Board Members

Last Updated (Tuesday, 02 February 2010 15:22)

Associate Professor, Meg Smith, OAM, President
Meg Smith is a community psychologist in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydney. She is a part-time member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and a board member of the Black Dog Institute. She  has been active in the reform of mental health services and policy since the early 1980s when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Her current research interests are the management of bipolar disorder, cannabis use and mental illness and social and community  issues for people living with mental illness.

Jill Faddy, OAM, Vice-President, B.A., Dip. Psych, MAPS
Jill represents the MHA on the Missing Persons Committee (NSW) Inc and is currently Vice President. She is a life member of Alzheimer’s Aust. (NSW) and having served on the board for 25 years still leads a support group for carers. A long time member of the MHA Board, Jill is on a number of working committees within the organisation. Her other interests include choral singing, theatre, travelling, continuing education and keeping fit.

Tony Ovadia, Vice-President, B. Sc., M Psych (Clinical), Grad Cert Health Sciences (Developmental Disabilities)
Tony Ovadia is a clinical psychologist with 40 years experience in mental health, community health , housing and community services. She has worked helping individuals , managing teams  and in policy roles.  She is a member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and the Guardianship Tribunal. Tony has served on the Board of MHA on several occasions. She is especially interested in  issues of access to services  by disadvantaged groups including indigenous Australians and refugees.

Peter Trebilco, Chairperson, OAM, ED, Fachper, LMPHAA
Peter joined the MHA in 1978 and was elected Chair of the Board later that year. This is a position he has held on two subsequent occasions. Peter was a founding member of the Gay and Lesbian Counselling Service of NSW and is a life member of the Public Health Association of Australia. Peter believes that the work of MHA is of great importance, working for the seriously disadvantaged members of our community, their families and friends. “We need the support of all people of good will”.

Nick O’Connor, Deputy Chairperson
Dr Nick O’Connor is staff specialist psychiatrist at Concord Centre for Mental Health. Nick has worked in the public sector mental health services since 1983 and has been involved with both the Mental Health Association and the Royal Australasian College of Psychiatrists for many years.  Nick’s special interests include clinical governance, patient safety, relapse prevention and helping people with treatment resistant illness.

Jay Myers, Hon. Treasurer, B.Com; LLB
Jay joined the Board and Executive Finance Committee in March 2009. He has been the Treasurer of the MHA since that time. Jay is trained as a lawyer and practiced in the area of corporate and finance for many years in top tier professional services firms and banks both in Australia and the United Kingdom. He holds a Bachelors of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from the University of Queensland. He now runs his own business in the property and construction sector.

Dr Audrey Wyatt, PhD
A semi-retired clinical practitioner, Audrey has worked and trained in Australia, England and the United States. She has had extensive experience within Indigenous youth services, family support, trauma support and community services in general. Currently studying Theology at New York seminary, Audrey is interested to know more about the role that religion and spirituality play in mental health.

Enrique (Topo) Rodriguez, ASM
A Triple Rugby Union International, that represented Argentina, Australia and Tahiti a total of 42 test caps and retired in 1987. Enrique has been living with Bipolar Disorder for the last 15 years and has been a dedicated Consumer Advocate for the last 6 years. In 2007 Topo and a group of friends formed the Topo Foundation for EDUCATION  (TF4E) a community-based charity (NGO) fully dedicated to mental health education, where he now acts as CEO.

Faye McMillan, B.Pharm, MIndHealth
Faye McMillan is a Wiradjuri woman from Trangie (Central West, NSW). Her interest in pharmacy began when she was a pharmacy assistant in Trangie for three years. She is the first Aboriginal person in Australia to gain a pharmacy degree and to go onto registration as a pharmacist and had since worked in remote areas such as the Tiwi Islands. Faye is currently working within the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Indigenous Health as the postgraduate coordinator of the Indigenous Health program at the University of Wollongong.

Frank Flannery, B.Sc., MPsychol
Frank was elected to the Board in 2006. Frank is a psychologist with extensive senior management experience of mental health services in hospital, community area mental health and NSW Health settings. Since retiring from Health in 2007, Frank has worked as a Surveyor Coordinator with ACHS and has undertaken consultancy projects with NSW Health. The latter have included Realignment and Relocation of MH-Kids (the state Child and Adolescent Mental Health Policy unit) and Review of the Implementation of the 2005 NSW Health Suicide Prevention Framework.

Sandra Hoot, OAM
Sandra who has recently retired from a senior executive position within the Sydney South West Area Mental Health Services after 31 years of service, has been a member of the board since 2005. Sandra's professional background is in nursing and she has previously held positions of President of the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses at a state and national level and Chair of the Women in Mental Health Committee. Sandra's other special area of interest is developmental disability and forensic mental health.

Mark McMillan, LLB, LLM, GDLP
Mark is a Wiradjuri man from Trangie in NSW. He is a senior researcher at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology, Sydney. Mark has a Bachelor of Laws and a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from The Australian National University, a Master of Laws from the University of Arizona, and a Certificate II in Indigenous Leadership from the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre. He is a proud father of Zane and partner of Dr Wayne “Sandy” Glass.

Janette Perz, PhD (Syd), MAPS, R Psych
Janette is an executive board member of several national and state community mental health and primary care associations. She has been the Honorary Secretary of the Mental Health Association (NSW) since 1992.  Janette is an academic psychologist at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and has a record of research and scholarly activity related to her commitment to the application of psychology through multi-disciplinary collaborations and approaches. She researches in the field of women's health, more specifically, in the areas of reproductive and mental health, and the field of primary care and early intervention.  Janette holds senior management and governance positions at UWS, and brings human resource, financial, strategic planning and management knowledge and skills to the Board of MHA (NSW).

Sharyn McGee, MA (UNSW), GrDipComm (UTS), BA (Hons) (MACQ)
Sharyn is a sociologist and social scientist in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Sydney. She was a registered psychiatric nurse and her post-graduate research was focused on the role of psychiatric nurses in mental health policy. Her current research interests include social issues related to mental health, cannabis use and mental illness and evaluation of mental health programs.