Speaker Profiles

Professor Ian Goulter is currently Vice-Chancellor and President at Charles Sturt University, a position he has held since 2001. Professor Goulter is a civil engineer by profession, with expertise in water resources systems analysis. Since 2004, he has been on the Board of Directors of the Australian Academic and Research Network (AARNet), chaired the board of directors of UNILINC from 2001-2010, a board member of education.au, and was a board member of Education Services Australia from 2010.

Professor Goulter was also the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee's lead Vice-Chancellor for International in 2002-2003, and Convenor of the New South Wales Vice-Chancellors' Committee in 2007-2008. Professor Goulter has been a strong advocate of work-integrated learning. He was president of the World Association for Co-operative Education (WACE) for two years from 2006 and, since 2000, has been on its Board of Governors or Directors.

Gerry Lawson has been a Director of SunRice since 1985. He was appointed Chairman in 2001 and has overseen a dynamic period in the business's evolution into a global rice food company with operations in Australia, the United States, the Middle East, the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, and annual sales of approximately $800 million.

Today, as one of the world's largest branded rice food companies, SunRice supplies high quality, innovative products to around 60 countries across the globe.

Gerry is also Chairman of Riviana Foods; a member of The Global Foundation Advisory Board; a Member of the Rice Marketing Board for the State of NSW; and the SunRice representative to the Ricegrowers' Association of Australia Inc.

Sandy Roberts has been an accountant, teacher, Head of several teaching departments, Associate Director in two TAFE Institutes, General Manager of a Group Training Company and CEO of a private training provider in Victoria, before embarking on a career with the Australian Government as a Regional Manager with the Department of Infrastructure and Transport in the area of Regional Development and Local Government. Her team in Bendigo is responsible for the administration of a range of community infrastructure programs and the support of 13 Regional Development Australia committees (previously Area Consultative Committees) in Victoria and South Australia.

Sandy is in the final stage of completing her Master of Community Planning and Development with Latrobe University, researching leadership capability within small towns.

Brendan Dowling is the Director of the Labour Agreements and 457 Policy section in DIAC's National Office. He is responsible for implementing the reforms to the Subclass 457 Visa Program that were enacted over the course of 2009 and overall policy and program management of this visa. He is also responsible for the labour agreement program, including the implementation of improvements to streamline this program.

Kathleen Philip is currently the Manager, Workforce Innovation, in the Workforce, Leadership and Development Branch of the Department of Health Victoria. Kathleen joined the department in 2007 in the role of Better Skills Best Care team leader. Prior to joining the department she was a specialist musculoskeletal physiotherapist at Austin Health involved in establishing advanced practice physiotherapy roles in outpatients and emergency.

Vicki Kempton is currently School Education Director in the Riverina with portfolio responsibility for Professional Learning and ICT across 194 schools. She is a member of the group supporting the roll out of the Interactive Classroom Project in the Riverina region. This is a $56 million investment in the delivery of a video conference and interactive whiteboard technology to each of the 2,200 government schools in NSW. She is the nominated schools Senior User on the project developing the new student portal as well as being a committee member on the Learning Tools Project - School Reference Group.

Ross Lewis has served as Managing Director of BreakThru People Solutions for over a decade, overseeing the growth to a multi program, multi-site organisation that is one of Australia's most respected agencies. Ross believes passionately that his team are 'social revolutionaries', instrumental in changing society's view that all people are valued members of their community. Ross has experience in the employment, disability and adult education fields in both government and non-profit sectors. Ross has a Masters of Business Administration and was inducted into the University of Western Sydney Executive Dean's Merit List for outstanding academic achievement in 2006.

Kate Cornick undertook her PhD at the University of Melbourne in optical telecommunications and, as part of her studies, spent time at AT&T Research Laboratories, USA. After completing her studies Kate worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne prior to joining the office of Senator Stephen Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, as the Senior Telecommunications Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff. Kate's roles included advising on the National Broadband Network policy, consumer issues and regional telecommunications.

Kate is now the Executive Director of the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society (IBES) - a cross-disciplinary research institute at the University of Melbourne dedicated to products, services, and innovations that maximize the benefit of new broadband technologies to Australian society.

Janelle Whitehead is the CEO Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation Ltd. In this role she is responsible for all Corporation activities and has the overall responsibility of achieving the objectives of the MPREC corporation including, Regional CDEP operation, administration and management, employment and training initiatives, business enterprise development and consultancy services. Janelle possesses a strong business background combined with comprehensive experience and involvement in many facets of Indigenous Affairs since 1995. She has been responsible for the development and management of successfully operated CDEPs across Western NSW, the delivery of a diverse range of community services and the establishment and operation of numerous commercial ventures.

Tracey Squire is the Director Economic Development and Tourism for Albury City and one of the steering committee members for Evocities. Evocities is a major marketing and public relations campaign funded by the Australian Government and the participating councils, as well as support from the state government and corporate sponsors. The campaign's aim is to encourage Sydney residents to live, work and invest in one of NSW's seven Evocities. The seven Evocities are Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Dubbo, Orange, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga.

Dr Phil Connors has worked, taught, researched and published in the community development field internationally and in Australia for over 20 years. His doctoral research focused on community economic development in the context of economic globalisation, and he maintains a keen interest in this field.

