About Us

Director

Julie is driven by her belief in a stronger and fairer civil society. Alongside her corporate legal career in London and Sydney, Julie has been engaged with the philanthropic community for over 30 years, most recently as the Executive Officer of the Australian International Development Network (AIDN) and Executive Director of the International Fistula Alliance. Julie has also held Board and Executive roles in the arts, education, mental health, homelessness, first nations, maternity health and international aid sectors. As a lawyer and a mother of a victim, Julie has personal experience of the trauma a broken system inflicts. She wants to be part of fixing it.

Executive Director

Sarah Rosenberg is the Executive Director of With You We Can, a national platform demystifying the police and legal processes for victims of sexual violence while working to improve them. Her advocacy centres on the need for independent legal representation for victims. Sarah fosters collaboration among advocates, experts and services and consults on various government and sector initiatives across multiple jurisdictions. Most recently this includes the development of a state-wide victim advocacy model and integrated response to sexual assault in Queensland, led by Deakin University's Network Against Gendered Violence. Sarah is a member of the National Women's Safety Alliance, the Independent Collective of Survivors, the Polished Man: Polished Innovators Advisory Committee and the Australian Law Reform Commission's Expert Advisory Group for the current Inquiry into Justice Responses to Sexual Violence.

Additionally, she supports Run For It Australia in engaging young people in politics and recently completed her time as 10x10 Philanthropy's inaugural Impact & Evaluation Officer.

Sarah's work has been recognised with an Edna Ryan award and 7News Community Achievement award and a Westpac Social Change Fellowship.

Director

Siobhan has been a corporate lawyer for over 30 years, specialising in Mergers & Acquisitions in London and Auckland before settling in Sydney. In addition to her professional career, she also provides pro bono assistance to asylum seekers. Siobhan has long had an interest in the justice system and creating a fairer society for all. One of the areas of justice that is long overdue an overhaul is sexual assault. The current system is manifestly unfair, having not adapted to the needs of victims of sexual assault. Laws need to be re-written and the system needs to be re-designed to deliver justice. Siobhan wants to help in that process.

Wendy is a change agent for women's affairs, achieving trailblazing reform across the public, private and community sectors both nationally and internationally. She is a founding member of the Women's Electoral Lobby, a Patron of the Sydney Women's Fund and Advisor to Grace Papers. Wendy has held a number of significant leadership roles including Deputy Chair of the ABC, Chancellor of the University of Canberra, Chair of Plan Australia, Global Deputy Chair of Plan International and Chair of Headspace. We are honoured to have her lend her expertise.

Professor Anne Cossins is the pre-eminent Australian expert on legal reform in the area of sexual assault and a scholar in theoretical criminology. She is the founder and Convenor of the National Child Sexual Assault Reform Committee, a member of the board and chair of the advisory committee for the Centre for Gender Related Violence Studies, and was a member of the Criminal Justice and Sexual Offences Taskforce, which was established after her submission to the Attorney-General of NSW. Anne has founded and served many working parties concerning sexual assault reform, pioneering a number of legislative changes to criminal and procedural law including the NSW sexual assault communications privilege (the first of its kind in Australia) and changes to the way children give evidence. In fact, she co-authored the first Australian bench book on child sexual assault. As a result of her work, NSW piloted specialist sex offences courts. Annie is now rethinking the adversarial trial, presenting decades of research supporting trauma-informed trials in her latest book, Closing the Justice Gap for Adult and Child Sexual Assault. We are thrilled to have Annie's support and proud to continue campaigning for her evidence-backed reforms.

Professor Andrea Durbach is Professor of Law and Director of the Australian Human Rights Centre at UNSW Sydney. She has held senior positions in the human rights field, including as Deputy Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner and as a consultant to the Australian Defence Abuse Response Taskforce to develop a framework to address the needs of Defence Force victims of gender-based violence and to prevent harmful conduct. Andy has published widely on a range of human rights issues, including gender justice, and is currently co-investigator on an Australian Research Council grant examining reparations for victims of sexual violence post-conflict. Between 2015-17, Andrea led the AHRCentre’s major research project, 'Strengthening Australian University Responses to Sexual Assault and Harassment'.

Dr Bianca Fileborn is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne. Their research focuses on the interplay between space/place, identity, culture and sexual violence, and victim-centred justice responses to sexual violence. Bianca has recently completed an Australian Research Council DECRA project focusing on developing victim-centred justice responses to public and street-based harassment. Current research also includes a focus on sexual violence and safety at music festivals, and sexual violence and LGBTQIA+ communities. Bianca is the author of Reclaiming the Night-Time Economy: Unwanted Sexual Attention in Pubs and Clubs, and co-editor of #MeToo and the Politics of Social Change, and Geographies of Gender-Based Violence.

