Confirmed Keynotes
Julie Inman Grant, Commissioner, Office of the eSafety Commissioner
Julie has extensive experience in the non-profit and government sectors, and spent two decades working in senior public policy and safety roles in the tech industry at Microsoft, Twitter, and most recently Adobe.
Julie’s career began in Washington DC, working in the US Congress and the non-profit sector before taking on a role at Microsoft. Julie’s experience at Microsoft spanned 17 years, serving as one of the company’s first and longest-standing government relations professionals, ultimately in the role of Global Safety Director for safety policy and outreach.
At Twitter, Julie headed up Public Policy for Australia and South East Asia, managing a range of public policy issues, including online safety and countering violent extremism. Julie also built Twitter’s ‘Rules and Tools’ for safety, and conceptualised and piloted #PositionofStrength, which now serves as Twitter’s global female safety and empowerment program.
Most recently, Julie served as Director of Government Relations Asia Pacific at Adobe, where she worked with governments across the region on issues such as innovation and digital transformation, creativity and STEM skills development and cybersecurity.
Ms Kati Kraszlan, Acting Commissioner for Victims of Crime, Department of Justice, Western Australia.
Kati Kraszlan is currently the Acting Commissioner for Victims in Western Australia. She commenced in the position in October 2017. She has had a long history working in the Justice and Community sector and started her career in Justice working on the Drug Court and Joondalup Family Violence courts and since then has worked in varied research and policy positions.
Kati has also worked with the Inspector for Custodial Services and was responsible for developing the West Kimberley Regional Prison, which was the first purpose built prison for Aboriginal People in Australia. She returned to the public sector in 2016 after spending some time working on community development projects for BHP Billiton.
As a long time board member and chair of a Western Australian refuge, Kati has been directly involved in the provision of services and understands the current pressures being experienced by the not-for profit sector.
Dr Rachel Carson, Senior Research Fellow, Manager – Family Law and Family Violence, Australian Institute of Family Studies
Dr Rachel Carson is a socio-legal researcher with expertise in family law and qualitative research about family law disputes. After practising as a family lawyer, Rachel worked as a researcher in family law at the Melbourne Law School (University of Melbourne) and was awarded a Melbourne Research Scholarship to undertake her PhD in this field of research at the University of Melbourne.
Since joining the Family Law and Family Violence team at the Australian Institute of Family Studies in June 2012, Rachel has primarily worked on the Independent Children’s Lawyer Study and the Evaluation of the 2012 family violence amendments project, together with the Institute’s elder abuse scoping studies commissioned by the Australian Government, Attorney-General’s Department.
In addition to contributing to the Institute’s elder abuse research activities, Rachel’s current research activities include a study of the experiences of children and young people after the separation of their parents and the extent to which their needs are met by the existing family law system services, and a project investigating the extent of direct cross examination in family law matters involving alleged or substantiated family violence and the factual and legal context characterising these matters.
Rachel is a consulting editor for the Family Law Review journal and has represented the Institute as the AIFS observer on the Family Law Council, a body that provides policy advice on family law to the Commonwealth Attorney-General.
Assistant Commissioner Dean McWhirter, Family Violence Command, Victoria Police
Assistant Commissioner Dean McWhirter has had a diverse career during his 35 years in Victoria Police. He has worked at various supervisory levels across Victoria Police including the Intelligence and Covert Support Department, Transit Safety Division, Ethical Standards Department, Traffic Camera Office and People Development Command.
In March 2015, Dean was appointed as the Assistant Commissioner, Family Violence Command. This Command is the first of its kind in any policing jurisdiction in Australia.
Ms Fiona McCormack, CEO, Domestic Violence Victoria
Fiona is the CEO of Domestic Violence Victoria, the peak body for family violence services for women and children in Victoria.
DV Vic provides advice to government and political advocacy on behalf of, and in partnership with its member organisations for violence prevention, systemic change and enhancement of systems.
Fiona is also the Chair of VicHealth and the Co-Chair of the Victorian Government’s Family Violence Steering Committee.
Mr Edward Mosby, Pyschologist & Council Member, Wakai Waian Healing & The Domestic and Family Violence Implementation Council
Edward was born on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait, was raised in South West Queensland and has lived in Central Queensland for the past 20 years.
