Michelle Costello works at Brisbane North PHN as a Program Development Lead in the Mental Health Alcohol and Other Drugs Team for Infants, Children and Young People.

She has worked in health promotion for over 15 years and partnered with communities in the planning, implementation and evaluation of several holistic, ecological and salutogenic health promotion programs.

With the Partnership Brokers Association, Michelle is an Accredited Partnership Broker, Associate and Authorised Practitioner Trainer. As an internal partnership broker in the PHN she supports partners and other partnership brokers to create and sustain functional partnerships to drive collaborative social change that improves people’s lives.

We are honoured to have Michelle on board as our Master of Ceremonies.

After her own personal experience with perinatal mental illness, and losing a family member to maternal suicide, Viv co-founded Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness in 2011. Since then, she has been using her lived experience to not only work directly with mothers, fathers and children but also to spread awareness and understanding of the importance of perinatal health and wellbeing across a broad spectrum of society.

Viv has recruited, trained and supported Lived Experience (Peer) Workers and continues to provide supervision and mentorship. Her role has seen her develop and implement organisational policy unique to a Peer Operated Service, as well as programs that aim to reduce the impact of perinatal mental illness on families and communities.

Viv is currently the co-Chair of the Queensland Lived Experience Workforce Network (QLEWN), a LEAD member of the national Mental Health Lived Experience and Engagement Network (MHLEEN).  She has previous board experience with the Queensland Alliance of Mental Health (2016 – 2019) and has extensive experience in consumer representative and consultation work in governance and strategy at National, State and local levels.   In 2022, Viv received an Order of Australia medal for her work in community mental health.

Cate Rawlinson is a Psychologist with 25 years’ experience working in public mental health and private practice across the lifespan.

For the past 12 years Cate has worked as a state-wide Service Development Leader at the Queensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health.

Her role focus is facilitating the development and implementation of perinatal and infant mental health services, workforce, promotion, prevention, early intervention, and research in Queensland.

Amanda Connell is a clinical psychologist working at the intersection of infant feeding, mental health and early parenting. Alongside her clinical work, Amanda has a strong online presence and large following among both parents and professionals. Through her practice, Spilt Milk Psychology, Amanda is redefining the way that parents access high quality, professional information and support in the modern world.  

For too long, discussions around parental mental health have pitted parents against their children in the battle for happiness. Amanda passionately believes there is enough love for everyone. She champions the mother-baby connection, bringing fierce compassion to perinatal mental health. Her human-centred approach empowers families by providing insightful, practical, and relatable information and support.

Taryn has a lived experience of perinatal mental illness after the birth of both her children in 2012 and 2016. This lived experience fueled Taryn’s commitment to helping others on their pathway to recovery.

In 2018 she commenced a role within Belmont Private Hospital as a Consumer Carer Representative allowing her to actively advocate for consumers as well as contribute to positive change within the mental health system. Furthermore, Taryn continues to serve as a PANDA community champion. She has contributed to the education of mental health and midwifery clinicians on perinatal mental illness as well as contributed to various projects to enhance PANDA’s service delivery.

In 2023 Taryn left her role as an Occupational Therapist and commenced at Catherine’s House as the Senior Perinatal Peer Support Worker. She is passionate in supporting consumers through modelling recovery and hope, assisting consumers to advocate their needs as well as educating staff within the service about lived experience (peer) work.

Jen became part of Peach Tree in 2012 when she began regularly attending one of the peer support groups.  Jen found peer support invaluable during her last pregnancy after two previous second trimester miscarriages. When an opportunity to volunteer and run the peer support group she had been attending came, Jen emphatically shut the door on her nursing career and took it.

Ten years later she is the Service Coordinator for Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness and is passionate about providing quality peer support to positively influence lives.

Jen has a Bachelor of Nursing, a Cert IV in Mental Health Peer Work and is currently studying Cert IV Trainer and Assessor. Jen is a lived experience leader who sees her future in training and mentoring future perinatal peer workers. 

