Meet the Team

Taryn joined WAAMH as CEO in January 2018, having previously held the position of CEO of Developmental Disability WA following a career in the Australian public service and State government. She has a strong track record in strategic planning, organisation and sector development, and advocacy. Taryn is committed to values driven leadership, authentic and trusted relationships and partnership. She sits on multiple State planning and development committees across WA.

Cassie has more than a decade of experience working in the employment field. Cassie is responsible for the strategic direction of various sector development projects at WAAMH, including IPS WORKS, the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Sector Readiness Project for Psychosocial Providers and the Collaborative and Responsive Engagement (CARE) Hub. Cassie believes employment as a basic right that all members of the community should have access to.

Shendelle has worked in event management and marketing since 2005. Her experience in events ranges from corporate golf days to sporting championships, radio competitions, business and product launches, and corporate events including conferences and trade shows. Shendelle has a passion for not-for-profit and community activities and believes in equality for all. She has worked as a board member, corporate fundraiser, volunteer manager (current member of the Volunteering WA’s Leadership Network), capital projects and was also the initiator of WAAMH’s mental health awareness ribbon. Shendelle manages WAAMH's marketing and events activities including Mental Health Week, the Mental Health Awards, Conferences and more.

Vanessa as has worked in education and training for over thirty years, gaining experience and knowledge working in many roles within primary, secondary, and tertiary educational settings. In 2015, having experienced personal adversity and recovery, Vanessa commenced working in the mental health consumer space, providing consumer consultancy and co-designed training that championed the inclusion of lived experience and promoted a transition to recovery orientated practice in service delivery. Vanessa joined WAAMH in 2021 to manage and oversee the coordination of the semester and contract mental health training programs. Vanessa is inspired by the WAAMH team and the organisation’s expert trainers, whose collective aim it is to deliver and continually improve high quality mental health training within the sector and wider community.

Lorna has coordinated the logistics for WAAMH’s training courses since in 2014. She has also been responsible for office administration activities and is the first point of contact for the organisation. With a background in teaching and in office administration, she has enjoyed working across the sector, in housing services, with corporates and in education. She has valued the exposure to diverse work settings and her involvement in various forms of service delivery have provided amazing learning opportunities to engage with people from all walks of life. Lorna is passionate about fairness, empowering others through knowledge and building resilience and sharing those ideals with others. Working in the mental health sector has taught Lorna that health and wellbeing are important and learning how to look after yourself and care for others around you brings many benefits to you and your community.

Michele is WAAMH's Training Development Officer, and formerly worked as a Project Officer for the WAAMH NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Psychosocial Project, working to support service providers in the psychosocial space to understand and fulfil their responsibilities within the NDIS. Michele brings lived and learned experience to her dynamic training workshops in the project, with her key values being compassion, curiosity, and connection. Michele's previous professional experience includes management and training roles, psychosocial recovery coaching, NDIS Access support, recovery facilitation and support work. Michele holds a Diploma of Community Services and a Certificate in Art Therapy, and has additionally undertaken significant professional development, including Clinical Supervision, Making Sense of Paranoia, and Working with Alcohol and Other Drug Using Clients. Michele's passion is education, underpinned by a Peer Work approach of walking alongside learners and flexibly meeting the needs of others. Michele brings enthusiasm and playfulness to the NDIS Project and is driven by the concepts of choice and control.

Roshani works in the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) WORKS team. She has an extensive experience in mental health and disability section including employment services. Roshani is passionate about equity and access to employment for all individuals with keen interest in social policy and research. In her current role, she leads the IPS WORKS team to support community organisations and mental health services to implement and deliver evidence-based supported employment. Roshani also conducts fidelity reviews of the IPS programs. Her qualifications include a Diploma in Community Services, a Bachelor of Applied Social Science and a Certificate IV in Mental Health. She has also completed the IPS Practitioner Skills course and IPS Leadership Training from the IPS Employment Centre at the Rockville Institute, Westat (formerly Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Centre).