Edward holds full registration as a Generalist Psychologist working in Private Practice and is the owner of Wakai Waian Healing. He is a member of Indigenous Allied Health Australia (IAHA), the Australian Indigenous Psychologist Association (AIPA) and the Australian Psychologist Society (APS).
In 2015 Edward was appointed to a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Advisory Panel tasked with making recommendations informing the National Plan to reduce violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022. Following, he was appointed to the Queensland Premier’s Domestic and Family Violence Taskforce Implementation Council at which time he also co-chaired an associated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Group. In addition, August 2017 he was appointed as a Board Director with the Australian National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS).
Edward specialises in working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families in the areas of mental health, social and emotional well-being, community safety promotion, trauma, grief, and loss. Specifically in the last seven years he has focused on supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, families and individuals with their experiences and understandings of family and domestic violence and related issues.
Edward currently has the privilege of providing support to communities in regional, rural and remote areas of Queensland including Rockhampton, Gladstone, Woorabinda, Palm Island and Thursday Island in the Torres Strait.
Dr Michael Salter, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Western Sydney University (sponsored by RACGP)
Dr Michael Salter is a senior lecturer in criminology at Western Sydney University. Michael specializes in the study of violence against women and children, with a focus on complex trauma, victim support and primary prevention. He is the author of Organised Sexual Abuse (Routledge, 2013) and Crime, Justice and Social Media (Routledge, 2017).
Dr Salter is currently a Chief Investigator on an ANROWS-funded research project undertaking a meta-evaluation of perpetrator programs in sexual assault, domestic violence and child sexual abuse with a focus on improving engagement and retention. As the leader of the violence strand within the Sexualities and Genders Research cluster, he is developing a primary prevention program for high schools in the Western Sydney region to reduce gendered violence, and mapping community understandings of domestic violence in refugee and migrant communities.
He has published widely on the needs and experienced of adult survivors of child sexual abuse, was an expert advisor to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He also sits on the Scientific Advisory Council of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.
Ms Patty Kinnersley, Director Practice Leader, Our Watch
Patty oversees prevention of VAW projects: Respectful Relationships in Schools, The Workplace Respect and Equality Project and The National Sporting Organisations Initiative. She also oversees national work to build the ability of organisations and individuals to undertake prevention, including developing and sharing practical tools and resources
Patty is currently a non-executive director on two health Boards; and a member of the Minister’s Taskforce for PVAW and the Industry Taskforce in Victoria. She is also a member of the national advisory group for the development of the Local Government Toolkit for PVAW
Dr Lara Fergus, Director Policy and Evaluation, Our Watch
Dr Lara Fergus is Director of Policy and Evaluation at Our Watch. She works with governments and the nongovernment sector on the collective implementation and monitoring of Change the Story – a shared framework and ‘roadmap’ for multi-sector action nationwide to change the structures and social norms that drive violence against women and their children.
Lara has held a range of strategic leadership roles over the last two decades involving policy development and research to prevent violence against women and girls, including with the Victorian Government in Australia, UN Women and NGOs such as Amnesty International. She holds a Master’s degree in Public and International Law from University of Melbourne and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Victoria University.
Mr Scott Holmes, Manager Practice Leadership, Our Watch
Scott Holmes currently the Manager for Practice Leadership for Our Watch, the national foundation for the primary prevention of violence against women, where he is part of a team developing and implementing strategies to increase quality prevention practice across Australia. Scott has been working in the preventing violence against sector for nearly 7 years. He has coordinated prevention programs with faith communities and in workplaces, and is a facilitator for the Baby Makes 3 program.
Scott has extensive experience with delivery of prevention training programs, including the VicHealth prevention short course, Baby Makes 3 Facilitator training, and the Change the story Practitioner Training. Scott is also an ordained Anglican minister and is on the Management Committee of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne prevention program. He is married with 3 adult children and 2 grandchildren. Outside of work Scott plays the piano, loves reading, and is developing an ever-growing n-guage model railway.
Mr Cameron McLeod, General Manager Community Engagement, North Melbourne Football Club
Cameron’s career spans over 15 years with senior leadership and expertise in leveraging sport and active recreation to influence social and economic change across public health, education, community and major international events.
Cameron is a member of Our Watch’s Sports Engagement Advisory Committee providing strategic advice to strengthen policy and practice to prevent violence against women through the influence of sport.
Over the past 18 months, Cameron has lead the design and integration of a gender equality strategy for the North Melbourne Football Club to create inclusive, safe and welcoming environments for all.