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Dr Tracy Castelino
has been working in the field of violence against women for more than 30 years. This has included direct service and management roles with women and children’s services and perpertator intervention services. She continues to work with women and children who have been subjected to violence in their homes and provides supervision to domestic violence and men’s family violence teams. She values partnerships and collective responses to systemic and social injustices and offers development and facilitation of community coordinated responses. She is skilled in working with the local politics and taking care of people and process to bring forward meaningful outcomes. With ShantiWorks’ colleagues, she is stepping into challenging the systems and tactics of whiteness and racism.
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Lisa French
is a social worker living in Melbourne and has worked in the field of violence against women in Victoria and Queensland. She has worked in direct practice as an advocate and coordinator of a domestic violence crisis support program. Lisa remains engaged in working directly with women and survivors of violence providing individual counselling. She is a facilitator and trainer and is passionate about creating a space for meaningful group and community conversation that allows for critical discussion and action.
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Ashanti Kulasekera
is a Social Worker born in Sri Lanka, raised and currently living in Naarm/Melbourne. She has experience working with children and young people who have experienced trauma, as well as within the Family Violence sector in direct practice, training and leadership positions. She is also a skilled clinical supervisor who provides supervision to students, social workers, and family violence practitioners.
Ashanti is passionate about reflective practice, allowing space for practitioners to dissect their experiences and critically reflect on systems and structures to enhance their practice. She is an experienced Family Violence practitioner with a strong commitment to victim/survivor centred practice and focuses on exploring the nuances of family violence risk and enhancing safety.
As a supervisor, Ashanti feels strongly about practitioner well-being, taking care of those who care for others.
Ashanti’s work is rooted in the principles of empathy, cultural safety, and anti-oppressive practice. As a woman of colour, Ashanti feels passionately about critically analysing oppressive white systems and dismantling racism within our society.
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Eshwar Krishnasamy
has been in the LGBTIQ+ & AOD community sector since 2008. Eshwar’s career in the sector started at the Malaysian AIDS Council in Communications and Media, and ventured into other areas of community work, mainly in Community Developement. Currently he works in HIV prevention program, in diagnosis and counseling. He has been stepping into Family Violence work recently, and offers debriefing and support for as part of the Shantiworks’ team since 2019. Eshwar also brings his creative aesthetics to ShantiWorks with his design and contributions to ShantiWorks’ website and newsletters.
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Tracey Makoni
is a dedicated social worker, who consistently champions the values of social justice, continuous improvement, inclusion, collaboration and partnerships in practice. Tracey's practice framework is rooted in feminist theory and anti-oppressive practice to support professional development and reflective practice aimed at improving client experiences and outcomes. Tracey has experience in frontline practice, leading and mentoring teams, stakeholder engagement and service delivery.
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Nina Birkl
Nina’s work in the domestic and family violence field has included direct practice with women and children who have experienced trauma as well as with men who choose to use violence. Nina's background in Duluth and Narrative practice has led to an investment in driving change from an individual to a system level. This has included contributing to and leading strategic policy pieces for government.
Nina is passionate about advocating and trying for change, developing new pilot programs and supporting flexibility in the delivery of domestic and family violence services. This passion translates via Nina's curiosity for creating space for dignity and exploring practice through her delivery of domestic and family violence related training and workshops as well as through individual and group supervision sessions.