Health and Safety Month 2024 presenter profiles

Joe Calafiore

Chief Executive Officer, WorkSafe Victoria

Joe joined WorkSafe Victoria, the occupational health and safety regulator and workplace injury insurer, in October 2023, bringing strong public policy and communications experience.

Prior to WorkSafe, Joe spent 15 years at the Transport Accident Commission (TAC), most recently as CEO where he was responsible for promoting road safety, supporting those who have been injured on Victorian roads and assisting them to get their lives back on track. He was previously Head of Community Relations, responsible for road safety, marketing, communication, legislative and legal functions.

Joe has also served as Senior Advisor to the Victorian Minister for Police and advisor in the challenging portfolios of Transport, Major Projects, Finance (including WorkSafe and TAC) and Industrial Relations. He holds a Masters of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and maintains a healthy interest in public policy and communication issues.

Born and raised in Geelong, Joe is committed to improving the region’s future as a member of the Committee for Geelong’s strategy and policy committee. He is a proud member of the Carlton Football Club and outside of work enjoys football, reading and spending time with his family and friends.

Sam Jenkin

Executive Director, Health and Safety, WorkSafe Victoria

Sam joined WorkSafe as Executive Director, External Affairs in June 2020, and was appointed Executive Director, Health and Safety in June 2024.

He has spent the majority of his public service career working with regulators in NSW and Victoria. He has worked for the workplace safety and workers compensation insurer in both states, having begun his career with the then WorkCover NSW in 2002 before joining WorkSafe Victoria for the first time in 2007.

He has also worked for the consumer protection regulator in both states, having held senior positions with NSW Fair Trading between 2012 and 2014 and Consumer Affairs Victoria (within the Department of Justice and Community Safety) between 2016 and 2020.

Sam holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and a Masters and PhD in Economic History from Lund University in Sweden. He lives in Geelong with his partner and four children.

Fabian Adriel

Team Manager, Recovery & Client Partnership, Allianz

Fabian has over eight years of experience in the Victorian Workers Compensation scheme. With a background in Work Health and Safety, he leads the Recovery and Client Partnership Team, delivering personalised support for injured workers and employers, with the aim of enhancing recovery and return-to-work outcomes.

Halil Ahmet

Principal Occupational Hygienist, Health and Safety, WorkSafe Victoria

Halil has been engaged with WorkSafe Victoria as an Occupational Hygienist since 1990 and in that time has visited hundreds of workplaces regarding a wide range of hazards including silica, asbestos and welding fumes. He has provided training to WorkSafe Inspectors on a range of hygiene related topics including welding fumes, and the recent reduction in its exposure standard, and represents WorkSafe Victoria on the Welding Safety Council.

Peter Booth

Senior Construction Advisor, WorkSafe Victoria

Peter has been a WorkSafe inspector for 5 years and previously spent 15 years in the construction industry as a carpenter. During this time he ran small domestic company and was fortunate to get the opportunity to manage some large commercial projects for subcontractors such as Geelong Epworth Hospital, the extension of the Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre and GMHBA Stadium Corporate Suites. He holds a Graduate Diploma in OHS from Federation University and Cert 3 in Building and Construction from the Gordon TAFE.

Charlotte Brunner

Senior Psychological Health and Safety Specialist, WorkSafe Victoria

Charlotte is a registered Psychologist, and prior to joining WorkSafe in April 2021, Charlotte studied Organisational and Human Factors Psychology at the University of Adelaide. Since then, she has worked in consulting, at Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the Australian Federal Police, and Victoria Police where she has gained a strong understanding of psychosocial hazards and controls in high risk organisations.

Stephanie Cassidy

Chief Executive Officer and Certified Professional Ergonomist, Productivity Matters

Stephanie is an Occupational Therapist and Ergonomist has 30 years of experience in managing and preventing work-related injury or illness in Australia. It is this, combined with her own executive-level management experience, that adds strength to her ability to guide organisations on workforce management strategies that align with operations, finance and human resources.

Stephanie is project manager and subject matter expert of the Food Flourish Programme, a consortium of Health Network Providers, aiming to reduce MSD risk in Food Services departments of each hospital.

