Our Presenters 2022
Susan is Australia’s leading expert in the area of cyber safety and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. She was the first Victoria Police officer appointed to a position involving cybersafety and young people where she established and managed the Victoria Police Cybersafety Project. She has completed advanced training in the USA in 2007, 2012 & 2015 including the Protecting Children Online Certificate from Fox Valley Technical College and has successfully completed the ‘University Certificate in Child Safety on the Internet’ from the University of Central Lancashire, United Kingdom as well as other international qualifications.
Susan is the commentator of choice for all Australian media and is sought after for her in depth knowledge and balanced commentary. She collaborates with a variety of international bodies and is a member of the Federal Government’s. Online Safety Consultative Working Group. Susan provides regular pro bono advice and assistance to Australian families and schools in relation to online issues and she is often a conduit between a victim of online abuse (and their families) and Law Enforcement to ensure criminal activity is reported and investigated.
Susan works with elite sports such as the AFL, Cricket Australia, Netball Vic as well as Government agencies, corporations and both medical and mental health clinicians. She also works closely with the main social media sites and is listed on the newly launched Facebook safety resource centre as a trusted expert in the field. Susan is a published author, her book, “Sexts Texts and Selfies” (Penguin) is a definitive online safety resource for all those who work with young people.
Michelle Mitchell
Michelle Mitchell is an award-winning speaker, and bestselling parenting author. She has been termed ‘the teenage expert’ by the media and is sought after for her compassionate and grounded advice for parenting tweens and teens. Michelle started her career as a teacher, but soon discovered a special interest in wellbeing. She left teaching in 2000 and founded Youth Excel, a ‘boutique’ health promotion charity which delivered tailor made life skills programs and psychological services to thousands of young people and their families each year. Today she uses her experience to write and speak in schools, community events and through media.
Dr Jodi Richardson
An educational leader, Dr Jodi Richardson is one of Australia’s leading lights in managing anxiety and amplifying wellbeing. She
supports parents and teachers to understand anxiety, change their relationship with it, dial it right down and light the way for
their children and students to do the same.
Jodi is professional speaker supporting whole school communities around Australia, the best-selling author of the books ‘Anxious
Kids’ and ‘Anxious Mums’, host of the popular podcast ‘Well, hello anxiety’ and a mum of two.
Melinda Tankard Reist
Melinda Tankard Reist is an author, speaker, media commentator and advocate for young people. She is best known for her work addressing sexualisation, objectification, harms of pornography, sexual exploitation, trafficking and violence against women.
Melinda is author/editor of seven books including Getting Real: Challenging the Sexualisation of Girls (Spinifex Press, 2009), Big Porn Inc: Exposing the harms of the global pornography industry (Spinifex Press, 2011, co-edited with Dr Abigail Bray) and her latest title ‘He Chose Porn Over Me’: Women Harmed By Men Who Use Porn. An opinion writer, Melinda has appeared on ABC’s Q&A and The Gruen Sessions as well as many other TV and radio programs.
She is co-founder and Movement Director of the grassroots campaigning movement, Collective Shout: for a world free of sexploitation, exposing corporations, advertisers and marketers who objectify women and sexualise girls to sell products and services. An Ambassador for World Vision Australia, Compassion Australia, HagarNZ and the youth mentoring body the Raise Foundation, Melinda is also Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Culture and Ethics, Notre Dame University, Sydney. She is named in the Who’s Who of Australian Women and the World Who’s Who of Women.
Dr Justin Coulson
Dr Justin Coulson is the co-host and parenting expert on Channel Nine’s Parental Guidance, the founder of happyfamilies.com.au, and
one of Australia’s most trusted parenting experts. Over the past decade he has helped innumerable families with his 6 books about raising children, his hundreds of media appearances (including all of Australia’s major news outlets, and even the
Washington Post and the New York Times), and two viral videos that have been viewed a combined 80 million times!
Justin earned his PhD in Psychology from the University of Wollongong. He and his wife Kylie have been married since the late 1990s and are the parents of 6 daughters.
Dr Justin Coulson is the co-host and parenting expert on Channel Nine’s Parental Guidance, the founder of happyfamilies.com.au, and
one of Australia’s most trusted parenting experts. Over the past decade he has helped innumerable families with his 6 books about raising children, his hundreds of media appearances (including all of Australia’s major news outlets, and even the Washington Post and the New York Times), and two viral videos that have been viewed a combined 80 million times!
Justin earned his PhD in Psychology from the University of Wollongong. He and his wife Kylie have been married since the late 1990s and are the parents of 6 daughters.