Deborah is a Professor of Practice in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at The University of Sydney and former Medical Director of Family Planning NSW and Global Medical Director of Marie Stopes International. Over the past 20 years she has worked as a doctor, educator, researcher and advocate in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights with a focus on equity and access to evidence-based information and services both in Australia and the Pacific. Deborah provides frequent commentary of a range of women's health issues to the media.

Lula is a specialist in gender relations and anti-patriarchal system change. She is s a passionate survivor advocate for victims of childhood sexual abuse, childhood and adult domestic violence. Combining lived and professional expertise in strategic policy and gender mainstreaming, Lula is dedicating her efforts to systemic and cultural change to prevent and reduce violence against women. In 2018, Lula established the Accountability Matters Project to re-frame domestic violence from being seen as a ‘women’s issue’, and to drive collective national efforts to reduce men’s use of sexual, domestic and family violence. Lula is a member of the National Plan Advisory Group, and has been a Bravehearts Ambassador since 2019. In addition, Lula is Manager of Gender Equity at Women’s Health in the South East, leading transformative practice to create gender equitable workplaces.

Elspeth McInnes AM is Associate Professor of Sociology in Education at the University of South Australia. Elspeth researches and teaches with a focus on family and domestic violence, and the impacts on mothering and child development and learning, as well as supporting children's wellbeing in care and education settings. Elspeth has extensive experience in the community sector advocating for social policy addressing men's violence against women and children and the effects of poverty and trauma. Elspeth was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2006 for work on behalf of single mothers and their children.

Caitlin Weatherby-Fell is the Chief Executive Officer of the Top End Women’s Legal Service, a specialist women’s legal service focussed on the advancement of women’s rights in the NT. She is admitted to the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory and the High Court of Australia, and has practised and volunteered in both not-for-profit and corporate legal sectors for a decade. In her current role, Caitlin advocates for systemic and legislative changes to alleviate and eradicate domestic, family and sexual violence at both the Territory and Commonwealth levels, with particular focus on intersectional vulnerabilities and lived experience through a gendered lens. She is currently the Convenor of the Northern Territory Association of Community Legal Centres.

Michael O’Connell AM APM is a consulting victimologist, an independent decision-maker for Australia’s Redress Scheme, a member of the volunteer international faculty of Victimology and serves as a volunteer expert on crime victims’ rights with the UN. From 2006 until mid-2018, Michael served as the inaugural Commissioner for Victims’ Rights, South Australia.  During these terms, he took concrete steps (including engaging legal counsel) to strengthen victims’ participatory rights, and he co-chaired the National Victims of Crime Working Group that formulated Australia’s first national framework on victims’ rights and victim assistance (which the Attorneys-General of Australia endorsed in 2013) and produced guidelines for assisting Australians as victims of terrorism overseas (which the Attorneys-General of Australia endorsed in 2018).  Before his appointment as Commissioner, he served as the state’s first Victims of Crime Coordinator and while employed as a police officer he was appointed the state’s first Victim Impact Statement Coordinator. Although semi-retired, Michael continues to advocate locally, nationally and internationally for a fairer and safer justice for victims and survivors of crime. He is  a Member of the Order of Australia and was awarded the Australian Police Medal, receiving these and other awards for promoting victims rights and advancing Victimology.

Bridget Mottram is the Senior Policy Officer- WDVCAS Program for Domestic Violence NSW. Bridget holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Social Science, specialising in Domestic Violence. Her thesis examined women’s perpetration of intimate partner violence from a feminist perspective. Bridget is incredibly passionate about working towards the eradication of domestic and family violence against women and their children, and is especially interested in the part that systems play in this process. She previously worked as the Eastern Sydney SAM Coordinator in the Sydney WDVCAS.