Gaye Coles

Clinical Nurse Specialist and HSR, Barwon Health

Gaye has been a nurse for 44 years. Gaye has worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist within The University Hospital Main Operating Suite and has been an HSR within the department for over 10 years. She has a Master's degree based on health and safety related research. Over the course of her time as a HSR. Gaye has won 2020 Barwon Best Care Awards Health & Safety representative of the year. Gaye is also co-recipient of the ANMF, Hanna Sellars HSR of the year 2022 award as well as co-recipient of WorkSafe Victoria 2023 HSR of the year.

Darcy Cooper

Program Manager, WorkSafe Victoria

Darcy comes from a public health background, specialising in large scale system level behaviour change aiming to prevent harm and support recovery. With a special interest in the influence of regulatory reforms on individual and organisational behavioural changes, Darcy has spent the last five years in WorkWell, working to prevent work-related psychological harm at a population level and promote safe and healthy workplaces in Victoria. She also specialises in customer-centric approaches or human-centred co-design.

Nic Crooks

Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, WorkSafe Victoria

Nic has been part of the WorkWell team since 2020. Nic previously work as a researcher at the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for obesity prevention at Deakin University for 7 years. He has extensive experience evaluating population based preventative health projects that aim at creating cultural and behavioural change and also brings strong systems thinking background which helps address complex and dynamic problems such as workplace mental health. Nic has a particular interest in quantitative data capture and using data driven insight to monitor population health trends, inform decision making and catalyse change.

Perdita Dickson

Manager, Occupational Health and Operational Programs, WorkSafe Victoria

Perdita is an occupational hygienist with over 15 years of experience in manufacturing, health care and as a regulator. Perdita joined WorkSafe Victoria as a Senior Occupational Hygienist and moved into the Prevention, Strategy and Planning Division in 2021.

Jarrad Dowswell

Inspector, Victoria Police

Jarrad has been a member of Victoria Police for over 28 years. He has a diverse policing background and has been fortunate enough to work in numerous areas within Victoria Police including: general duties, transit, investigation and response, legal services, education, project work and road policing.

Jarrad has numerous tertiary degrees specialising in management and executive leadership and has a strong passion and commitment for health and safety which has been formally recognised on numerous occasions throughout his career.

Joh Else

Clinical Panelist and Registered Psychologist, WorkSafe Victoria

Joh has over 15-years' experience as a Psychologist, covering a broad range of settings, and has been a member of the WorkSafe Clinical Panel since 2020. She is passionate about working collaboratively with clients to understand their unique circumstances, strengths and challenges and welcomes the opportunity to work other health professionals to achieve the best treatment outcomes.

Tania Farha

Chief Executive Officer, Safe and Equal

Tania is the CEO of Safe and Equal, a merged identity of two organisations: the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRCV) and Domestic Violence Victoria (DV Vic). Previously, Tania has held executive positions across the Victorian Departments of Justice and Community Safety and Premier and Cabinet, including as CEO of the former Office of Prevention and Women's Equality. Tania worked at UN Women for over four years as a policy specialist in the Ending Violence Against Women Section and worked for Victoria Police for over nine years to improve its responses to family violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Alex Finlay

Senior Ergonomist, WorkSafe Victoria

Alex has worked with WorkSafe as an Ergonomist and Inspector for over 10 years. Alex is a qualified physiotherapist with a wide work experience, including 7 years as an Ergonomist and Physiotherapist at Ford Motoring Company. Alex has an in-depth understanding of the human and environmental factors that influence how a person interacts with their working environment and provides practical and specialist advice on workplace design, hazard identification and risk reduction.

Jen Gamble

Associate Nurse Unit Manager and Anaesthetic Equipment Nurse, Barwon Health

Jen has a special interest in Occupational Health and Safety. The subject of her Master's degree was fatigue management and she is proud of the work she has done as deputy HSR alongside her HSR Gaye Coles to work towards a safer workplace for her colleagues and patients.

Andrew Harriott

General Manager, Work Able Consulting

Andrew is an occupational therapist and accredited mediator who has been working within the occupational rehabilitation field for the past 16 years at Work Able Consulting. He is the General Manager at Work Able Consulting, a Victorian based occupational rehabilitation provider. Andrew is also an executive member of the Australian Rehabilitation Providers Association (ARPA) – Victorian branch.

