Tim Moore has over two decades experience within the children, youth, family and community sectors. He has been a community practitioner, advocate and has conducted participatory research, particularly focusing on young carers, children in out of home care, young people with disabilities, families affected by homelessness, mental illness and alcohol or other drug issues.

Tim has sat on a number of local and national government advisory committees in the carer, disability, child welfare and youth arenas. He has worked in policy and advocacy roles in both paid and unpaid positions.

After completing his Masters of Child and Adolescent Welfare (CSU) and Masters of Youth Studies (ACU) and PhD, Tim has worked with a range of consultancy companies and has worked as a researcher since 2005. Tim has been engaged particularly on projects targeting children, young people and families but has also participated in projects focusing on health, mental illness and education.

Gabrielle is a registered psychologist and is undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy at Australian Catholic University as part of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study. Her research focus is on the prevalence and prevention of child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and harmful sexual behaviours, with a focus on faith-based settings and implementing evidence-based prevention strategies.

Gabrielle’s research and ongoing work are informed by her experience as a psychologist working with victim-survivors as well as young people displaying harmful sexual behaviours.

Dr Ursula Stephens is CEO Of Australian Catholic Safeguarding Limited (ACSL). Ursula has a deep understanding of the social services sector, government relations and community services more broadly.

Ursula served for 12 years in the Australian Parliament as a Senator for New South Wales from 2002 to 2014. She was Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Prime Minister for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector in the Rudd Government and as a member of the Executive, she chaired senior government Committees, including the Joint Standing Committee on Human Rights.

Prior to joining ACSL, Dr Stephens was CEO of Catholic Social Services Australia.
Her broader background includes adult and community education, small business, community and regional development, public policy and administration.

Associate Professor Graham Gee is an Aboriginal-Chinese man, also with Celtic heritage, originally from Darwin. His Aboriginal-Chinese grandfather was born near Belyuen on Larrakia Country. Graham is a clinical psychologist and worked at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service for 11 years before taking up a position at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. His area of research is healing and recovery from complex trauma among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

In 2022/23, Graham received a Fellowship from the Eisen Family Private Fund and an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Investigator Grant to lead a 5-year project working with 6 Victorian Aboriginal service partners and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander survivors of child sexual abuse.

Among other advisory roles, Graham sits on the National Clinical Reference Group for the Attorney General’s Office for Child Safety, and the Research Advisory Committee for the National Centre for Action on Child Sexual Abuse.

Jordan has worked in First Nations health research since 2016 across areas of disability, corrections, racism, and culturally grounded and trauma-informed health and wellbeing practice. Jordan also works at Connected Minds Psychology as a provisional psychologist.

LJ is a proud Quandamooka and Wiradjuri woman, deeply rooted in her heritage as a First Nations Healing Practitioner and advocate based in Wadawurrung Country. She is a mother, a sister, an aunty, a tidda and a friend.

Her work fuses Aboriginal cultural practices with the transformative power of storytelling, clinical yarning, and lived experiences. Accredited by the Australian Community Workers Association, LJ leads an advocacy service that centres on collective care. As a contemporary researcher, her work focuses on culturally informed curriculums working with various Victorian universities, further demonstrating her commitment to reshaping educational paradigms.

LJ currently serves on the board of directors at The Koling Wada-ngal Aboriginal Corporation and was recently elected as the western metro deputy chair for RAJAC. LJ aims to amplify Aboriginal voices and address systemic injustices through grassroots-level advocacy. By focusing on ensuring that frontline services provide culturally safe, trauma-informed care that actively addresses the intersections between intergenerational trauma, colonial violence, family violence, and sexual assault, LJ hopes to make a positive impact. Her lived experience as a survivor drives LJ's work, and she incorporates cultural practices to promote sharing, caring, and renewal within her advocacy efforts.

She strongly believes in the power of community and its ability to promote resilience and healing among First Nations women, children, and families. LJ aims to expand grassroots support and provide specialised services for the growing number of sexually exploited First Nations youth in state care. This involves bridging gaps with empathy and expertise while emphasising the importance of culture as a protective factor for Blak children and young people.

Grounded in anti-oppressive and intersectional principles, LJ prioritises the integrity of the client-therapist relationship. Her healing spaces, shaped by the words of matriarchs and further enriched by storytelling, offer sanctuaries where trauma's complexities find understanding and healing guidance. LJ envisions a future where culturally safe, trauma-informed environments flourish, promoting wisdom and safety for children and young people.

Jayneen Sanders (aka Jay Dale) is an experienced early years educator, author, publisher and blogger.

