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CONFERENCE PRESIDENT

Venkat Pulla, Ph.D., MAASW (Accredited)
Brisbane Institute for Strengths Based Practice (BISBP), Australia

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Dinka Corkalo Biruski, Chair
Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Marina Ajdukovic
School of Social Work, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Lesley Chenoweth
School of Social Work, Griffith University, Australia

Dusko Sekulic
Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, Croatia

Raija - Lena Punamaki
University of Tampere, Finland and European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS)

Michael Wessells
Columbia University, USA
 

Dean Ajdukovic, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at the Department of Psychology and Head of the Chair of Social Psychology, University of Zagreb, Croatia. He is the head of the Chair for social psychology, and former chairperson of the Department and past director of Postgraduate Psychology Program. He has extensive experience in working with refugees and victims of organized violence, social reconstruction and mental health interventions in communities affected by violence and social transition, especially in work with families exposed to violence. He has published over 90 papers in journals and books in Croatian, English, Macedonian, Russian and Albanian and he has lectured in a number of centers of excellence in the US and Europe. He serves as consultant and trainer in a number of countries on psychosocial program development and evaluation, trauma and violence, NGO strengthening, community crisis interventions. He has been often invited to work in countries affected by upheaval such as Albania, Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ingushetia. He is president of the Society for Psychological Assistance (SPA), a regional mental health non-governmental organization based in Zagreb, Croatia, member of the Council of the International Society for Health and Human Rights (ISHHR, since 1998) and past president (2003-2005) and Board member (1997-2007) of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS).

Venkat Pulla, PhD is President of Brisbane Institute of Strengths based Practice. Venkat is an accredited Senior Practitioner of Social Work well recognised in Australia and overseas as a highly committed trainer of human values and strengths based social work practice frameworks. Venkat is Vice President of the Australian Association of Social Workers and is a member of the accreditation panel for schools of social work in Australia.

Venkat spent some 14 years in teaching social work and a couple of years in training public sector management through DFID Projects in Metros India. In India he received a Fellowship of the Ashoka International Foundation in Washington and received other supports to become an international travelling activist/ lecturer for two years covering countries such as Germany, Netherlands, UK, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, India and the USA, presenting on the inextricable relationships between He moved to Australia in 1992 and became the foundation Head of Social Work at the Northern Territory University, Darwin. Since 1996 Venkat worked extensively with refugees and migrants being the Acting Coordinator of Brisbane Migrant Resource Centre. Later, he moved to public sector to work in Child Protection amongst other areas. He holds a Senior Social Work position in the Disability Services of the State of Queensland.