His current areas of research include transition towns as examples of re-localisation and building community resilience, with a particular focus on governance, participation and localised food production.

John Humphreys is Professor of Rural Health Research at Monash University. He has published widely on workforce recruitment and retention, health service provision, and rural health policies in rural and remote Australia. He has undertaken extensive fieldwork throughout Australia. John has also worked in the Victorian and Commonwealth Departments of Health, where he had a lead role in National Rural Health Policies and has been a member of numerous government Rural Health Advisory Committees.

Graeme Hugo is ARC Australian Professorial Fellow, Professor of the Department of Geographical and Environmental Studies and Director of the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems at the University of Adelaide. His research interests are in population issues in Australia and South East Asia, especially migration. He is the author of over three hundred books, articles in scholarly journals and chapters in books, as well as a large number of conference papers and reports.

In 2009 he was awarded an ARC Australian Professorial Fellowship over five years for his research project, 'Circular migration in Asia, the Pacific and Australia: Empirical, theoretical and policy dimensions'.

Cr. Bill Cahill is the Chair of RDA Darling Downs and South West Inc. Bill is an elected representative of the Toowoomba Regional Council and currently oversees the Environmental and Community Services portfolio. Councillor Cahill brings technical and corporate management skills, as well as small business experience, to his role as Chair. He is actively involved in voluntary roles with community organisations, and has been a member of the Darling Downs Regional Organisation of Councils and a former panel member on a State Ministerial Regional Community Forum for the Darling Downs and South Western Region.

Colin Slater OAM is the founder and National Director of Sing Australia, an organisation he established in 1985 and has run in a full time capacity since 1994. Colin began his career in music as an opera singer in 1972, while working full time in various roles in a range of Commonwealth departments.

In 1988 Colin began to focus Sing Australia's attention on event management and concert production and then in 1996 he concentrated his efforts on fulfilling his vision to encourage Australians to sing. There are now 150 Sing Australia singing groups in all States and Territories. Over the past three years the Australian Government has provided assistance to Sing Australia in setting up singing groups in drought affected areas.

In 2000, Colin was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the community, particularly in promoting Australian music and artists, and singing in the Canberra region.

Craig Hart leads the NSW Health Drought Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP) within the University of Newcastle's Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health, located in Orange NSW. Craig's role focuses on mental health service development in rural and remote areas affected by climate-related adversity. Prior to this, Craig's career as a psychologist has spanned mental health service development and delivery in health and military domains. He led organisational development and employee assistance programs for health services in central-western NSW for many years. With an interest in the prevention and treatment of psychological trauma, Craig has also worked as a senior military psychologist on operations with the Australian Army in East Timor, Central Asia, the Middle East and the Bali Bombings in 2002.

Peter Kenny has extensive experience in the rural sector. He is a Director of QR National, Chairman of Biosecurity Qld and a member of the Australian Landcare Council, the National Biosecurity Advisory Council and the Cape York Heritage Committee. He represents Queensland agriculture on the Queensland Premier's Advisory Council on Climate Change.

Peter has owned and managed rural properties in different industries including cattle, dairying, orchards, lucerne and piggeries. His work over many years with AgForce included membership of the state council and state executive. He was president of AgForce Cattle for four years and then AgForce General President for four years. He was a Councillor and Secretary of the Cattlemen's Union of Australia and its representative on the AgForce Unity Working Group, and a Director of the National Farmers Federation.

Justine Summers is currently the acting CEO for Intereach and has over 20 years experience in the community service sector in rural and regional NSW and Victoria. Her post-graduate management qualifications have enabled her to shift focus from a direct clinical role, to management roles in both government and community based sectors. Justine joined Intereach in 2008, as the General Manager (Operational Services) and has been responsible for the design and implementation of a number of Intereach programs across the Riverina Murray. She is an advocate for strong, supported communities and committed to the excellence of service provision in rural and regional areas.

Kristine Peters is Principal Consultant at KPPM Organisational Strategists, a consulting firm she started in 1994, that focuses on social and policy research, strategic planning and organisational development. Her particular interest is policy implementation that generates good outcomes for both government and beneficiaries of the policy. Her social research experience has provided useful perspectives on developing and implementing policy change. Kristine's work includes the management of the South Australian Government's Community Builders programme and providing rural facilitators with training to support ongoing local capacity-building.

Kristine is Chair of the North West Business Development Centre, and is undertaking a PhD to examine the role of knowledge transfer in behaviour change within organisations.

Prue Crichton is the Youth Community Development Officer with Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation. She started working for MPREC in May of this year and previously worked for the Area Health Service as the Marketing and Rural Health Career Coordinator, promoting Careers in Health to youth in the Far West area of NSW. Her role includes career development with the Aboriginal youth in the Murdi Paaki Region and developing youth focused programs to assist them in their career pathway.

She has been involved with a number of well recognised projects including, Murdi Paaki Aboriginal Young Leaders Project (MPAYLP), Project Murra – Aboriginal Traineeship Program with the Police, and career roadshows. Prue is currently developing a program for mapping out career pathways for our youth and developing Project Indigenous Community Vision which will provide training in multi-media to enhance community engagement and capacity building.