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Dr
Venkat Pulla,
Principal, Social Work and Capacity Development
Consulting; President, Brisbane Institute of Strengths
Based Practice; National Nominee of Australian
Association of Social Workers (AASW) for Accreditation
of Departments of Social Work and Human Services of
Australian Universities; 2005-2008 Convenor,
International Social Work Interest Group, AASW
(QLD).
Venkat is a Tata Institute of
Social Sciences, Social Worker, a Tata Dorabji Scholar
and has a doctorate in the field of Community
Development obtained In India. His work life includes
positions as Head of the Social Work Department at the
Northern Territory
University, Darwin
for three years and 15 years in
India in Teaching and Training at
the College of
Social Work,
Hyderabad, and Regional Centre for Urban and
Environmental Studies,
Osmania
University. He has
recognition in areas of training for performance
measures, quality, change management, strength based
child protection, family directed practice, trauma
torture counselling and refugee resettlement. His policy
consulting included health policy, urbanisation, poverty
alleviation, social infrastructures, disability and aged
care, wage reform, employee strategies, and
industrialisation.
His life has been an incredible
journey. It has savoured vignettes at the coal face in
human services as well as offered him stints of
consulting to
India’s National
Commission on Urbanisation, set up by Rajeev Gandhi, a
visionary Prime Minister. It threw open a travelling
lectureship around the USA, Europe and Asia and brought
in consulting opportunities with federal and state
departments and international non-government
organisations such as ICCO, Memisa and HIVOS from the
Netherlands, BFW and EZE from Germany, OXFAM and ODA
from the United Kingdom and UNICEF amongst others.
As one of the pioneers in strength based
practice, he offers professional supervision, process
facilitation for managing change and wide ranging
assistance to the not-for-profit sector and
organisational development. The Brisbane Institute for
Strengths Based Practice (Inc) and its founding project
Strength Based Strategies 2006 are Venkat’s initiatives.
Venkat can be contacted at
dr.venkat.pulla@gmail.com |
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Peter Binyon BSW (Hons),
Consulting in: Strategic & Business
Planning, Quality Management Systems, Human Service
Management, Organisational development
Peter Binyon graduated with an Honours
degree in Social Work from the University of South
Australia in 1991. He is a founding member and
Vice-President of the Brisbane Institute of Strengths
Based Practice, and is a member, and past Queensland
state management committee member, of the Australian
Association of Social Workers
Peter has worked in a diverse range of
direct service, management and planning roles in
government and non-government social services in
Australia and the United Kingdom. Peter has a
particular interest in the application of the Human
Services knowledge base to management practice in
government, community and private enterprise. Peter has
worked in government in the areas of direct service
delivery, management, strategic and operational planning
and the design and implementation of quality management
systems.
Peter provides facilitation and
consultation services in relation to strategic, business
and service delivery planning, organisational
development and quality management systems.
In addition to Peter’s direct social work
and human service management roles he has years of
experience from working in retail and hospitality.
Peter has applied his management practice in a number of
government and community sector settings including,
State Coordinator for Canteen – The Australian
organisation for teenagers living with cancer and as the
President of Brisbane’s leading community Musical
Theatre company, Ignatians Musical Society since 2001,
producing large scale musicals that have played to
critical and popular success to ten’s of thousands of
patrons. |
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Chris
Montgomery
has worked in the field of intellectual disability for
the last 17 years. For the last 9 of these years he has
become known and respected both nationally and
internationally for his work convening the annual
Sharing the Road conference for disability
support workers in
Queensland. Currently he is
volunteering with the Ethnic Community Councils of
Queensland to assist with the development of strategies
to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS amongst men from CALD
backgrounds. Chris has worked as a
direct support worker, a manager of support work and
most recently in the development of statewide reporting
systems. He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience
to his role as Secretary of the Strength Based
Strategies Conference 2006. |
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Rita
Kugler
is a
Chartered Accountant with nearly 20 years experience in
the private, public and community sectors. Early in her
career Rita joined the international firm KPMG where she
gained valuable experience and training in auditing,
systems assessment and process improvement both in
Australia and USA. Managerial roles awakened in Rita the
desire to increase her skills in understanding human
behaviour. To this end Rita has completed Master
practitioner level in Neuro
linguistic Programming (NLP) and other personal and
group development processes. Rita is
passionate about self-development and the importance of
values based studies/programs in understanding and
shaping behaviour. She is also passionate about raising
awareness about the environmental and sustainability
issues faced by our planet today. Rita was born in
Argentina and migrated to Australia with her parents and
sister in 1977. Rita has been the foundation Treasurer
of the Institute and has moved on to the role of an
advisor on financial and general management to the
Institute. Rita currently lives in New South Wales. |
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Chris
Radke
has worked as a support professional and manager in the
field of intellectual disability support for over 20
years and has been actively involved in welfare and
community support for more years than she can remember.
