Our trainers

Anastasia has three years' direct service experience supporting women in crisis and family violence as an after-hours, intake and crisis case manager and telephone support worker. She has also worked on projects as part of the Oxbridge Human Development Research Group and on independent research focusing on women in development in Indonesia.

Ash has a keen interest in advocacy, education and intersectional feminism and four years experience working with LGBTIQA+ and culturally and linguistically diverse communities in the context of family or intimate partner violence. In her work, Ash has assisted and managed clients through interpreting, case management and support work. Ash has an education background, mainly teaching and presenting lectures, facilitating discussions and running workshops and in her spare time, she runs Bollywood dance meditation sessions for women and children in commission housing.

Prior to joining DVRCV, Belinda was part of coordinating the implementation of the Building a Respectful Community strategy and partnership for Melbourne’s northern region. She is an experienced trainer and facilitator, delivering family violence response training and a variety of workshops and events focused on prevention of violence against women. She has also worked in violence response and has a range of other experience including events, design and communications.

Emma works in all elements of our prevention of violence against women delivery, focusing particularly on respectful relationships education through coordination of the Partners in Prevention (PiP) network. Emma’s background is in education in both mainstream and specialist schools. She has worked at CASA House and as a freelance consultant in the prevention of violence against women sector. Emma is an experienced trainer and facilitator, previously delivering family violence response training and a range of prevention workshops.

After many years working in the events and travel industries, Kristy-Lee began her career in the community services sector seven years ago. She worked with Relationships Australia South Australia in an Intake Officer role, then moved into a crisis management and short term case management role as family advisor and worked as a registered Family Dispute Resolution Practitioner. Over this time Kristy-Lee also covered leave contracts writing court reports for the children’s contact service. Prior to joining DVRCV as a trainer, she spent six months working in family services at Moonee Valley City Council.

Maryanne brings over 15 years experience in prevention settings and has expertise working in social policy, community planning and advocacy in local government in Victoria. In addition, she has comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the prevention of violence against women sector and has led key projects to address gender inequality in the workplace. Maryanne also worked as a sessional trainer at DVRCV for over twelve months facilitating CRAF, Identifying Family Violence and Family Violence as a workplace issue training sessions.

Monaliza Bucud, known to many as Monet, is someone who has been advocating for social justice since she was 14 years old. Most of her professional experience is around supporting women and children both in the Philippines and in Australia. Her work includes training, project management and case management. She has been working in family violence organisations in Australia for more than nine years.

Rebecca has over three years' experience working directly with women experiencing family violence. She was the first Disability Focused Caseworker at the NSW Women's Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Service, and spent a year in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia working with a range of women, including those in Aboriginal communities, as the Pilbara Community Legal Service's Domestic Violence Advocacy Worker. Prior to this Rebecca worked for a number of charities and not for profit organisations supporting vulnerable people.

After working in IT, communication, training, and project management, Solmaz moved to the area of social work and community development. She has four years direct service experience working with culturally and linguistically diverse women and children experiencing family violence and men using violence in crisis response, interpreting, case management and support work. Solmaz was a family violence trainer at the Royal Women’s Hospital in the Strengthening Hospital Responses to Family Violence (SHRFV) project. Solmaz provided training and mentoring to other professionals in identifying, responding and preventing violence against women and children at different roles.

Stephanie has six years of experience working directly with women in the community services sector. Stephanie commenced her career working with young women experiencing homelessness, where the prevalence of family violence motivated Stephanie to move into the family violence sector. Prior to joining DVRCV as a trainer, Stephanie was employed as a family violence outreach worker with the Salvation Army in the western suburbs of Melbourne.

Teneha is an experienced educator and facilitator and has several years' experience in health promotion and community development. Teneha has worked in both the community health and local government context, designing, implementing and evaluating community-based and organisational strategies to promote gender equality. She has worked as a tutor at Deakin University delivering health promotion units. Her passion for engaging learners and designing training to meet their individual needs is further highlighted through her work as a vocal and music teacher to students of all ages.