Mentally Healthy WA Steering Committee
Meet the Steering Committee
The Mentally Healthy WA Steering Committee provides strategic direction, advocacy and community links to strengthen the Act Belong Commit Campaign. The committee meet on a quarterly basis. The Steering Committee:
- Supports Mentally Healthy WA to set, monitor, review and fulfil on its strategic priorities to ensure strategic outcomes are achieved;
- Provides and encourages links to government, non-government agencies, corporate and community organisations relevant to the campaign and its programs;
- Identifies potential funding partners and provide advice on funding opportunities on a state and federal level;
- Provides advice to strengthen the Act Belong Commit campaign strategies and approach;
- Facilitates cooperation and communication between key stakeholders; and
- Disseminates information to members’ organisations and contribute to advocacy efforts around mental health promotion where appropriate.
Associate Professor Christina Pollard
Director, Mentally Healthy WA,
Curtin University
Christina Pollard is the Director of Mentally Healthy WA, based at Curtin University. Associate Professor Public Health Priorities, she brings her health promotion experience working for Government for over 30 years to the Act Belong Commit campaign. Her research has underpinned development of a diverse range of successful public health interventions from policy and practice at national, state and local levels. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Master’s Degree in Public Health, a Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management, a Graduate Diploma in Dietetics and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Nutrition and Food Science).
Professor Rosa Alati
Head of School, Population Health,
Curtin University
Professor Alati is Head of the Curtin School of Population Health. She is lead investigator on large birth cohort studies in Australia and overseas and has been visiting professor at Oxford, Bristol and Bologna Universities. In recent years, she has worked towards linking familial administrative data in a longitudinal way to investigate causal pathways to mental health and diseases. She has taken a keen interest in promoting good mental health to the whole community supporting a number of programs and collaborations currently in operation.
Associate Professor Moira O’Connor
Senior Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Curtin University;
Director, WA Cancer Prevention Research Unit
Associate Professor Moira O’Connor, PhD, is a Senior Research Fellow in psychological and psychosocial aspects of cancer and palliative care. She works with patients, families, carers, and health professionals. Moira has a keen interest in children, adolescents and young adults (AYA) affected by cancer (parental cancer, siblings of children diagnosed with paediatric cancer, and children and AYA diagnosed with cancer.)
Professor Warren Mansell
School of Population Health,
Curtin University
Warren Mansell is Professor of Mental Health at the School of Population Health, and enAble Institute, Curtin University, Perth. His role with Act Belong Commit is the Chair of the Research Advisory Group of Mentally Healthy WA. Prof Mansell develops, trains and researches a range of universal mental health interventions including 4Ds for Dealing with Distress – an ultra-brief online stress management course; the Take Control Course – a six session group intervention for common mental health problems, and MYLO – an artificial therapist accessed via smartphone.
Lorraine Powell
Mental Health Consumer Consultant
Lorraine has been on the Steering Committee since it began in 2012. For over 20 years, as a consultant, representative and advocate, Lorraine has worked to ensure the experiences and insights of mental health consumers are brought to the planning, implementation, delivery, and evaluation of mental health service. In 2022 she was awarded the prestigious Minister’s Award for her work as a leader in mental health lived experience.
Darci Miller
Youth representative
Darci has many years’ experience working for Mentally Healthy WA delivering the Youth Connectors Program. Over 3 and a half years she delivered the program to over 800 young people in regional and metro WA. She now works as a Mental Health Promotion Officer for the Australian Department of Defence.
Professor Sharyn Burns
Co-Director, Mentally Healthy WA, School of Population Health, Curtin University
Sharyn is the Director of Health Promotion and Sexology and a Co-Director of the Western Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research and Mentally Healthy WA within the School of Public Health. She writes and teaches a range of undergraduate and postgraduate health promotion units and supervises Masters and PhD students. Sharyn’s research focuses on mental health promotion and prevention and obesity prevention with a particular emphasis on children, youth, and parents.
Lynne Millar
Senior Research Fellow, Telethon Kids Institute
Lynne is a Senior Research Fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute who is leading the evaluation of the Early Years Partnership. The Early Years Partnership aims to improve children’s wellbeing and school readiness across four sites in WA (one urban, one rural, one remote, and one very remote) and in doing so learn what it takes to create change for children across Western Australia. She has many years’ experience in systems science approaches to community-based prevention initiatives from the development through implementation, evaluation and translation. Lynne holds a PhD in Public Health from Deakin University, Victoria.