Chris Gibbs, Chief Executive Officer

As MHPN’s CEO, Chris oversees all of the activities of the Mental Health Professionals Network.
Chris has held significant leadership positions in the public health sector.  He has undertaken roles at Melbourne Health and within both the Victorian Public Service and the community services sector.  For 8 years, Chris was the Director of North Western Mental Health, one of the largest publicly-funded providers of mental health services in Australia with a clinical workforce of 1300.
Chris is currently Chair of VATMI Industries, a commercial business service employing 420 staff - 350 of whom have a disability. Chris commenced as CEO of MHPN in August 2008
 

Stewart Potten, National Project Manager

Stewart is responsible for the national rollout of the MHPN project through state and territory project teams.
Prior to joining MPHN, Stewart was State Manager, Victoria Faculty at the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.  He actively supported and resourced member-based general practice 'specific interest' sub-committees to identify educational needs of GPs with a focus of delivering workshops, forums and conferences that are relevant and responsive to day-to-day general practice.
Stewart also worked in the Northern Territory between 2002 - 2008 as Manager, Workforce Programs with General Practice and Primary Health Care Northern Territory, to recruit and support GPs working in indigenous communities in remote areas. 
 

Trevor Donegan, Finance Manager 

Trevor is responsible for overseeing the financial operations of the MHPN project. Prior to joining the program, Trevor served for 8 years as Chief Financial Officer at Northern Health (Victoria). He is a former President of the Australian Health Services Financial Management Association (AHSFMA).
Trevor applies his financial experience to a variety of concurrent roles including consulting to Australia Zoo on Management Accounting, working as Chief Financial Officer for Headspace – the National Youth Mental Health Foundation and serving as Board Member and Chair of Audit and Risk Committee for SGE Credit Union.
Trevor is a CPA, a Fellow of the AHSFMA and a member of both the Institute of Internal Auditors Australia and the Australian Mutuals Institute.
 

Ian Macwhirter, Finance Officer 

Ian joined MHPN in September 2008 as a Finance Officer. He has worked in a range of finance, systems implementation and change management roles in major public heath organisations. Ian is delighted to be part of the MHPN team and is looking forward to the challenges of supporting the success of this project.
 

Julie Conibear, Office Manager / Executive Assistant to the CEO

Julie manages the business operations of MHPN and provides support to the CEO.  Julie comes from a diverse management background which includes roles as an Administrator/Director in the not-for-profit sector, Marketing Manager in the Commercial Sector and Client Relationship Manager in the Finance Industry.
 

Tanya Reardon, Communications Manager

Tanya oversees all marketing and communications activities for MHPN.
Tanya has an extensive background in marketing and copywriting including operating her own business for 8 years. She has also worked for a boutique marketing agency, a global pharmaceutical company and has tackled writing assignments for companies of all sizes and industries in between.
Tanya brings her passion for writing and marketing strategy to a project she believes has the potential to make a real difference in the community.
 

Claire Murphy, Customer help desk, MHPN Online Support

Claire's role with MHPN is to support users of our innovative professional networking platform, MHPN Online.
Claire comes from an administrative background within the IT consulting and the philanthropic sectors.
Claire is very happy to be working for the non-profit sector again, particularly as she believes MHPN has the potential to positively impact mental health care collaboration and patient outcomes.
 

Dr Angela Nicholas, Evaluation Manager

Robyn Lidston, Senior Project Officer (SA/WA)

Amanda Fahey, Administration Officer and Sustainability Project Officer (SA/WA) 

Jessica Cyngler, Network Sustainability Project Officer (SA/WA)

Jessica's role with MHPN is to support ongoing networks in Western Australia.
As a qualified primary school teacher Jess taught for a couple of years before joining MHPN.  Prior to teaching, Jess worked in housing at state government level and in medical administration whilst studying.
 

Sarah Green, Network Sustainability Project Officer (SA/WA)

Sarah's work history is primarily health related, having worked for the NHS in the UK before migrating to Australia. Mental Health care is an area of particular interest to her and Sarah is looking forward to supporting interdisciplinary mental health care in the MHPN project.

