2023 Connexions Conference - Program
Monday 20th November
8.00am - 8:50am
Conference Registration - Lecture Theatre 2
Doors open for check-in. Light breakfast will be served in the forecourt.
Performance by Veronika Lawson.
9.00am - 9:10am
Conference Welcome
Welcome / Acknowledgement Aunty Bronwyn Chambers, Elder in Residence Wollatuka Institute, University of Newcastle.
9:10am – 9:15am
Thank you & Agenda
Introduction of the conference agenda and housekeeping.
9:15am – 9:45am
Opening Address - Dr Hannah Tonkin, NSW Inaugural Women's Safety Commissioner.
10.35am – 10:45am
Amenities Break
12:25pm – 1.20pm
Lunch catered by Pachamama
With entertainment from Ella Powell, the Young Ambassador for CCDVC
1:25pm – 1.55pm
Lecturer in the School of Architecture at UTS
Todays Topic is Trauma Informed Design and the Built Environment
3:10pm – 3:40pm
Afternoon Tea
3:40pm – 3.55pm
NSW Police
Sgt Jerrod Luck, Tuggerah Lakes Command
4:00pm – 4:55pm
International expert regarding Coercive Control in Children's and Mother's Lives
5:00pm
Close of Conference
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Drinks and Canapes
Join us in the quad, immediately outside the lecture theatre.
2023 Connexions Conference Guest Speakers
- Raylene Hassall - DVNSW
- Dr Hannah Tonkin - NSW Inaugural Women's Safety Commissioner
- Jess Hill – Investigative Journalist & Author
- Yum Lee - CEO of the Older Women's Network in NSW
- Samantha Donnelly - Lecturer in the School of Architecture at UTS
- DVNSW Aboriginal Women's Steering Committee - Raylene Hassall, DVNSW Aboriginal Senior Policy Officer
- Jane Gilmour - Author of 'Fixed It'
- Lived Expertise and Coercive Control Panel - Annabelle Daniel, CEO Women's Community Shelters and Board Chair of DVNSW
- NSW Police - Sgt Jerrod Luck, Tuggerah Lakes Command
- Dr Emma Katz - Expert on Coercive Control affects on Children and Mothers
Hannah commenced as the inaugural NSW Women's Safety Commissioner in February 2023. In this role, she provides leadership on whole-of-government policies and programs on domestic, family and sexual violence. Previously Hannah worked at the United Nations, as Disability Rights Director at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and as a barrister in London and Adelaide.
Jess Hill
Jess is an award winning investigative journalist, writer, researcher and speaker who focuses on gendered violence and is well known for her 2020 Stella Prize winning book, 'See What You Made Me Do', and more recently Jess hosted the acclaimed SBS documentary series on the issue of consent "Asking For It". Prior to this, she was a Middle East correspondent, and worked as both a producer and reporter for various programs across the ABC, including AM, PM, The World Today, and Background Briefing. In 2019, she published her first book, See What You Made Me Do, about the phenomenon of domestic abuse in Australia. It was awarded the 2020 Stella Prize, has been shortlisted for several others, including the Walkley Book Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, and has been adapted into a television series for SBS. Currently, Jess is working on an audio documentary series called ‘The Trap’ with the Victorian Women’s Trust, which will be released in August.
Samantha Donnelly
Samantha lectures in the School of Architecture at UTS and is dedicated to projects and practices that deliver social impact for vulnerable communities. Samantha is a leading specialist in Trauma Informed Design, focusing very particularly on tailored design outcomes for crisis accommodation for women and children escaping DFV.
Jane Gilmour
Jane is an author, award winning journalist, feminist and consent educator. In 2019, Jane published 'Fixed It' which focuses on men's violence against women and the misrepresentation by the media of women and the violence men perpetrate against them.
Yumi Lee
Yumi is the CEO of the Older Women's Network in NSW. She has been a peace and women's rights activist for many years and is driven by a strong sense of social justice and the need to right the wrongs of the social injustice that women have experienced across their life cycles as a direct result of being women.
Dr Emma Katz
Emma is noted as the world's leading academic expert on how coercive control affects children and the mother-child relationship. Her most recent book publication 'Coercive Control in Children's and Mother's Lives', provides a child centred perspective to revolutionise our understanding of how children are affected by coercive control-based domestic violence.
Lived Expertise and Coercive Control Panel
Lived Expertise and Coercive Control Panel: Reflections on Change from Survivors featuring members of the Lived Expertise Reference Group including Kristy Drower and facilitated by Annabelle Daniel, CEO Women’s Community Shelters and Board Chair of DVNSW.
Aboriginal Women's Steering Committee DVNSW facilitated by Raylene Hassall,
DVNSW Aboriginal Senior Policy Officer
The vision of the Steering Committee is to provide an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lens on policy and practice matters for the DFV sector. They do this through amplifying the voice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women as advocates in their survivor experiences and providing expert advice and advocacy on the issues that matter to their communities.
