Kieran Kinsella has held senior health management positions in both UK and Australian health services. Kieran qualified as a mental health nurse following his training at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London and also has a Masters qualification. 

Kieran worked in various leadership roles in London and the South East of England. These included a mental health advisory role and Head of Mental Health Services. A key achievement in this role was the development of an acute care service model that reduced the reliance on inpatient beds ensuring consumers had opportunities to be cared for in their homes when acutely unwell. 

In February 2019 Kieran was appointment as the Executive Director, Addiction and Mental Health Services, Metro South Health. Kieran is passionate about supporting staff to innovate and create opportunities that lead to better outcomes for our consumers. 

Prior to this Kieran held the Executive Director position within Central Queensland. Kieran was responsible for a broad range of services, including Mental Health, Oral Health, Public Health and Aged Care. In this role Kieran lead several successful projects and played a key role in the development of a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander initiatives in partnership with local communities.

Mr Geoff Lau has worked extensively in adult mental health as an occupational therapist, clinical supervisor and manager since 1992; across acute to tertiary, inpatient and community-based services in Queensland and overseas. His core training in occupational therapy at The University of Queensland, combined with post graduate training in social science at the Queensland University of Technology, guided his clinical practice towards evidence-informed assessment and intervention. In 2006, Mr Lau was appointed the Acting Director of a large tertiary Occupational Therapy Department at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, in Brisbane.

In 2010, Mr Lau was appointed the Director of Therapies and Allied Health, MSAMHS.  As a member of the Executive, this role leads allied health and other addiction and mental health professionals in the creation of contemporary clinical practice, whilst strengthening partnerships with Metro South Allied Health, consumer and carer networks, universities and primary health agencies.

Mr Lau graduated from the Australian Mental Health Leadership Program, The University of Melbourne in 2011.  He has fulfilled roles such as President of OT Australia Queensland, the Mental Health Australia delegate for Occupational Therapy Australia and a panel advisor for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.  He is completing PhD studies at The University of Queensland, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.  His research thesis is a mixed methods evaluation of the implementation of the Therapy Capability and Practice Framework, and its impact on the provision of psychosocial therapy in a large public mental health service.

Ms Linda Hipper has been employed in both the public and non-government sectors in the Northern Territory and Queensland since 1988.

She has 20 years of experience in working in the alcohol, drug and mental health fields in a variety of roles, with the last 15 years predominantly in managerial and leadership roles in the alcohol and drug field.

She is a registered psychologist and has provided professional leadership within psychology discipline as the Brisbane South/QEII Senior Psychologist and was a previous Board member of the Northern Territory Psychology Registration Board.

She is passionate about the provision of evidenced based interventions within multidisciplinary teams within the alcohol and drug sector.

Ms Hipper has also represented both Queensland Health and previously the Northern Territory Department of Health and Community Services at a range of meetings, conferences, advisory committees and has presented at a range of forums and conferences.

Dr. Frances Dark has worked for the Princess Alexandra Mental Health Service as a Consultant Psychiatrist for 27 years. 

She has a strong interest in psychosocial rehabilitation for consumers with mental illness, and has pioneered innovative programs in Queensland such as social cognition and cognitive remediation groups. Dr. Dark has a strong research history, including a publication in Nature genetics.  She has been actively involved in community organization’s including being an advisor to Headway, and on the boards of Open Minds and the Queensland branch of the Mental Illness Fellowship Australia. She has previously worked on the Princess Alexandra Hospital Disaster Committee and ran training workshops on psychological aspects of disaster for staff with the assistance of the senior social worker and other employees.

Dr. Dark is currently the Director of the Rehabilitation Academic Clinical Unit for Metro South Mental Health Services, and the Director of the statewide Deafness and Mental Health Service.

Dr Sean Hatherill is the Clinical Director of Metro South Mental Health Services’ Child and Youth Mental Health Academic Clinical Unit, and is also a member of the Metro South Human Research Ethics Committee.

As a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Dr Hatherill is passionate about the value of multidisciplinary teams and a systemic, developmental approach in working with children, adolescents and their families.