Dr Adam Booker has two decades experience working as a lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service in far western NSW, as well as prosecuting for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in Sydney. In 2015 he travelled to the university of California, Berkely, to undertake a specialist LLM by thesis for which he was awarded high honours. Upon return to Australia, Adam was called to the NSW Bar in 2017, where he practices from Sir Owen Dixon Chambers. His practice identity is administrative law, criminal law, as well as mediation-based alternatives to litigation. He also undertakes broad advice work relating to appeals before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and related human rights issues. Much of his advocacy work is accessible on NSW Caselaw. Adam pairs his practice with a career in academia, researching criminal law processes and alternatives to litigation. This led to the award of his doctorate and roles with the University of Sydney as practitioner in residence (2022), and more recently, as an academic in the law school (2023). Adam has researched in detail First Nations perspectives of policing, and the impacts of criminal law mechanisms in such contexts. He was worked with communities to explore and better understand mediation-based alternatives to litigation, including how these avenues can contribute to improved legal access. He has also spent time researching restorative justice mechanisms and their role in reducing rates of sexual and violence based offences within those communities. Adam also sits as a statutorily appointed legal member of the Mental Health Review panel.

A/Prof Mary Iliadis is recognised for her research on legal and non-legal regulation and responses to domestic, family and sexual violence. She pioneered the first transnational study on victim-focused reforms that offer victim-survivors of sexual violence enhanced rights to participation and information in criminal justice systems across Australia, England and Ireland. Her work is violence- and trauma-informed, and employs culturally safe and responsive principles to ensure and prioritise victim-survivors' wellbeing. A/Prof Iliadis leads several competitively funded research projects in the areas of trauma-informed responses to sexual offence victim-survivors through the role of independent legal representation to safeguard private information from use in the courtroom (medical/counselling records, prior sexual experiences, digital communications). She is also researching how technologies are weaponised to perpetrate violence, as well as harnessed by advocates, victim-survivors and practitioners to enhance responses to gendered violence. This includes exploring how police body-worn cameras are used in domestic and family violence callouts; whether CCTV provides safety and security to victim-survivors; and the nature and extent of technology-faciliated abuse in the Pacific (Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu).

Travis Harries is an Associate Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Deakin University. His research areas include family violence, child and adolescent development, as well as the intersection between substance use, cognitive impairment, and violence. He is a published author in the field of child-to-parent violence (CPV) and has a range of research projects currently ongoing, including an exploration of CPV and corporal punishments, substance-involved CPV, CPV in young adults and associations with intimate partner violence, as well as a multi-study project which seeks to comprehensively profile typologies of AFV based on different motivation for using violent behaviours.

Nina Funnell is a multi Walkley award winning journalist, author, and sexual assault survivor advocate. She is the creator of the #JusticeShouldntHurt campaign, which in 2023 secured $64 million in funding to expand the Child Sexual Offence Evidence Program in NSW so that child survivors are less traumatised in court.

Nina’s previous campaign, #LetHerSpeak / #LetUsSpeak, which she ran in exclusive partnership with News.com.au, End Rape On Campus Australia, RASARA, and Marque Lawyers, aimed to overhaul sexual assault victim gag laws around the country. In 2020, Nina's #LetHerSpeak campaign achieved 5 law reforms across 3 jurisdictions. As part of the campaign, Nina raised over $200,000 which was used to fund the legal work of over 20 victim-survivors including former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, who featured as the symbolic first case study and emblematic face of the campaign.

In 2021 Nina was named Woman of the Year and Journalist of the Year at the B&T Women in Media awards, also winning the Walkley award for Women’s Leadership and the Walkley award for Public Service Journalism.

Nina is a director of End Rape On Campus Australia (EROC) and Rape & Sexual Assault Research & Advocacy (RASARA), and has served on the NSW Premier’s Council on Preventing Violence Against Women, the board of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, and the board of the National Children’s and Youth Law Centre. She is a current ambassador for The Full Stop Foundation.

Nina is a guest lecturer in the Media and Communications department at the University of Sydney, where she also studied, graduating with first class honors in 2008. She is the lead author of The Red Zone Report (2018) which examins hazing and sexual assault at residential colleges in Australia, and is currently authoring her second book, Let Her Speak (Harper Collins), having previously also contributed to multiple anthologies.

Nina has a unique ability to walk alongside victim survivors as they share their stories for change. Her knowledge, her dogged perseverance and above all, her compassion, are to be admired. We are very lucky to know her.

Thea is co-Founder and Director of Transforming Justice Australia, a community-based restorative justice practice for sexual abuse. Thea is a former community lawyer, having spent 15 years working with families and individuals impacted by sexual abuse, child sexual assault and family violence. At knowmore Legal Service Thea supported survivors to engage with the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, and she has also worked at Elizabeth Evatt Community Legal Centre and Wirringa Baiya Aboriginal Women’s Legal Centre. Thea is a current member of the NSW Sentencing Council, the Victims Advisory Board and the Corrective Services Ethics Committee. Thea holds a Masters in Criminology and in 2019 was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate victim-oriented restorative justice programs for sexual abuse. Thea has completed restorative practitioner training with the Australian Association of Restorative Justice and advanced facilitation skills for sexual harm with Community Justice Initiatives, Waterloo (Canada).