Michelle Robinson, Network Sustainability Project Officer - (SA/WA)

Michelle’s role with MHPN is to support network sustainability throughout Western Australia.
Michelle has a diverse background in event management, project management and training coordination working mainly in the areas of health and education.
Michelle is inspired by the goals of the MHPN project and is looking forward to developing relationships with network coordinators and assisting them in building successful sustainable networks.
 

Tracy Macfarlane, Senior Project Officer (ACT/NSW)

Tracy’s role with MHPN project is to coordinate the sustainability of ongoing networks in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and to act as the liaison between MHPN and the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses. She is also responsible for the coordination of consumer and carer engagement.
Tracy has been working in research and projects for most of her professional life. Trained in psychology, she has worked in a range of health and academic settings including at Lifeline, as an Academic Associate for Wollongong University and Charles Sturt University, as a personal and professional development consultant in the private sector, and as a project officer for Mental Health ACT. Tracy is keen to bring research skills she recently acquired through her Masters in Community and Health Development at the University of Canberra to this exciting initiative.
 

Amanda Raward, Network Sustainability Project Officer (ACT/NSW)

Amanda’s role with the MHPN project is to support network sustainability in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and the engagement of mental health consumers and carers.
Amanda has an educational background in Psychology and has worked in a variety of paid and voluntary roles in the Australian Capital Territory community and public sectors over the past 10 years. Most notably she has worked as a Project Officer with the ACT Council of Social Service on a number of projects including the mapping support services to address disadvantage across the ACT, and the establishment of a representative body for not-for-profit mental health organisations in the ACT.
Amanda has also worked as a statistician in the Mental Health Unit at the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and most recently as a Trainer/Advocate with Canberra’s support service for refugees and survivors of torture and trauma.
 

Brooke Bason, Network Sustainability Project Officer (ACT/NSW)

Brooke's role with MHPN is to support the roll-out of workshops within New South Wales and Canberra.
Brooke comes from a strong background in administration and project co-ordination with the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Aging.  Experienced in event management, Brooke is very keen to bring her strong communication and co-ordination skills to the team.
 

Tina Horwood, Network Sustainability Project Officer (ACT/NSW)

Tina's role with MHPN is to support the roll-out of workshops in New South Wales and Canberra.
Tina worked in administration for a number of years before changing careers paths into event management working at the Special Olympics in 2008.  Later, Tina took on the role as event coordinator at Parliament House coordinating various events some including the attendance of celebrities and high profile politicians including the Prime Minister.
With her strong customer service background, Tina is keen to apply her knowledge and experience to her role with MHPN.

Jennifer See, Network Sustainability Project Officer (ACT/NSW)

Jennifer joins the MHPN team to support the roll out of workshops in New South Wales and Canberra.
Jennifer recently worked as an Event Coordinator at Parliament House in Canberra coordinating various meetings, parties, conferences and other major and important events. Prior to this, she worked at Crowne Plaza Canberra in hotel reservations. She has a strong administrative background and has spent time working in Canada.

Carolyn Rosenberg, Network Sustainability Project Officer (ACT/NSW)

Carolyn's role with MHPN is to support ongoing networks in NSW.
Carolyn recently worked in direct marketing & sales as an account manager with a national client base.  She previously ran her own business as an account manager for several freelance designers and prior to this, worked in administration within the public health sector and as a marketing assistant for the pharmaceutical industry.  Carolyn is looking forward to the challenges of her role at MHPN.

Nic Ridge, Senior Project Officer (VIC/TAS)

Nic’s role with the project is to coordinate the sustainability of ongoing networks in Victoria and Tasmania, and to act as the liaison between MHPN and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists.
Nic worked for many years for the Schizophrenia Fellowship of Victoria (now the Mental Illness Fellowship of Victoria) as a community worker at Rossdale, a long term rehabilitation program for people with chronic mental illness. In this role he worked directly with clients in developing individual service plans, connecting clients to outside services, organising in-house programs and writing policies and procedures.
Nic moved from Rossdale into a secondary school setting, eventually running a large English department catering to a culturally diverse clientele.