Jayneen writes children’s books on body safety, consent, gender equality, respectful relationships, social and emotional intelligence, diversity and inclusion. She believes empowering children from an early age makes for empowered teenagers and adults.

Jayneen is Lead Author for the children’s literacy series ‘Engage Literacy’ published by Capstone and has written over 130 titles for that series.

Jayneen is importantly a mother of three daughters and has always advocated for their empowerment. Her ongoing passion for the safety and empowerment of children continues today with new manuscripts and free-to-download resources always in the wings.

Hayley Wesson is the Prevention Lead in the Sexual Abuse Counselling and Prevention Program at Kids First Australia. Hayley’s passion for prevention began whilst studying Public Health and Health Promotion and volunteering for a Women’s Health Service.

An area of interest that developed for Hayley over the past 16 years while working for a Sexual Assault Service has been in Protective Behaviours Education approaches within education settings. An emerging interest in the past couple of years has been supporting educators to respond to harmful sexualised behaviours in young people, whilst working with Kids First Australia.

Hayley believes prevention approaches are key drivers to supporting and empowering young people and their support networks to assist with navigating the ever-changing space that is technology and online platforms.

Jackie is an experienced leader of people and practice, a practitioner, consultant and trainer. In roles spanning the UK and Australia, Jackie has developed highly sought after and specialist expertise in working with children and young people who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours, using strengths-based models and practices.

In addition to her extensive client work, Jackie has co-authored two books:

- Working with Children and Young People Whose Behaviour is Sexually Concerning or Harmful. Enabling professionals to become confident at assessing risk and developing safety plans (Book) Kingsley Publishers, Feb 2015(with J Milner).

- Working with Children and Teenagers using Solution Focused Approaches. Enabling children to overcome challenges and achieve their potential, (Book) Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2011(with J Milner).

Currently, Jackie is General Manager, Prevention and Recovery Services at Kids First Australia, an independent child and family services provider and pioneer of sexual abuse services for children and young people in Victoria.

Jackie sits on the Board of Sexual Assault Services (Victoria) and is Deputy Chair of the Harmful Sexual Behaviour network.

Genevieve is a PhD Candidate and Research Officer in the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. She also has over eight years of experience as a child protection practitioner in Queensland's Department of Child Safety, Seniors, and Disability Services, and currently serves as a Senior Advisor.

Genevieve’s research focuses on how children are coerced to "self-produce" child sexual exploitation material, with a focus on understanding how this emerging form of exploitation can be identified, disrupted and prevented.

She is passionate about research methodologies that empower children to influence practice enhancements, and she believes the risk of child sexual abuse and exploitation can be reduced when children are respected and listened to.

Anne Hollonds is Australia’s National Children’s Commissioner. Formerly Director of the Australian Institute of Family Studies, for 23 years Anne was Chief Executive of government and non-government organisations focussed on research, policy and practice in child and family wellbeing.

As a psychologist Anne worked extensively in frontline practice, including child protection, domestic and family violence, mental health, child and family counselling, parenting education, and family law counselling.

Anne currently contributes to several expert advisory groups, including the Family Law Council, Australian Child Maltreatment Study, NSW Domestic and Family Violence and Sexual Assault Council, National Plan Advisory Group (NPAG), and Early Years Strategy Advisory Panel.

Nicole Artico is the Acting CEO of Kids First Australia, a national charity dedicated to providing high-quality, person-centered community support and health services for children, young people, and families across Australia. Driven by a passion to ensure all children and young people have the brightest futures possible, Nicole brings over two decades of experience in the community, mental health, and youth justice sectors.

Prior to her current position, Nicole served as the Deputy CEO of Kids First Australia for nearly two years, where she provided cultural, strategic, and operational leadership across the organisation's services. She was instrumental in coordinating the execution of Kids First's strategic initiatives, with a strong focus on business development, innovation, and enhanced digital and IT functionality.

Nicole also briefly stepped into the role of Acting CEO earlier in 2023, and in her previous role as Chief Operating Officer, she led all client operations and practice development, embedding a culture of innovation, and managing strategic growth and operational governance.

Before joining Kids First, Nicole was the Chief Operating Officer at CareChoice, where she drove business development, strategic planning, and executive management in the disability services sector. At Mind Australia, she held multiple senior roles, including Executive Director of Innovation, where she led the development of new business strategies, established the Equality Centre, and managed business development teams to support Mind’s service delivery.

Nicole's extensive experience also includes leadership roles at Better Place Australia, where she was the Executive Manager of Client Services, and at Wesley Mission Victoria, where she served as the Senior Manager and Regional Manager for Children, Youth & Family Services. She began her career in youth justice, holding various positions at the Victorian Department of Health and Connections UnitingCare.

