Claire Diffey
President

Claire is a credentialed mental health nurse (ACMHN) and Clinical Family Therapist (AAFT) with over 40 years of experience within the Victorian Mental Health service system. She is recognised for her expertise in the Child and Youth Mental Health and her work and research in Single Session Intervention (SSI) in CAMHS was able to inform practice change in CAMHS services in Victoria.

Her expertise in Eating Disorders led to her position of Manager of the Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders (CEED) for 12 years where she led the development and expansion of the service until she retired in June 2019. Claire also established in 2007 a therapy practice specialising in eating disorders,  where she provides services to individuals, parents and families.

Claire joined the board in Jan 2020.

Janet Lowndes
Board member

Janet Lowndes is the Founding Director and Principal Psychologist at Mind Body Well, a private clinic in Melbourne providing outpatient therapies for people with Eating Disorders and concerns about weight and wellbeing – from a Non-Diet, Health at Every Size® perspective.

Janet has over 25 years experience in therapeutic practice, inspired by neuropsychotherapy, embodiment, and social justice perspectives which empower those seeking treatment, and aim to address systemic inequalities and barriers to care.

Janet’s interest in the psychology of food, eating and body image began early in her career while working in the youth health field, where she learned about eating disorders from many of her clients. This led her to develop her practice with a focus in this area, and to support other health professionals working with people with eating disorders in a non-judgemental, size inclusive way.

Janet is an experienced trainer and supervisor, providing professional support to many professionals working in the Eating Disorder field.

Janet joined the board in July 2021.

Jo Farmer
Board member

Jo (she/they) is an experienced evaluator and policymaker, who has worked in the Victorian health and social services sector for over 10 years. Having previously held roles in consulting, government and not-for-profits, she currently runs her own evaluation practice focused on improving the mental health sector by strengthening the voice of lived experience in policy design and evaluation. During their career, they have supported several not-for-profits to build robust impact measurement systems, and has a focus on organisational governance and accountability, particularly from a lived experience perspective. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Melbourne, focusing on improving research practice with young people who have experienced trauma.

In addition to her professional experience, Jo’s personal lived experience of eating disorders drives their work. Jo has provided lived experience advisory to organisations including the National Eating Disorders Collaboration and Mental Health First Aid, with a focus on building understanding of eating disorders among people living at higher weight. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Jo is particularly passionate about identifying and challenging stereotypes about eating disorders and who experiences them.

Belinda Bravo
Board member

Belinda (she/her) is an experienced public policy leader, who has worked in the Victorian Public Service for over 16 years. Since 2016, she has been working in the Department of Health in mental health policy and implementation, including implementation of the interim report from the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System.

Her current role is leading the team overseeing the trial of the Medically Supervised Injecting Room, where she has driven the work to make the service at North Richmond ongoing. She is passionate about improving access to healthcare, especially for individuals who have experienced discrimination and stigma accessing mainstream health services. She believes that all Victorians are entitled to participate in decision-making about their health and wellbeing, and that this must occur without judgement or assumption.

Belinda began her career as an academic and is a trained historian, having completed her PhD in History at the University of Melbourne.

Belinda joined the Board in 2023.

Stacey Conlin
Board member

Stacey brings to the Board over 15 years of risk management leadership and has held Head of Risk / Chief Risk Officer roles for organisations such as Australian Red Cross, Kmart & Target, and La Trobe University. In addition to risk management, Stacey has extensive expertise leading departments such as Compliance, Insurance, Crisis Management, Ethics, Fraud Prevention and Assurance. Stacey loves working with organisations and Boards to help organisations navigate uncertainty, find solutions to problems and confidently seize opportunities to achieve our collective goals.

Due to extensive experience in the Government and Not-For-Profit sectors, Stacey has worked closely with stakeholders to deliver community programs and services and feels passionate about contributing positively to society.

Stacey also holds several tertiary qualifications including a Bachelor of Arts (behavioural sociology), a Post Graduate in Public Relations, a Post Graduate in Risk Management and a Masters of Risk Management & Insurance.

Stacey joined the Board in 2023.

Emma Reid
Board member

Dr Tina Campbell
Board member

Dr Tina Campbell is a health promotion specialist with extensive experience developing health education resources, tools and programs, with a focus on narrative communication. She completed her PhD at the Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, The University of Melbourne. Her randomised controlled trial evaluated the impact of a ‘patient narrative’ intervention program on self-efficacy and self-care behaviours in people with Type 2 Diabetes.

With a career in the health industry spanning two decades, Tina has led the development of Australia’s largest video library of patient and carer experiences.

In 2015 Tina designed and developed the GoShare Healthcare content distribution platform, a web application used by health professionals around Australia to deliver tailored health resources to their patients by email or SMS. GoShare is now widely used in Primary and Tertiary healthcare around Australia.

Tina is the Managing Director and co-founder of Healthily, which was launched in 2016 to deliver a suite of complementary services featuring Healthily’s ever-expanding health content library and the scalable capabilities of the GoShare Healthcare platform. Healthily works with many of Australia’s largest health organisations to deliver equitable access to tailored health information, and improve the health literacy of Australian consumers.

Tina joined the Board in 2023.

Belinda Caldwell
EDV CEO

Belinda brings to her role a lived experience of caring for her daughter with anorexia nervosa and professional experience in health policy, program management and NFP management.

Since joining EDV in 2019, Belinda has led a significant expansion in services and support for Victorians impacted by eating disorders, with EDV now providing a wide ranging suite of lived experience led and delivered programs.

Prior to joining EDV in 2019, Belinda was working at the Victorian Centre of Excellence in Eating Disorders as a Carer Consultant and Project Manager, developing new strategies and resources for effecting greater and more effective carer inclusion in ED treatment models. And before that, Belinda’s role as CEO of Australian Practice Nurses Association was driven by the goal of improving health outcomes for primary care consumers through access to a better care nurses in general practice medical centres.

Belinda was a founding board member and Vice-Chair of Eating Disorders Families Australia until 2019. Belinda was also Vice-Chair of the global not for profit Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders (FEAST).

Rhys Nicholson

EDV is thrilled to welcome our first brand Ambassador: multi-award-winning Australian stand-up comedian, writer and actor Ryhs Nicholson. Rhys has spoken openly about their own lived experience of an eating disorder, and performed at EDV’s inaugural Gala Night fundraising event in 2023.

“Stepping into the role as an ambassador for Eating Disorders Victoria is a lovely privilege I don’t take lightly because it’s a cause very close to my heart (and the rest of my body really). EDV does such stellar work and doesn’t get nearly enough attention for it. I can’t bloody wait to get stuck into helping raise awareness for everything they do,” Rhys says.

We’re so grateful to Rhys for using their platform to raise awareness around eating disorders, and we look forward to our work alongside them as an EDV Ambassador.