Our team

BEc., LL.B., PhD

Mind Board committees - Finance, Audit and Risk; Governance and Nominations; Culture, People and Remuneration; Program, Practice and Quality

Current and previous positions - Professor, Melbourne, Monash and Oxford University; Former Dean, and current Professor of Government, Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG); Former Chairman, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC); Former Chairman, National Mental Health Commission (NMHC); Patron, Mental Health Australia; Patron, Mental Health Victoria

Allan Fels has had a deep interest in mental health for many years and is the father of Isabella who has schizophrenia.  He was chairman of the Haven Foundation from its inception until its merger with Mind Australia.  He has also played an important role in the national mental health policy in Australia and especially as chairman of the National Mental Health Commission from 2012 to 2018.

Mind Board committees - Finance, Audit and Risk; 
Current and previous positions - Executive Director One Door Mental Health, Strategy Director at Accenture (current)

Auswell is a seasoned management consultant who partners with C-Suite executives and executive teams across multiple sectors, including banking, wealth management, and asset management. He specialises in reinventing business and operating models through digital transformation, with a focus on creating differentiated customer and employee experiences, sustainable competitive agility, and long-term shareholder value.

Mind Board committees - Chair, Finance, Audit, and Risk Committee

Simon is a Partner of KPMG in the Audit and Assurance division and their National Technology Sector Lead. He is also a current member of the Audit and Risk Committee of CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia). Simon is passionate about ensuring communities, and particularly vulnerable individuals within them, have access to appropriate mental health support.

BEc (Hons), LLB, MComm (Hons), MA (Hons Kings College London), Barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria

Mind Board committees - Finance, Audit and Risk; Committee Chair of Culture, People and Remuneration

Current and previous positions - Executive Director, Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance (current); Competition economist, Ofcom UK and CRA International; lawyer, Freehills; Takeovers Panel, Commonwealth Treasury; director, Hospital Purchasing Victoria

Teresa Fels has a deep commitment to mental health, an interest that stems from her sister, Isabella, living with mental ill-health. Teresa has participated in social policy reforms including in social impact investing, the NDIS, housing, national health reform and across human services.

PhD, MS (Health Policy & Administration), MBio, BA, RN, RPN MAICD

Mind Board committees - Chair of Program, Practice and Quality Committee; Governance and Nominations

Margaret is an experienced mental health professional with extensive experience across the health and government sectors. She is currently the CEO of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health (Forensicare) and a non-executive Director on the Boards of Colac Area Health and HealthShare Victoria. Margaret's previous roles have included Chief Operating Officer at Mind Australia, Executive Director of Health Service Policy and Commissioning and Director of Mental Health with the Victorian Department of Health. In 2017 she was named as one of Victoria’s top 50 Public Sector Women.

MBBS, PhD, FRANZCP

Mind Board committees - Program Practice and Quality; Finance Audit and Risk
Current and previous positions - Professor of Psychiatry, University of Sydney; Clinical Director, Brain Dynamics Centre, Westmead Institute for Medical Research; Consultant Psychiatrist, Prevention Early Intervention and Recovery Service, Western Sydney Local Health District; Chair, Board of trustees of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW. Past chair of One Door Mental Health.

Anthony Harris has had a long-term interest in severe mental illness. This led him into his training as a psychiatrist and later formed the basis of his research.  He has been active in the NGO sphere since 1996 when he joined what was then the board of the Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW motivated by the need to advocate for better services in mental health. Later as chair he helped guide the organisation first into its incorporation and then into its merger with Mind Australia.

Bachelor of Arts, Certificate IV in Mental Health Peer Work

Mind Board committees - Program, Practice and Quality (PPaQ) Committee and Sub-Committee.

Current and previous positions – Chair, BEING – Mental Health Consumers; Official Visitor, NSW Official Visitor Program: Lived Experience researcher ALIVE and Charles Sturt University; Deputy Commissioner, NSW Mental Health Commission; Community Advisory Council Member, NSW Mental Health Commission; Mental Health Peer Coordinator, COORDINARE, South Eastern NSW Primary Health Network; Consumer Peer Worker, Illawarra Shoalhaven LHD, Senior Peer Worker, Flourish Australia, Chair, NSW Public Mental Health Consumer Workers Committee; Executive Member, Illawarra Shoalhaven Suicide Prevention Collaborative.

Tim Heffernan is an experienced consumer peer worker who is passionate about the development and support of the peer workforce. He identifies as a person with a lived experience of mental health challenges and recovery, and has held several significant roles in the mental health and wellbeing sector. These include serving as Co-Chair of the National Mental Health Commission’s National Stigma and Discrimination Reduction Strategy Steering Committee and Deputy Co-Chair of the National Peer Workforce Development Guidelines Steering Committee.

Tim is also an award-winning poet and has performed his work at the Wollongong Writers Festival, the Queensland Poetry Festival, and Mad Pride. He co-edits an online space for ‘mad’ writing titled The Clozapine Clinic – the Frater Project, published in the Australian creative arts journal Verity La.

Mind Board committees – Governance and Nominations; Culture People and Remuneration

Angela is the Customer Advocate of a major Australian bank with a mandate to address and prevent poor customer outcomes. Angela is passionate about advocating for people in vulnerable circumstances, in particular First Nations communities and people who identify as LGBTQIA+. Angela is a vocal supporter of other significant community issues such as mental health and domestic and family violence. Angela has a strong background in advocacy, strategic development, and organisational governance. Angela’s corporate and not-for-profit experience supports Mind to continue its focus on getting the right outcomes for its clients. 

MBChB, PhD, FAFPHM

Mind Board committees - Program, Practice and Quality

Bernie is an experienced health sector manager and Public Health Physician, who has had diverse roles in public health, consulting and implementing evidence-based health programs. With her partner, she is an active carer for their daughter who is living with schizophrenia, working to deliver person-centred services. Through self-managing NDIS funding, and with the support of visionary health professionals, they have created a wrap-around multidisciplinary team including peer support workers to give their daughter hope, and support her to meet her personal goals.

Richard spent over 12 years as the Victorian Minister for Planning and Housing. During this time, he initiated significant changes to Victoria’s housing sector, including the Big Housing Build. Prior to his appointment as Minister for Planning and Housing, he held a number of Ministerial portfolios including Local Government, Aboriginal Affairs and Multicultural Affairs.

Richard is a former Lord Mayor of Melbourne and served as a Melbourne City Council member. He started his career as a social worker at the Flemington Community Health Centre where he worked in the public housing towers for seven years.