Tessa is the founding CEO of Health Justice Australia, established in 2016 as the national centre of excellence for health justice partnership. Originally a criminologist, she has worked in health, criminal justice and human rights organisations in Australia and internationally.
She was previously Deputy CEO of the Australian Council of Social Service and was the inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholar in Nonprofit Leadership, the report of which was published as Lead or be left behind: Sustaining trust and confidence in Australia’s charities. Tessa’s PhD on the detention and release of mentally disordered offenders was published as a book, Protecting the Public? Detention and Release of Mentally Disordered Offenders by Routledge in 2010. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors; on the Advisory Committee of the Sydney Institute of Criminology; the Board of Gondwana Choirs, the leader in Australian choral performance; and plays ultimate Frisbee.
Tessa’s TEDx on health justice partnerships explains why seeing a lawyer might be good for your health and her TEDx on philanthropy through partnership argues against ‘bizsplaining’ and builds on her work as the inaugural Fulbright Professional Scholar in Nonprofit Leadership.