Bronwyn Haste

Senior Occupational Hygienist, WorkSafe Victoria

Bronwyn's role covers a broad range of activities including providing specialist advice to WorkSafe health and safety inspectors, developing occupational health and safety guidance, authorising asbestos and carcinogen licences and following up on workplaces with elevated blood lead levels. Bronwyn has an Honours degree in Chemistry and a Graduate Diploma in Occupational Hygiene and is a member of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists.

Kate Higgins

Manager, Recovery and Performance, WorkSafe Victoria

Kate is responsible for the quality of health and treatment services provided to injured workers under the scheme. Having come from the mental health sector, she is particularly passionate about improving injured worker access to mental health service access.

Megan Kennedy

Ergonomist, WorkSafe Victoria

Megan joined WorkSafe in January 2020. Prior to this, she had performed in a variety of roles including industrial rescue, emergency response at theme parks and education and training. At WorkSafe, Megan has enjoyed the roles of Learning and Capability Consultant and most recently Ergonomist in the Ergonomics and Human Factors team.

Megan recently completed her Master in Emergency and Disaster Management and is currently undertaking her Doctor of Philosophy at Central Queensland University focusing on confined space fatalities.

Professor Helen Lingard

Executive Director, RMIT Safety and Health Innovation Network

RMIT Distinguished Professor Helen Lingard has more than 25 years of experience in undertaking applied research in work health, safety and wellbeing in the construction industry. Helen undertakes research in partnership with private and public sector organisations, industry associations and unions.

Since 2018, Helen has been a member of the Culture in Construction Taskforce focused on addressing issues of gender diversity, health and wellbeing and time for life in the construction industry. Helen is Executive Director of the newly formed RMIT Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe).

Bryan Monck

Manager, Legislation, Policy and Information Services, WorkSafe Victoria

Bryan oversees policy development and reform related to crystalline silica and occupational disease. Bryan has worked in a number of roles relating to the implementation of the Victorian governments silica action plan since its announcement in early 2019. Bryan has a background in policy development, program design and delivery at WorkSafe Victoria and in previous roles at the National Disability Insurance Agency.

Will Neville

Head of School, Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology

Will started his working life as a bricklayer before undertaking further study, including a Graduate Certificate in Occupational Health, Safety and Environmental Management in 2020. Will has worked across different sectors ranging from construction, public health and agriculture. Will joined WorkSafe in August 2022, and enjoys working in a variety of workplaces as a Multidiscipline Inspector within the Ballarat Team.

Professor Sharon Newnam

Head of School, Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology

Sharon has published widely in the area of workplace safety from a systems-thinking perspective and has applied this knowledge to improve safety across industries, including transportation and healthcare. Sharon is a prolific author, is an Associate Editor of the leading safety journal Safety Science, and an international member on a Transportation Research Board committee, which is a division of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine.

Nabeel Nizam

Manager, Return to Work, WorkSafe Victoria

Prior to starting at WorkSafe, Nabeel led the WorkCover and injury management program at Ambulance Victoria. Nabeel has also worked as a senior manager in self-insurance and at a WorkSafe Agent, undertaking various leadership roles across claims, service and dispute resolution.

Simon Norgate

Director, Claims, WorkSafe Victoria

Simon has over 25 years of experience in personal injury, having previously been employed in Agent and Self Insurer roles prior to joining WorkSafe Victoria 8 years ago. The Claims Division has a number of teams specifically Entitlements which oversees initial eligibility, broader weekly compensation including the second entitlement assessment and Impairment Benefits, RTW (including oversight and management of our OR Panel), Medical & Like and Claims Practices which is oversight of Dispute management, death & dependency/serious incidents and Online Claims Manual content.

Simon has strong technical and leadership skills and a passion to support Agents to ensure they are able to provide the required support and care to injured workers and their families to return back to life, following a work-related injury.

Brendan Rowbotham

Head of Delivery Operations, WorkSafe Victoria

Brendan has 25 years of service to the insurance industry both in Australia and globally. Having worked across multiple jurisdictions, insurers and the TPA industry at IAG, AIG, QBE, DXC, Sedgwick, GB and currently WorkSafe Victoria since June this year in a newly created Head of Operational delivery role within the Return to Work Business Unit.

Brendan has been in Executive leadership roles for the last 15 years but specifically the last 11 leading large multi-disciplinary teams across Australia and here in the Victorian Workers Compensation Scheme. Brendan is a Senior Associate and CIP of the Australian & New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and Alumni of the Asialink Leaders Program (Melbourne University).