Throughout her career, Nicole has demonstrated expertise in corporate governance, strategic partnerships, community engagement, executive management, coaching and mentoring, corporate social responsibility, financial modeling, and strategic leadership.

Dr Gemma McKibbin is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Social Work at the University of Melbourne in the Violence Against Women and Children research team.

Gemma has a background in gender studies and a PhD focused on the prevention of harmful sexual behaviour carried out by children and young people. Along with an interest in harmful sexual behaviour, Gemma’s research focuses on preventing child sexual exploitation and sexual violence in young people’s intimate relationships, as well as on adult perpetration-focused prevention.

She leads a number of child sexual abuse prevention and response action research projects, including Power to Kids with MacKillop Family Services and the Worried About Sex and Pornography Project (WASAPP) with Jesuit Social Services, as well as the Amplifying Voices of Victim-Survivors (AVA) project.

Gemma specialises in trauma-informed, child-focused research interviews with vulnerable children and young people. She is passionate about supporting children and young people to have a voice to government and is a member of the National Clinical Reference Group advising government about harmful sexual behaviour.

Georgia Naldrett is the Stop It Now! Australia Manager within The Men’s Project at Jesuit Social Services. Within this role she applies her psychological and practice knowledge of sexual offending and child protection to aid in the prevention of child sexual abuse. This includes leading the Stop It Now! helpline which works with individuals concerned about their own or someone else’s sexual thoughts or behaviours towards children, and development of the Worried About Sex and Pornography Project (WASAPP) which aims to work with young people concerned about their sexual thoughts and behaviours including pornography use.

Georgia is a psychology graduate with a MSc in Forensic Psychology from the UK and has been employed in a variety of psychology roles where she has developed her learning and application of rehabilitation and prevention. During Georgia’s previous employment for The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, the UK’s only charity focused solely on the prevention of child sexual abuse, she assisted in the implementation and delivery of perpetrator focused prevention services.

​​​​​​​Georgia is passionate about research, advocacy, and multi-agency approaches, and is motivated to work collaboratively to ensure a holistic approach to keeping children safe.

Michael Derby is an accredited mental health social worker and clinical family therapist.

He has worked for over 15 years with children, young people and their families who have experienced significant trauma including family violence & sexual abuse. He also has extensive experience working with parents who have caused harm to their partners and children, as well as children and young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviours.

Since 2019 Michael has developed and delivered ongoing training to the state-wide Victorian Governments child protection practitioners on how to work with siblings where one has engaged in harmful sexual behaviours towards the other.

Michael has a passionate interest in Shame and has since partnered with Innovative resources to create a resource titled “Exploring Shame”, which was realised in 2022. Finally in 2023- 2024 Michael delivered support services to the state-wide governments board of inquiry into historic childhood sexual abuse within schools.

Currently Michael is the Manager of Practice and Development at the Sexual Assault and Family Violence (SAFV) centre, and is on the board of ethics for the Australian association of social work (AASW), as well as being a board member for Australian Association of Family therapy (AFFT).

Rachel is a passionate and dedicated professional with a diverse background in human services, law, and education. She holds a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master in Teaching. Rachel also has over 17 years’ experience as a police officer, with 8 years as a first responder, before specialising as an in-court prosecutor in the Family and Domestic Violence Sector. Rachel’s most recent practice-based experience has been as a Senior Social Worker with the Department for Child Protection, centring on early intervention and preventative strategies through advocacy and education, with families who have come in contact with the child protection system.

Rachel’s commitment to public service has been recognised and awarded with the South Australian Police Diligent and Ethical Service Medal, the Emergency Response Service Medal, the National Service Medal, and the National Police Service Medal.

Rachel is also a RTPd PhD scholarship recipient with Education Futures at the University of South Australia. Her research is entitled ‘Australia Police and Justice System responses to children’s harmful sexual behaviour’, examining police knowledge, responses, use of discretion and current diversionary options.

Phil Doorgachurn brings 18 years of global experience in child safeguarding to his role as General Manager of Strategic Child Safeguarding Initiatives at the Australian Childhood Foundation. Starting with the NSPCC in the UK, Phil led significant projects, including safeguarding for the London 2012 Olympic Games. He further honed his expertise at British Tennis and Arsenal FC, managing both matchday and international safeguarding operations. As Director of Safeguarding at LimeCulture, Phil designed innovative solutions, including the world’s first accredited Safeguarding Lead Officer training program. His move to Australia saw him lead YMCA Safeguarding as CEO, implementing strategic safeguarding measures across all YMCAs in the country. Phil also contributes to several boards, including LimeCulture, Families Australia, and Pride Cup, and supports the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse Advisory Group.

