Dr Allison Salmon

Dr Allison Salmon (she/her)
Director

For over 25 years, Dr Allison Salmon (B. Psych, MPH, PhD) has been passionate about using evidence and innovation to change health policies, systems and practices.

As a leading public health researcher, evaluator, and practitioner she combines her senior leadership experience and academic training to drive and measure impact across the Australian social sector. 

As Co-Founder and Director of Change, she brings a wealth of experience to evaluations, strategic planning, stakeholder consultation, gap analyses, and impact measurement.

Prior to her work with the Centre, Allison led complex research and evaluation projects and supported research governance. Her content expertise includes alcohol and other drugs - including drug consumption spaces, overdose prevention and tobacco control - mental health, quality use of medicines, and applied epidemiology – click to view Allison’s peer review publications.

Allison grew up on Gudjala country in Queensland, and now lives and works on Gadigal land.

Maria Tchan

Maria Tchan (she/her)
Director of Impact

Maria is a renowned evaluator, facilitator, clinician and community engagement expert with over 20 years’ experience across government, academic research, and the not-for-profit health and social sector. A champion of change, she brings expertise in service design and implementation, impact measurement and evaluation, facilitation, co-design, and community engagement.

Maria is known for her robust yet pragmatic approach to evaluation coaching and training and has conducted over 50 practical training sessions to community service organisations.

She is passionate about community-led approaches to mental health and primary care programs.

Maria lives and works on Wallumedegal country. 

Natasha (Tash) Larter

Tash Larter (she/her)
First Nations Lead

Tash is a proud Yuin woman from the South Coast of NSW who is passionate about improving health equity for Aboriginal people, particularly children and young people and those in regional communities. As such, Tash combines her lived experience and academic knowledge to support individualised needs to improve health outcomes and equity.

Her areas of expertise include public health and academic research, evaluation, strategic planning and system performance improvement.

Tash believes it is essential to build reciprocal partnerships with Aboriginal communities, to elevate the voices of those living in the communities in order to support individualised needs to improve health policy, health care services and address inequity.

Tash grew up on, and now lives and works on Dharawal Country.

Lucy Demant

Lucy Demant (she/her)
Health Promotion & Prevention Lead

For nearly twenty years, Lucy has been working to improve outcomes for marginalised children, young people and the community. Lucy’s experience spans the alcohol and other drug sector, youth mental health and education, with specific expertise in health promotion, primary prevention, and early intervention approaches.

Lucy is also a practised policy developer, advocacy specialist, and strategic thinker. She has led major workforce development and capacity-building projects and delivered complex programs at scale. A natural collaborator, Lucy is skilled at cultivating sophisticated partnerships and engaging diverse stakeholders.

Lucy brings her Management Coaching expertise to The Centre's services - she is adept at coaching managers at all levels, honing their practice, and creating high-performing, cohesive teams.

Lucy lives and works on Wurundjeri Country..

Dr Becca Hardy

Dr Becca Hardy (she/her)
Research & Evaluation Lead

Becca brings 15 years’ experience in community psychology and mental health research and evaluation. Her areas of expertise include program evaluation across all stages of the program lifecycle, applied research, teaching, training, and facilitation.

Becca approaches her work from a trauma-informed, systems-based lens, and centres the voices of people with lived experience in her work through participatory methods. Her training as a clinical psychologist ensures she understands practitioner perspectives as well.

With experience in a variety of settings – including community-based organisations, non-profit, public, and governmental agencies – her skills and experience serve a variety of populations, organisations, communities, and systems.

Becca lives and works on Gadigal land.

Dr Tina Peckmezian

Dr Tina Peckmezian (she/her)
Evidence Translation Lead

Tina brings over 15 years’ experience as researcher, writer, and educational developer. 

She is passionate about translating complex themes in medicine, science, and healthcare into meaningful content for diverse audiences. Tina is a published researcher and writer across academic, government and private sector institutions, where she has written and edited literature reviews, government reports, journal articles and a range of evidence-based resources for technical and lay audiences.

Her most recent projects include several systematic literature reviews, the development of a competency framework and curriculum in public health intelligence for the World Health Organization, and ongoing workshop design and facilitation for the UNSW Medicine Program Redesign project.

Tina lives and works on Kurringgai land.

Nyree Gale

Nyree Gale (she/her)
Mental Health Lived Experience Lead

Nyree brings over 10 years’ experience in lived experience advocacy and community engagement, research, implementation and clinical practice across the mental health and suicide prevention sector. 

In a leading lived experience role with the Black Dog Institute, she and her team created cultural change by developing and implementing policies and practices to elevate the involvement and partnership with people with a lived experience in setting research and policy priorities, study design and information dissemination. Nyree has led and advised on numerous research studies and projects employing co-design and co-production methodologies and is a co-author on the ‘Co-design Kickstarter Kit’.

Nyree is driven by passion, her lived experience and determination to see positive change by working on systems and cultural changes to shift the narrative of how we produce knowledge, develop, and provide services, to not only value, but partner with people with lived/living experience to create real world impact.

Nyree grew up on Binjareb, Whadjuk and Gameygal/Kameygal lands, and now lives on Dharug land.