Diane works with the IPS WORKS team in providing technical support and mentoring to organisations/employment specialists implementing IPS. She was formerly a disability employment specialist and an IPS employment specialist co-located with Adult Mental Health Services. Diane has extensive experience working in the youth, mental health and employment services sectors dedicated to supporting individuals find creative and productive solutions to issues with housing, employment and health/wellbeing. Diane’s qualifications include: Bachelor of Social Work, Certificate IV in Employment Services and a Certificate IV in Career Development, IPS Leadership Training.

Cindy works with the IPS Works team providing technical support and mentoring. She recently worked with headspace National in the Digital Work and Study program. She was formerly an employment specialist at headspace Edinburgh North for three years. Prior to this she worked at Disability Employment Services in a variety of roles for 10 years. Her background is in IPS, mental health, disability employment, and has a degree in Child Psychology.

Ken has over nine years’ experience working in employment services in various roles in job active and tertiary education settings assisting people to gain meaningful employment. Ken also worked as an IPS vocational specialist from January 2017 - September 2019 for headspace and hopes to use his experience gained from this role to assist new and existing headspace sites to reach an exemplary level of fidelity within the IPS program. Prior to working in employment services, Ken completed a Diploma in IT and Networking as well as a Cert IV in Small Business and went on to successfully run a local IT business for 12 years helping business’ and residents with their IT issues. Ken has undertaken IPS Leadership Training from the IPS Employment Centre at the Rockville Institute ,Westat (formerly Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Centre).

Before joining IPS WORKS as a support and evaluation officer, Corey worked in employment services for several years before moving on to Disability Employment Services. He facilitated the rollout and implementation of the ParentsNext pilot program, after which he transitioned to the IPS program as a vocational specialist at headspace before moving on to become the senior vocational specialist. Corey’s experience includes working with people of all ages and cultural backgrounds with multiple mental health challenges. Corey holds a Bachelors degree in Human Services, Cert IV in Training and Assessment & Cert IV in Education Support. Corey has undertaken IPS Leadership Training from the IPS Employment Centre at the Rockville Institute, Westat (formerly Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Centre).

Kathy has worked in various lived experience roles across the mental health sector for almost 20 years. She has personally been through a lot of adversity in her life and is recovering from Complex Trauma, which guides a great deal of her interpersonal work with others. Having worked predominantly in the field of eating disorder recovery and by utilising her knowledge of the associated experiences that often accompany that diagnosis, she has been employed within clinical settings to develop peer programs and bring the lived experience perspective to treatment teams at private, government and child/adolescent health. She has also worked in community services as peer practice lead, women's health as program coordinator and has contributed in many ways to independent advocacy, mental health system reform and the development of lived experience resources, training pathways and employment possibilities. She has large networks of people who she has trained, mentored and supported over the years and she has strong links with clinicians who benefit from the optimism, empowerment and strengths-based approach Kathy has cultivated. In her role at WAAMH, she is excited to amplify the voice of lived experience within our communities and contribute to sector capacity building by offering a lived experience speaker training course for anyone wishing to build confidence and skills related to having lived or living experience of mental health challenges.

Originally from Albany, Colin moved to Perth after high school for tertiary studies and sporting opportunities. He has graduate and post graduate qualifications and has worked across all social policy sectors, including education, health, public health, sexual & reproductive health, housing, homelessness, disability, seniors and aged, youth and community services. He has worked in government and the not-for-profit sector, taught at tertiary institutions and before joining WAAMH ran a social policy consultancy for over 20 years. As projects lead at WAAMH, Colin develops and oversees many WAAMH projects & brings understanding of the interface between social policy and mental health to WAAMH’S work. Outside of WAAMH he undertakes research, campaigning and writing on social policy and social and economic justice issues.

Christine joined WAAMH in July 2019 as the finance & corporate services support officer. As a qualified accountant Christine comes with many years of experience in management accounting and administration, along with a very enjoyable time spent managing a community aged care organisation. One of her passions is assisting the not-for-profit/charity sector, an area of much of her work experience, to be run well.