Morgan has worked within the for-purpose sector for 15+ years in a range of policy, advocacy and service development roles. As someone who moved through service systems from a young age, she intimately understands the importance of engaging those who are deeply affected by systems and structures to imagine more just and impactful offerings. She collaborates closely with individuals, teams and organisations to reimagine the role those who experience systematic exclusion play in social change. Currently, she works at Berry Street as the Senior Manager Youth Engagement where she heads Y-Change – a community platform for young people with lived experience to drive social, organisational and systemic change. She also advises, coaches and works on strategic projects with other organisations through my independent consultancy practice.  

Cathy is a champion of lived expertise. Her personal understanding of family violence has led to her being a consultant and ambassador for a number of victim safety initiatives, including Mettle Women Inc, the Specialist Family Violence Court Project and the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety’s Victim of Crime Consultative Committee. She is a guiding light for survivor advocates to use their trauma for good.

Megan's expertise are in primary prevention. Through Mission Australia, she works with perpetrators to prevent domestic, family and sexual violence, particularly in regional communities.

Billie Paris coordinates the Crisis Sexual Assault Counselling Service for Central and Eastern Sydney. She has been passionately engaged in increasing awareness and driving change relating to gendered violence. Billie has worked in related government and nongovernment roles for over 30 years, and is particularly interested in educating and legitimising women’s trauma responses, with a focus on fawning, to influence cultural change and improved conviction rates in gendered violence cases.

In her role as a trauma and grief counsellor, Caroline helps others to build resilience and find a new normal in their lives. She relies on intuition to guide young people to feel safe to share their stories and educate others about sexual assault. Caroline has stood by a number of victims through their court experiences, helping them to seek justice with courage and conviction.

Julie Sarkozi worked at the Women’s Legal Service Queensland for 11 years, and in government and private practice for almost 20 years. She was the Principal Lawyer for the ‘Counselling Notes Protect’ program at the Women’s Legal Service after Queensland introduced legislative protections over the counselling records of victim survivors in 2017. Julie has provided legal representation, information and advice to hundreds of victim survivors, and has advocated for the adoption of ‘affirmative consent’, and amendments to the ‘mistake of fact’ excuse in Queensland's Criminal Code. Before becoming a lawyer Julie worked in the community sector as a youth worker, refugee support staff and rape and incest crisis support worker. 

Julie is now the Principal Project Officer at the Department of Justice and Attorney-General QLD, where she leads the implementation of recommendations from the Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce reports, which will boost the justice system’s ability to respond to victim-survivors and hold people using violence to account for their behaviour.

Karen Iles is a lawyer, accredited mediator, consultant, board director, sexual assault survivor and Dharug Aboriginal woman. She is the Founder and Principal Solicitor of Violet Co Legal & Consulting, a social enterprise with the purpose to create radical solutions and just outcomes for women, gender diverse and First Nations people. Karen speaks about her personal lived experience of sexual assault, police accountability and the justice system to inspire social change and promote healing. In 2022, Karen was the recipient of the Law Society of NSW Pro Bono Service Award.

Eleanor is an advocate for transformative models of justice that view harm through an anti-colonial and anti-patriarchal lens. Using her experience as a survivor of sexual violence, her training in somatic psychotherapy, and her experience and training as a lawyer, she aims to help people understand the shortcomings of our punitive legal system and to see that there are more trauma-informed and holistic ways available for how we deal with harm. As a lawyer, Eleanor has experience in the refugee sector, community legal centres, with First Nations communities, and in the criminal justice system. However, it was her experience of going through the legal system as a survivor of intimate partner sexual violence at the same time as working at the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions that solidified her belief that our criminal justice system is letting down not only survivors, but offenders and the community as a whole. In 2022 Eleanor gave a TedX talk titled ‘Transformative Justice Principles to Reclaim Humanity’, and is now working towards creating deep systemic change so that we can finally see an end to sexual violence.

