Jac together with Kerry Ashley, Ros Pretlove and Jeremy Hurley was a co-founder of WISA in 2015. She established the not for profit organization which has obtained full charity status. Early work involved the organisation of state conferences and shared writing, development and delivery of WISA resources. Jac brings to this role many years of project management, wellbeing and health promotion in education and community development. She has extensive experience working at a local, regional, state and national level addressing school wellbeing and health promotion. She was a national manager of the KidsMatter Primary school mental health and wellbeing initiative with Principals Australia Institute, supporting the implementation across Australia to schools at a local level. This also included the redevelopment of the KidsMatter resources content for schools into blended learning – a mix of face to face and online content. Jac worked with the Australian Psychological Society in the development of the hardcopy KidsMatter resources; and later was involved in the development of the strategic step by step guide for school wellbeing teams Action Team Handbook guiding a whole of school approach with best practice implementation science for school communities.

Her work has included providing a wide range of wellbeing resourcing at a local level directly to school leaders, staff, students and parents in primary and secondary schools across Western Victoria through the Catholic Education Office. This included linking schools to services in the broader community.

Rich experience was gained as the Victorian Coordinator for the Australian Principals Association Professional Development Council, in working strategically at a state level. This involved implementing MindMatters, a national mental health promotion initiative for secondary schools, working closely with secondary schools across all three education sectors, as well as the community sector, delivering professional learning to thousands of secondary school staff and hundreds of schools. Other rich opportunities to build skills and knowledge in working in the education and community sectors were through working in the School Focused Youth Service, local Government Youth Services and youth and adult homeless/housing services. Jac has a youth work, community development and education background working strongly within a social justice and community development approach.

Angela is a passionate educator spanning 50 years with experience in remote, rural communities, regional & city schools.  She has experience in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.  Angela has visited schools in Canada, United States, England, Scotland, Ireland, Finland, Israel, Singapore, and Tanzania. This experience has given her a broad understanding of education systems throughout the world.

Since ‘retiring’ in 2022, Angela has ensured she has a voice in the design and creation of vibrant learning spaces for students through her consultancy work in her son’s architect firm.  Angela’s strongest interest is in school culture – in the creation of school communities where the building of meaningful relationships is core business and their ‘reason to be.’  She believes that within school communities, trust becomes the canvas on which to build strong connections with students, educators and families; hence learning is deep, powerful and life-giving where students thrive and learn life lessons of respect and genuine care for another.  She holds a deep belief in the phrase: ‘It takes a village to raise a child.’

Angela holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership/Teaching & Learning, Master of Well-Being, Master of Educational Leadership, Master of Applied Science & Diploma of Education.

Lyn O’Grady is a Community Psychologist with a particular interest in the mental health and wellbeing of children, young people, and families. She has over three decades of work experience in the community, education, and health sectors. She is currently working in private practice, with a small client caseload, supervising psychology interns, training, and consulting. She has worked in various roles in schools, including as a school psychologist with the Victorian Education Department. She was also the Project Manager for the Australian Psychological Society with the national KidsMatter Project, a promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative for early childhood settings and schools. Throughout her career, Lyn has continued to have a strong interest in supporting parents and in 2020 published a book titled “Keeping our Kids Alive, Parenting a Suicidal Young Person”. 

Lyn holds a Doctorate in Applied Psychology (Community) from Victoria University and a Master of Suicidology from Griffith University. 

Lyn believes that schools provide one of the few remaining institutions in our communities that can support students and the adults that care for them. Authentic partnerships and effective working relationships between the student, family and school staff can create a nurturing village that children and young people need to flourish in a changing world. 

Mick has over 40 years’ experience working as a youth worker in both government and non-government sectors.  An experienced face to face worker with high-risk young people in outreach settings, alcohol and other drug settings, youth justice, schools, and a broad range of community contexts.  Mick has also worked at a statewide and regional level developing programs, delivering services, managing services and in government planning roles.  Mick brings a particular hands-on approach to working with young people, their peers and their families.  Mick is passionate about schools and the role they can play in keeping the most vulnerable children and young people safe.

Dr Jenna Gillett-Swan is an experienced educator who has worked with students, teachers, and leaders across primary, secondary, and tertiary education contexts for more than 16 years. An Associate Professor and researcher, her work aims to understand and address inequity and threats to wellbeing in student educational experiences through participatory rights-based approaches to educational transformation and school improvement. Jenna holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology, two post-graduate degrees in Education, a Master of Education, a Master of Evaluation, and a PhD (Children’s perspectives and Wellbeing). She is also a Justice of the Peace (Qual) and holds full teacher registration.

Bio to come.

Hannah O’Hare is a business development and marketing specialist with particular experience in the professional services industry. Currently Hannah leads the market growth strategy and execution for the Health Industry team at legal and consulting firm, MinterEllison.

Hannah is passionate about health and wellbeing, including improving accessibility and empowering vulnerable communities. Hannah views education as an important tool and schools as a critical setting to achieving better health and wellbeing outcomes for future generations.  

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts (psychology / media and communications) from The University of Melbourne.  

Gurpreet Kaur is an experienced Banking professional of 15 years with a career spanning across Finance, Institutional Banking, Risk and Group Treasury. Currently she works as Associate Director, Group Treasury at Westpac. She has a strong interest in the areas of Leadership Development, Organisational Sustainability & Governance, Building strong stakeholder relationships and helping not-for-profit boards navigate operational challenges.

Gurpreet is engaged with WISA Board as part of the Westpac Board Observer Program, in partnership with MinterEllison.

Gurpreet holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Punjab Enginerring College, India) in Metallurgy and is part of the local alumni chapter, PECOSA Australia.

Gurpreet believes that in schools, the focus should be on holistic development of children and providing them with a safe and familiar learning space that activates their desire to learn. As a parent, Gurpreet is familiar with the Australian education system and is very motivated towards general welfare of children alongwith learning advancement. Every child should get a fair chance at life. School communities are the most instrumental in building empathetic learned societies.