Now leading the "On US: Australian Business Coalition for Safeguarding Children" initiative, Phil is dedicated to educating and empowering businesses to improve their safeguarding practices, driving cross-sector action to create a safer world for all children. His unwavering commitment ensures that child rights and safeguarding remain at the forefront of societal actions.

Dr Jacqueline Kuruppu is an Early Career Researcher at the Department of Social Work, The University of Melbourne. She was awarded her PhD in 2024, in which she explored the response to child abuse and neglect in primary care settings. Jacqueline is currently working with Dr Gemma McKibbin on the Ava Project which aims to understand the experiences, impacts and service needs of survivors of harmful sexual behaviour. Jacqueline is passionate about increasing the visibility of children and young people in research so that they have a voice in improving services for their health and wellbeing.

Lauren Elston is a Senior Education Advisor in the Children Youth and Families team at the eSafety Commissioner. Lauren leads the Families Capacity Building project, funded under the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse, to support parents and carers keep their children safe from online harms including child sexual abuse online. Prior to working at eSafety, she led the development of national policy and resources at the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership in the areas of teacher professional learning and induction.

Maddison Murphy is a qualified social worker with over ten years of experience, specialising in working with young people and their families. Maddison's expertise spans family violence, adolescent family violence, child protection, out of home care and working with young people who have engage in harmful sexual behaviors. Maddison has extensive experience and knowledge of how systems can impact on children and young people and how this can influence family functioning. Maddison’s passion is working with young people who have engaged in harmful sexual behaviors. She currently heads up the harmful sexual behavior team as the Team Leader at the Sexual Assault Family Violence Centre.

Karen has been referred to as one of Australia’s foremost child protection advocates. She is a qualified social worker with many years clinical, managerial, training and research experience in child protection and safeguarding. She specialises in prevention and response to child sexual abuse and designed award winning therapeutic programs for victim/survivors and perpetrators of sexual violence.

In 2010 she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for “Service to the community in the area of Child Protection through contributions to policy and program development and legislative reform”.

Currently Karen is Save the Children’s Strategic Advisor for Child Protection responsible for innovation and adaptation to changing digital environments and funding landscapes. She leads on the provision of technical support, program design and mentoring for staff and partners nationally and internationally, to ensure children are kept safe and protected from harm in all aspects of Save the Children's work. She has also authored numerous journal articles, edited and published in a recent book on modern slavery and developed resources and toolkits on a range of child protection and child rights issues.

Deanne Carson is founder and CEO of Body Safety Australia. Deanne has been responsible for the research, development and implementation of programs that support the safety, wellbeing and equality of children in Australia.
She is a speaker and author, advocating for the prevention of sexual and gender-based abuse both on and offline.

John is a speaker, educator, parent, connection consultant, and child sexual abuse survivor. Through lived experience, John has a great understanding of the impacts that sexual abuse can have on victims and their families.

John believes that we all have the ability to create a positive environment for our children to make them feel safe and protected through connection and by providing a strong sense of belonging. He has the privilege of working with children, families and organisations over the past 10 years as an educator, partnering with families to ensure that their mental health and wellbeing is at the forefront of every child.

John's childhood trauma has taught him that the effects of abuse are long-lasting. He has also found that triggers can occur at different stages of life without any warning, and it is for this reason that John believes the work of Kids First is imperative. Sharing the message for adult survivors that their past does not need to dictate their future and that there is a pathway to healing with strong intention, purpose, and consistency.

John believes that we all need to work together to prevent, educate and inform communities on how to protect our children from sexual abuse. "Children spell love using a different four-letter word T-I-M-E, we need to use time to role model that we want to connect and create a sense of belonging for all children."

Courtney has 10 years of experience working with students with disabilities. While studying a Bachelor of Education (Primary/Disability Studies), she worked as an education support aide, gaining valuable experience supporting individuals with disabilities at a mainstream high school, primary school and special school. Once graduated, she began teaching in Special Education where she remained for five years. During this time, she taught in the classroom and as a specialist teacher in Drug and Alcohol Education and Sexuality and Relationships Education (SRE).

Courtney is endlessly passionate about SRE because it is a human right and she believes that everyone deserves to have a range of healthy and fulfilling relationships, alongside a toolbox of supports and skills to keep themselves safe, happy and healthy. She utilises a trauma-informed, harm-reduction approach and is dedicated to adapting her teaching to meet each participant’s individual needs.