Chris has enjoyed a number of work roles, the majority
relating to direct service provision to individuals with
an intellectual disability who have high and complex
support needs. This included working as a manager of
Accommodation Support and Respite Services, a job role
which she performed for 9 years. Chris lives in
Ipswich, Queensland,
where she is currently working as a Project Officer for
Disability Services Queensland. As such, she coordinates
activities associated with facilitating best practice in
the accommodation support of adults with an intellectual
disability, a job role which she particularly
enjoys. Chris is a founding member of the
Brisbane Institute of Strengths
Based Practice. |
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Palanichami O Thevar
was born in the small village
of U. Pudukkottai
to an agricultural family near the
Madurai
district of Tamil Nadu. Palani has always been deeply
impressed by the legacy of Mahatma Ghandi’s work and has
worked extensively in the community sector throughout
India. He obtained his
Masters degree in Peace Making from the
Madurai Kamaraj
University
and completed a Master of Philosophy at Gujarat
Vidyapith (founded by Ghandi in 1920). Since 1996,
Palani has lived in West End,
Brisbane. A proud father of 3
children, Palani has worked in
Australia
for the Australian Red Cross, Community Aid Abroad and
in the area of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Health. Presently Palani is employed by the Queensland
Department of Child Safety and also works for Centrelink
in the area of mental health support. Outside of his
paid employment Palani is working extensively with local
Tamil and Indian communities and is studying to be a
social worker at The University of Queensland. |
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Coralie Graham has worked as a Registered Nurse for
many years in addition to also recently completing her
study to become a Registered Psychologist. She has
worked in a diversity of settings including industrial
and domiciliary nursing, as a Psychologist in a mental
health unit and conducting health and psychological
assessments for Centrelink. She is currently completing
her PhD at the University of Southern Queensland which
examines which Psychological Strengths Older Australians
living in the community use in maintaining their health.
Coralie has an interest in researching in the area of
positive psychology, including the impact of resilience,
adaptability and spirituality on health. She also has a
keen interest in cultural diversity and is involved in a
research project to develop of a cross cultural teaching
tool. Another area of interest for Coralie is equity
issues for people with a disability, and she is
proactive in advocating for people with a disability.
Coralie currently works as a lecturer in Nursing at the
University of Southern Queensland, where she teaches
into her interest areas, in addition to her role of
International Student Support in the Nursing Department.
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Ram, as he is known globally is Mr.Karuppiah Ramanathan, an accountant
by profession, with over two decades of foreign exchange busienss
acumen.
Ram has received best Business Excellence awards in Queensland for his
turnover and rapid expansion of his business called Remox Exchange.
www.remoxexcahnge.com
Ram is a socially conscious businessman who volunteers a large amount
of his time for community causes. Ram joins us as Treasurer on the
board of management.
Ram is a member of the National Institute of Accountants in Australia.
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Duncan Williams
identifies himself as an aboriginal person. 'Mura Ama
Wakaana' literally means 'people working together’.
Duncan has put together a wonderful training
package that sensitises public servants in
Queensland to the history of the aboriginal
communities in
Australia.
Duncan's mother was instrumental in seeing
that Duncan
kept his contact with his nativity, culture and his
people from his father's side.
Duncan's maternal heritage is
part Irish. Duncan Williams is employed as a Senior
Programme Officer in the Indigenous Employment and
Training Directorate, which is part of the Department of
Employment and Training.
Duncan is one of the founding
members of the Brisbane Institute of Strengths Based
Practice. |
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Dragan Bombek,
is a
media development and creative publisher
who designs for many not to profit companies their web
sites, all conference material for
International Conferences. Dragan is on the Board of
Directors of the Brisbane Institute since its inception.
Currently he is also associated with
Canhelp Australia Wide Inc,
(takes great pleasure in designing
artwork for
DVD Conquering Cancer. Screens design, Mailer, DVD
Cover and Label). From 2001 - 2004 graphic design, DTP,
photography and articles for
Zena 21
(Women 21) - Project of NGO from Sydney supported an
granted by
STARTTS
www.startts.org and Federal Department of Family and
Community Services. Currently, he is co-owner and
co-editor of The
Queensland Indian newspapers.
Brisbane, Dream Band Club Inc -
Multicultural Night – Performance for
people from former Yugoslavia, music, lyrics …
Throughout 2005 and 2006 – 14 community functions with
200 to 400 visitors.
Dragan has previously designed: 1993 –
Vienna, Austria – Art Exhibition in
Gemenshaft Bih Wien,; worked on the Opening night –
Simon Wiesenthal, Pavo Urban – speech- that had over 350
visitors, including major TV and mass media presence for
10 days. – with several thousands of people
visiting.
Essen, Germany, Internationaler Kreis der
Freunde BvH Libero e.V., co-organisation and
coordination of the first satellite broadcasting to
Bosnia since war started, with help of the Eurovision
Geneva.
1991 - 1992 Editor-and-chef of magazine Libero, scenario and
director of the short movie Sarajevo is ...Sarajevo, ... |
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