Amy Salmon

Principal Psychological Health and Safety Specialist, WorkSafe Victoria

Amy has extensive experience consulting to organisations to identify risks to psychological health and safety and to develop tailored solutions to meet their needs. She has experience in development and delivery of training programs and leadership coaching within both the public and private sector, and is passionate about creating psychologically safe and healthy workplaces.

Joe Serafin

Psychosocial Inspector, WorkSafe Victoria

Joe is a Psychosocial Inspector at WorkSafe Victoria with experience in mental injury prevention, crisis support, project management, and health and safety. He is passionate about psychological health and is currently completing his Bachelor's in Psychology at Deakin University.

Simone Sheridan

Sexual Safety Nurse Consultant, People, Culture & Safety, The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Simone (she/they) is a nurse consultant, educator and advocate. In 2019 Simone co-authored an article "Not our job; A nurse's story of sexual harassment by patients" which was published an in Australian anthology of #MeToo stories, as well as on the ABC. Simone's work in sexual safety is closely connected with the OH&S, Occupational Violence and Staff Wellbeing teams at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Christina Smith

Director, Return to Work Innovations, WorkSafe Victoria

Christina Smith is an experienced executive specialist skilled in advising governments and industries on public policy. Having occupied key positions in both public and private sectors, Christina has worked closely with boards, C-suite teams, and influential individuals in government and industry to coordinate efforts on complex public initiatives. Christina joined WorkSafe in 2021 as the Director of Government and Executive Services, responsible for oversight and reporting on government reforms and the National Workplace Safety agenda under Safe Work Australia. She commenced her current role as Director, Return to Work Innovations in June 2024. Her background includes serving as the Chief of Staff to the Victorian Government, leading membership organisations as the Executive Director, and managing her own consulting business. Christina is a graduate of the Harvard Business School CORe program, Business administration and Management and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Andrew Taylor

Principal Engineer, WorkSafe Victoria

Prior to joining WorkSafe in December 2006, Andrew worked in the quarrying and road construction industry in the UK. In his time at WorkSafe, Andrew has enjoyed the roles of OH&S advisor, construction inspector, construction advisor, Senior Engineer and is currently Principal Engineer. Andrew was the main author of the WorkSafe Industry Standard for the safe use of EWPs, and is a current member of the Australian Standards ME005 committee for cranes, hoists, and winches which include the design and safe use of mobile elevating work platforms.

Meg Tolley

Head of Enablement, Return to Work, WorkSafe Victoria

With a career in personal injury that spans over 25 years, Meg joined WorkSafe in 2023, having spent the previous 4 years with TAC. Meg is a passionate leader that has built a reputation for achieving transformational outcomes and positive change through the enablement of people, process and technology. She brings a focus and determination to achieving optimal outcomes for injured Victorians and the scheme through collaboration and commitment to change.

James Webster

Senior Construction Advisor, WorkSafe Victoria

Prior to joining WorkSafe in April 2018, James worked as an A-Grade electrician in the construction industry. In his time at WorkSafe, James has enjoyed a variety of roles. As the Senior Construction Advisor, he enjoys developing guidance, providing advice, and getting out on-site. James has recently completed his Bachelor of Public Health and Health Promotion, which has helped him in developing projects to address issues within the construction industry.

Jodi Peskett

Program Officer, Psychological Programs, WorkSafe Victoria

Jodi Peskett is a Program Officer at WorkSafe Victoria in the Psychological Health Programs team. The Psychological Health Programs team works across a range of psychological hazards projects – including the upcoming introduction of psychological health regulations and Ministerial sexual harassment reform recommendations.

Jodi is responsible for family violence as a workplace issue, work-related gendered violence including sexual harassment, legislative implementation and internal capability uplift. In her role, Jodi gets to work alongside teams right across WorkSafe to grow the skills and knowledge needed to reduce workplace harm and improve outcomes for injured workers.

Prior to moving to WorkSafe Jodi was the co-Lead of the Women’s and Equality Team at Victorian Trades Hall Council, where she coordinated a number of campaigns including the Stop Gendered Violence at Work Campaign. Jodi has a Master degree in Gender and Development and has worked in the OHS, and gender and development sector at home, in the Asia Pacific and internationally. She is committed to ensuring that ALL Victorian workers feel safe and respected at work.