Phil Flanagan, Network Sustainability Project Officer (VIC/TAS)

Phil’s role is to support ongoing networks in Victoria.
Phil's work history is primarily health related, having worked for the NHS in the UK for almost 10 years. There he undertook roles including project work with the NHS's National Training Authority, Executive and Board level support at a large teaching hospital, and involvement in emergency heath planning and purchasing primary & secondary level health care services at a regional level.
Since migrating to Australia in 1997, Phil has worked on the commissioning team responsible for the redevelopment of the Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne, and within the Educational Services Directorate of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

Alicia Owens, Network Sustainability Project Officer (VIC/TAS)

Alicia's role with MHPN is to support ongoing networks in Tasmania.
Alicia has a strong background in administration and has worked as a Sales Analyst with more recent experience in event management in the pharmaceutical industry.  Having worked both overseas and in Australia, Alicia now enjoys applying her knowledge and experience to developing workshops for MHPN.
 

Nina Gee, Network Sustainability Project Officer (VIC/TAS)

Nina's role with MHPN is to support ongoing networks in Victoria.
Nina joins MHPN with a background in community development, and youth policy and research.  Her previous roles include a research position with the Brotherhood of St Laurence concentrating on the life chances and education/training pathways of young adults.  Nina also worked as a Resource Coordinator for a refugee resettlement program in West Melbourne.  Here she organised and managed information sessions, women's support groups, and work experience placements for recently arrived refugees.
 

Lauren Tyrrell, Network Sustainability Project Officer (VIC/TAS)

Lauren's role with MHPN is to support network sustainability in Victoria.
Lauren joins MHPN with a background in employment policy and research and public relations.  She has previously worked for the Brotherhood of St Laurence, coordinating a research project, and University of Melbourne, evaluating community sector employment programs, social enterprise activity in Australia and social connectedness at the local level.  Lauren has also worked as an account manager in the public relations field.
 

Nicky Bisogni, Senior Project Officer (QLD/NT)

Nicky is responsible for coordinating the sustainability of ongoing networks in Northern Territory and Queensland, and to act as the liaison between MHPN and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
Nicky has worked in mental health for most of her professional life. Trained as a social worker, she has worked in a range of mental health settings including management of a suite of inner urban community mental health programs, teaching mental health at Melbourne University, Wodonga & NMIT TAFE, and working as a mental health project officer with a Division of General Practice. Nicky is excited about her role in the Mental Health Professionals Network and in particular, the prospect of offering mental health professionals the opportunity to get together.
 

Bianca Romanyk, Network Sustainability Project Officer (QLD/NT)

Bianca’s role with MHPN is to support ongoing networks in Northern Territory and Queensland.
Bianca is a registered psychologist and has worked in the public mental health system for the past 3 years. She has been based in Hamilton, Victoria and Inner North Brisbane, Queensland. During her time as a mental health clinician she was both challenged and inspired by those affected by mental health issues; Bianca aspires to put her clinical skills into practice again in future.
Prior to her mental health experience, Bianca’s health-related employment included roles as a paediatric sleep scientist, biology laboratory instructor and psychophysiology technician. Bianca is excited to be a part of the Mental Health Professionals Network and is motivated to help develop and sustain a high standard of collaborative interdisciplinary networks, which contribute to better outcomes for consumers and carers.
 

Lydia Venetis, Network Sustainability Project Officer (QLD/NT)

Lydia's role with MHPN is to support the rollout of workshops in Northern Territory and Queensland.
Lydia has a strong background working in the not-for-profit sector in administration and human resources.  Recently she worked with The George Institute for International Health, an organisation aimed at developing improvements to areas of chronic disease, mental health and neurological disease, through research, evidence-based policy development  and a range of capacity development programs.
Lydia is inspired by the vision of the MHPN project and dedicated to contributing towards the creation of local mental health networks.