Meet the CentreMHN Team

The CentreMHN is a small team with establishment/core staffing, including a director, nurse academics, lead consumer academic, research assistant and an events and communications officer. The team is supplemented with casual staffing to meet requirements for additional consultancies and grants.

  • A/Prof Bridget Hamilton

    Bridget is the Director of CentreMHN, leading the team of clinical nurse academics and consumer academics.

  • Cath Roper

    Cath is a Senior Consumer Academic. Cath has held the role of consumer academic at CentreMHN since 2000.

  • Dr Teresa Kelly

    Teresa is a mental health nurse and an academic at the CentreMHN. Her areas of expertise include relational heart health, qualitative research, and clinical supervision for mental health nurses.

  • Dr Haley Peckham

    MHN contributing a suite of workshops and consultations based in her expertise in communicating and applying neuroscience.

  • Cathie Miller

    Cathie is a Mental Health Nurse Academic at Centre MHN. She is passionate about Trauma Informed Care, LGBTIQ+ health and wellbeing, and supporting the learning and development of mental health nurses.

  • Roshani Prematunga

    Roshani is a Research Fellow at the CentreMHN and has a background in Public Health and Statistics.

  • Beck Hockin

    Beck is the Program Administrator for the CentreMHN and is responsible for promoting the CentreMHN and events through digital/non-digital communications. Beck also plans and delivers the annual Collab Conference. Herself a Clinical Myotherapist, Beck also has significant experience working as a Clinical Placement Coordinator, Industry Consultant and Events Coordinator in the nursing, allied health, fitness, and higher education sectors. Beck is delighted to support mental health nursing and consumer academics to resource the mental health sector.

  • Nina Joffee-Kohn

    Nina is the Coordinator of the Consumer Academic Program. Nina has managed the delivery of a suite of LLEW projects and enabled co-working contributions from CAP into the range of CentreMHN research and education projects.

  • Puneet Sansanwal

    Puneet is a Consumer Lived Experience Researcher/ Consumer Academic at Centre for Mental Health Nursing. He gained experience as a consumer peer support worker and a consumer consultant within Victoria’s public mental health system. Puneet is committed to advocate for reduced workplace stress across all sectors and for work culture that is supportive of positive mental health in workplaces.

  • Cat Van Remmen

    Cat is a Consumer Academic and Project Manager for LEW projects. Cat has many years of experience in peer support and consumer perspective work.

  • Shiobhan "Shibs" Sharpe

    SEWB Consumer Lived Experience Lead (RMH MHS) & Consumer Academic (CMHN, University of Melbourne) Shibs is a proud Wulgurukaba and Gunggandji woman from Far North Queensland. With a background in paint and hardware, construction admin, and project management, she transitioned into the mental health sector 4.5 years ago. Since then, she has held various peer support, academic, and leadership roles. Shibs was the lead peer worker in establishing RMH MHS Safe Haven and has contributed to numerous lived experience initiatives across Victoria. She brings a strong Social and Emotional Wellbeing (SEWB) lens to her work, advocating for the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. Her passions include complex trauma, grief, suicide prevention and postvention, social justice, and challenging systemic issues in mental health.

  • Leanna Azoury

    Leanna is a Consumer Academic/Lived Experience Researcher and Lived Experience Workforce leader. Prior to joining CentreMHN, Leanna served as the inaugural Lived Experience Workforces Manager at Centre for Mental Health Learning.

  • Natasha Swingler

    Natasha is a Consumer Academic in CentreMHN.

  • Leah McKenner

    Leah is a Consumer Academic in CentreMHN.

  • Hosu Ryu

    Hosu is a PhD student. PhD Title: Evaluation of Clinical Supervision Implementation for Mental Health Nurses in Victoria, Australia.

  • Helena Roennfeldt

    Helena is a PhD Student. PhD Title: All roads lead to ED: an analysis of the discourses surrounding responses to mental health crises.