Jo is a social worker and family therapist who works as a trainer, clinical supervisor and consultant. She has worked across a range of sectors, including in state government and in family violence, child, youth & family and alcohol & drug services. Jo has been researching and responding to Adolescent Violence in the Home (AVITH) for over 25 years as a practitioner and in leadership positions. Gaining a Winston Churchill Fellowship to research best practice responses to AVITH across the U.S. and Canada, her learnings influenced the development and implementation of AVITH programs across Victoria. She has led and collaborated in several research projects to better understand AVITH and has written and contributed to several books relating to parenting, AVITH and working with men who use family violence. Jo currently supports services to implement AVITH programs, develops and delivers training, including on behalf of peak bodies, and provides clinical supervision.

Lara Freidin is a community lawyer and social justice advocate who currently serves as the Executive Officer of Women’s Legal Services Australia. She is passionate about improving access to specialist legal assistance for women who have experienced family, domestic and sexual violence. Lara has over a decade of experience working on law reform and advocating for policy development to address violence against women and advance gender equality. She has held policy roles with Women’s Legal Service Queensland, Women’s Legal Service Victoria, Victoria Legal Aid, and the Federation of Community Legal Centres Victoria. Prior to this, she worked as a Ministerial Adviser in the Victorian Government to improve supports for victim-survivors of crime. She also sits on the board of Flat Out, an organisation dedicated to supporting women, trans and gender diverse people who have been criminalised.

Dr Joy Townsend is a Sociologist whose area of expertise is in the field of gender and sexualities. Her work centres on the lived experiences of young Australians. Joy founded Learning Consent to bridge the gap between the research and evidence base for teaching sexuality education effectively, and what was happening in the classroom.

Joy is one of Australia’s leading researchers and educators on sexual consent. Her research portfolio is focussed in the area of critical sexuality studies and includes a number of empirical qualitative studies with young Australians on sensitive and complex topics. Joy completed her doctorate at UNSW in 2019.

Joy speaks and writes extensively on complex issues such as sexual consent, pornography, sex education, pleasure and agency.

Dr AJ George is an academic with a passion for research and advocacy regarding gender-based violence and trauma-informed legal practice. She was Chief Investigator on a significant integrative literature review, Specialist Approaches to Managing Sexual Assault Proceedings, commissioned by the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration and the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department. This review is presently informing the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Inquiry into the Justice Responses to Sexual Violence. In the Australian Capital Territory, the review was tabled in Parliament and is informing establishment of a new specialist sexual violence court there. AJ has a particular interest in culturally informed, trauma-informed legal practice in the Pasifika, and has worked with the Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network and the Fiji Law Society.

Sandi Noble is a First Nations woman living with a disability, who has lived experience of sexual and other types of violence. Most of Sandi’s life has been spent in the remote outback of the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. She lived and worked in Aboriginal communities, cattle stations and mining sites. Sandi has witnessed firsthand cases of sexual violence going unreported, or uninvestigated. The only police officer within a 300km radius would not provide support. Sandi has experienced and seen systemic racism and misogynistic behaviour that has gone unchecked for decades, and so is passionate about systems change. If her experiences have taught her anything, it is that the more remote the community, the less chance the victim has of getting help, and the more likely the perpetrator will continue to get away with abuse. She strongly believes in First Nations self-determination, feeling that governments need to stop telling First Nations people what's going to happen to them and rather talk and listen to Elders instead. Sandi also advocates for greater representation of First Nations people in decision-making bodies.

Hamish is the Sexual Violence Consult Service Lead at ACON Health. Hamish holds a Bachelor's of Psychology and has worked extensively within community support, peer support, mental health and disability. ACON's Sexual Violence Consult Service is funded by NSW Government until June 2025, offering free 1 on 1 consultation, organisational reviews and all staff training to NSW service providers to foster safer, more inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ victim-survivors that have experienced sexual violence. Having lived experience themselves, Hamish elevates LGBTQ+ voices to the forefront and advocates for all victim-survivors to be listened to and supported.

Jacob Gooden was a fourth generation Victoria Police officer and specialist investigator. His decade-long metropolitan and regional career has included overhauling a youth resource portfolio, cracking drug syndicates and working in domestic violence and sexual crime and support units. Those experiences kickstarted Jacob’s passion for the victim-centric space and sparked the idea for SAYFE, a pioneering software company aiming to deliver safer public spaces, give victims power, choice and a safe, anonymous way to report sexual violence, and strengthen law enforcement and government capabilities proactively from an investigative standpoint. In its first year, SAYFE won funding and endorsement from LaunchVic and VicHealth, beating out multiple other startups in a challenge about using technology to help Victorians better access and enjoy community or outdoor spaces. Beyond law enforcement and government, SAYFE’s functionality extends to multiple industries and environments including university and college campuses and sporting precincts.