strategy set to launch in 2024.
Nick is a certified HR Practitioner through AHRI.
Nicole Hinton
Assistant Director, Leadership and EngagementNational Indigenous Australians Agency
Nicole Hinton is currently Assistant Director, Leadership and Engagement at the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Nicole has over 20 years’ experience in Human Resources and has developed a passion for creating and delivering strategic learning solutions that support organisational goals. Working across both private and Government workplaces throughout her career, Nicole brings together expertise from both sectors in workforce planning, HR strategy and capability building. As part of the team that administers Footprints at the NIAA, Nicole has firsthand knowledge of Footprints and in developing a framework that engages the end user through self-directed learning.
Sophie Nelson
Director, Workforce CapabilityNational Indigenous Australians Agency
Sophie Nelson is currently Director Workforce Capability at the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Having started her career in operational and service delivery areas of government she understands first-hand the positive effects that quality HR support can have on a workforce. Sophie specialises in and has a passion for, capability development and organisational strategy. She has worked for large and small government agencies and has been instrumental in designing HR processes and practices to better service and support workforces. Sophie is a certified HR practitioner and recently graduated from the University of Canberra with a Masters of Public Administration where she completed a dissertation researching the impact of remote working on productivity and culture in the Australian Public Service.
Sue Robertson
First Assistant Secretary, APS Integrity TaskforceDepartment of Prime Minister and the Cabinet
Sue Robertson is currently the Head of the APS Integrity Taskforce in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. She is an international law specialist and a certified organisational coach.
Previously, Sue served as the First Assistant Secretary, International Division in the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. She has worked as diplomat for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including at the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.
Sue has also held legal policy roles with the United Nations including in Egypt (UN High Commissioner for Refugees), Bhutan (UN Development Programme) and Sudan (UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations). Sue holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, and a Master of Laws (International Law) from the Australian National University.
Tara Beban
Assistant Director, Diversity and InclusionNational Indigenous Australians Agency
Tara Beban is a proud Ngunnawal Women, and the Assistant Director of Diversity and Inclusion at the National Indigenous Australians Agency. Tara is passionate about creating workplace environments where staff regardless of the background or abilities thrive. Tara completed a Masters of Public Administration, through the Australian National University and is an Australian Human Resource Institute Certified HR Practitioner. Tara has worked across various Australian Public Service Agencies throughout her career in positions related to First Nations employment, Diversity and Inclusion.
Tara is fortunate to live and work on Ngunnawal country and she extends her thanks to her community and family for their ongoing cultural mentorship and guidance.