Friends of Carers NSW

Lucy Brogden

Lucy Brogden talks openly about living with and loving a person with depression: her husband. Together, they are proud to advocate and support initiatives to destigmatise mental illness. In August 2017, Lucy was appointed as the Chair of the National Mental Health Commission (NMHC). Lucy is also Patron for Partners in Depression, Director Be Kind Sydney, Patron of Lifeline Northern Beaches and a lifesaver at Bilgola Beach. In addition, Lucy has a Masters in Psychology at Macquarie University. Lucy has two sons and a daughter.

Associate Professor Michael Fine

Michael Fine is Honorary Professor in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University, Sydney. Much of his research and teaching over the past forty years has been concerned with the sociology of care, especially the nature and development of aged care at home and the links between formal and informal caregiving. He contributes a bi-monthly column for Aged Care Insite, has published over 100 academic articles, monographs and books and has presented a large number of research papers and invited addresses at international, national and local conferences and seminars. He is International Co-Editor of the International Journal of Care and Caring and is an editorial board member of a number of other academic journals. He is also a member of the NSW Carers Advisory Council and the NSW Ministerial Advisory Council on Ageing.

Professor Ian Hickie

In October 2000 Professor Ian Hickie was appointed as the inaugural CEO of beyondblue: the national depression initiative and from 2003-06 served as its Clinical Advisor. In 2003, he was appointed as the inaugural executive director of the flagship Brain & Mind Research Institute at The University of Sydney. In 2006, Professor Hickie received the Australian Honours Award of Member (AM) in the General Division; for services to medicine in the development of key national mental health initiatives and general practice services in both the public and non-government sectors. From 2007 to 2011, he was appointed to the Prime Minister's Australian National Council on Drugs. From 2006 he was a founding member (and later Director of the independent company) Headspace: the National Youth Mental Health Foundation. In 2007, Professor Hickie was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. From 2007-12, Professor Hickie is one of the first round of NHMRC Australian Research Fellows, recognising excellence in Australian Medical Research. From 2008-2010, he was appointed to the Federal Health Minister's National Advisory Council on Mental Health and then in 2010 to 2011, the Federal Ministers Mental Health Expert Advisory Group. From 2012, Professor Hickie has been appointed as a Commissioner in the new National Mental Health Commission, to oversee enhanced accountability for mental health reform in Australia.

Paul Livingston

For over three decades Paul has been a writer and performer for various television programs including The Big Gig, Good News Week and two Sandman & Flacco Specials for the Ten Network. He was a regular on the Triple J Breakfast program from 1994-97. He is the author of six books. Allen & Unwin published his well-received non-fiction memoir of his father’s wartime experiences - Absent Without Leave, in November 2013. Paul’s biography of life on the road with The Doug Anthony Allstars – D.A.A.S. Their Part in my Downfall – was published by Allen & Unwin in November 2016. Paul has received five AWGIE awards for television comedy writing. From 2007-2009, Paul was a co-writer on the animated feature film Happy Feet Two. In 1996 Paul was the joint winner of the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award for outstanding achievement in the performing arts in Australia.
 

Associate Professor Melanie Oppenheimer

Professor Melanie Oppenheimer is an academic and author with extensive experience researching the subject of volunteering. Melanie created Vita Activa, a series on volunteering as part of ABC Radio National's Life Matters program and articles for The Conversation. She has written extensively on 20th century Australian history, especially on women, volunteering and war. Her books include The Power of Humanity. 100 Years of Australian Red Cross (2014); All work, no pay: Australian civilian volunteers in war (2002), Volunteering. Why we can't survive without it (2008), and with Jeni Warburton, Volunteering in Australia (2016). Melanie is currently Professor and Chair of History at Flinders University in South Australia.

Richard Ottley

Richard Ottley has been practising as a Solicitor in Australia since 1983, having qualified in the United Kingdom. He has practised widely in the Health Law field, advising individuals and institutional clients on numerous areas of law affecting the medical profession. He joined Swaab Attorneys in 1997 and since then has been practising principally in health related areas, Employment Law, Commercial Law, Trade Practices, Intellectual Property and Franchising. He also has an interest in defamation law and, amongst other things, acted for a client in a successful defamation action against a newspaper and national broadcaster. He has written a number of articles on legal issues in the past and has contributed chapters to legal texts: Law for the Medical Profession in Australiaand Halsbury's Laws of Australia. He is trained as a mediator and is also a Notary Public.

John Berryman AM

John worked for the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children from 1978 until 2011, the last 26 years as Chief Executive. During his term as Chief Executive, RIDBC established a broad range of new services and facilities to meet the growing and changing needs and demands of clients and prospective clients. To meet the costs of these programs, fundraising programs were expanded, added to, and intensified. John has done a range of volunteering activities over the past 30 years and has been on a number of not-for-profit and government boards. In 2001, John was awarded the Alumni Medal of the University of Newcastle, and in 2013 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for services to people with disability and to the community.

Christina Aggar

Christina Aggar is a former carer with a nursing background spanning 26 years. During the past six years Christina has pursued her interest in carers through research. She has a special interest in aged care and those family members and friends who support older people to remain independent in the community. Currently, Christina is a lecturer at the Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney.

David Carter

David Carter joined the Board of Carers NSW in November 2011 and served for two years. David has an intellectually disabled brother and has worked as a disability support worker. David works as a solicitor, formerly at Allens Arthur Robinson and currently at Carters Law Firm. He has a Bachelor of Laws and Arts.

Charles G. Mendel

Charles earned scholarships at Shore School which he duxed and at Sydney University. B.A. (1991, U.Syd.), LL.B (1993, U.Syd.), LL.M. (1994, KCL). Commencing practice in 1995, he became a partner at one of Australia’s oldest and largest firms in 2000. Included in Legal Who’s Who Australia (ALB, 2003) in the top 15 mergers and acquisitions lawyers in Australia. Chairman, not-for-profit community organisations, including Southern Highlands Progress Association. His pro bono work and advocacy have produced tangible results including in relation to the NSW Government’s decision in September 2021 to restrict waste-to-energy operations to only four locations, a policy formalised into law in July 2022, and in separate change in law in NSW protecting the community from unlawful and ‘stealth’ development. He spent 18 years as a Captain of the Australian Army Reserve, is a life member of the Art Gallery Society of NSW and a member of the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation. He has anonymously written or contributed to published scholarship for major exhibitions and auctions of first tier post war and contemporary art in Sydney, London, Monaco, Bilbao and Paris.