Liz is the team leader of Perinatal Wellbeing Team Mental Health Metro North based at Nundah Community Health Centre. She is a Registered Nurse and an Accredited Mental health Nurse. Liz has worked in health for way longer than she cares to admit! She admits to a few decades though!

Liz is passionate about advocacy, breaking down barriers and encouraging linkage with services. Her catch words are “village and validation” something that is lacking from so many of our lives.

Liz is proud to be the Team Leader of an incredibly dynamic and motivated team. The team are exemplary and meticulous in their service delivery all through the lens of trauma informed care.

Nicki identifies as having experienced significant perinatal and adult mental health challenges, and is a parent of two young people who have experienced infant, child and adolescent mental health challenges. 

Nicki is passionate about mental health for young parents aged 21 and under (having experienced life as a young mum), and is an avid campaigner for increased and more affordable mental health and early parenting services to support our young families. 

Nicki lives and thrives with both mental illness and ADHD, and is a proud advocate for neurodivergent young people and adults across Queensland.

Sam Jones is a Social Worker who has worked extensively with children and their families in both government and non-government roles.

She is currently employed as an Infant Mental Health Clinician at the Zero to Four Child and Youth Mental Health Service, Children’s Health Queensland.

Sam has previously coordinated the Zero to Four Family Support Service from 2013-2021 which involved recruiting, training and supervising volunteers to assist infants and their families in their home environment.  Both Zero to Four CYMHS and the Zero to Four Family Support Service are based at the Queensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health in Nundah, Brisbane.

Libby is the Sunshine Parenting Program Coordinator for Peach Tree.  She has spent the last four years managing the day-to-day functions of the program, as well as learning the intricacies of working within a lived-experience peer support organisation.

She has two young children and is often solo parenting when her husband is traveling overseas for work.

Libby had roles within the public service in education and governance prior to joining Peach Tree.  

Libby has a Masters of Public Health and Bachelors in Business Management (Marketing and Communications) and Arts (English and Psychology).

Fiona has a Masters of Public Health and a passion for health promotion and wellness. After the birth of her daughter, Fiona experienced postnatal depression first hand. 

After that, she hoped to be part of an organisation that offered a non-judgmental, lived-experience based space for parents in their own perinatal journey. Fiona joined Peach Tree as a Perinatal Mental Health Peer worker in March 2022. 

Initially working in group based facilitation, Fiona is now works at Peach Tree in a Program Intake and Delivery role.  She particularly oversees the operation of the Connecting Parents to Pathways Program, an eight week 1:1 peer support program for mothers with complex trauma.  This is a lived experience designed and delivered program, which is currently being evaluated under a pilot phase.

Currently Chief Operations Manager, Rani has worked with Peach Tree Perinatal Wellness for over 10 years.

In addition to her own lived experience of PMH challenge(s), Rani has 15+ years’ experience in project management, parent education, and program facilitation, including a Master of Primary Maternity Care and PostGrad Degree in Psychology.

Passionate about Impact and Evaluation, Rani ‘s primary goal is to utilise Peach Tree’s existing brand, database, and frameworks to contribute to the growing research evidence-base around PMH Lived Experience (Peer) Work. The value of using data insights to share Peach Tree’s story through purposeful and meaningful story-telling provides a unique evaluation perspective within the PMH sector.

Donna has been developing a Perinatal Mental Health Peer Work Skills Training with Peach Tree and has successfully
delivered these workshops to all our Peer Workers as well as a pilot training with a group of Peer Workers at PANDA in 2022. Donna is currently working with Catherine’s House Peer Workers in building knowledge, leadership, and resilience for this unique workforce.

Donna has worked in the mental health sector for over eleven years, working as a peer worker and then a project leader for key Lived Experience Workforce training workshops and Conferences (Dialogue LE Workforce Conference) as well as collaborating on many projects to upskill and elevate the Peer Workforce in Australia.

Donna appreciates how much our Lived Experience practice cultivates, inspires, and models recovery and is grateful every day to be working in a role that aligns with her passion and purpose.