Eesha is an energetic and unique Canberra based actress/musician with over
ten years experience in both singing and acting. Eesha is a
singer/songwriter currently performing around ACT. Eesha also has extensive
experience in the field of acting which include; television, film and
theatre."

Sam Moynihan is a Canberra based actor and theatre director with a particular interest in creating works with and for young people. He has worked with a variety of local companies including his own and is currently studying a Masters of Fine Arts (Cultural Leadership) at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts. He runs a blog detailing his experiences living with MS and appears at various events to support young people with chronic illnesses. Sam is a firm believer in the power of art to transform and inspire; values that align themselves well with forum theatre. He is always expanding his interests in this area and hopes to further his passion for creating social dialogues and assisting young people to navigate life. 

Valerie Wilson RSCN RN BEd St. MN (Research) PhD (Monash)
Val is the Director of Nursing Research & Practice Development at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network and Professor of Nursing Research & Practice Development at the University of Technology Sydney. Val’s areas of interest are in family centred care, developing person-centred cultures, the use of evidence to inform practice, engaging clinical staff in action orientated research and improvement work, knowledge translation and systematic evaluation. This encompasses the development and ongoing support of effective workplaces, teams and leaders. The evaluation of this work, together with a number of local, state and International projects form the basis of her research work. Val holds honorary and visiting professor positions at University of Sydney (School of Psychology), Canterbury Christ Church University, UK (Nursing and Applied Clinical Studies) and Ulster University (Faculty of Life and Health Sciences). The results of her research and practice development work have been published in over 50 peer reviewed journals, book chapters and professional reports and presented at over 100 conferences, workshops and Master classes.

Toby Davis is a young performer based in Brisbane, who graduated in 2009 from the University of Wollongong’s Creative Arts Degree majoring in Performance. Passionate about acting and performance from a young age, he has continually been involved in workshops and community projects. He has studied the Suzuki Method of actor training, and has always had a passion for physical theatre. Combining his enjoyment of performance and community projects has led to his work with Mind Blank, which he is hoping to help grow and develop over the coming years. Three years of active impact with the team and he is still passionate about the working in our team. 

 Matt Stewart spent over 20 years as a professional theatre practitioner and was the General Manager of Darlinghurst Theatre Company which he co-founded in 1992. He was also a founding member and regular performer of Milk Crate Theatre for the homeless, where he fulfilled the role of facilitator/joker. While with Milk Crate, he successfully adapted the forum style of theatre for Access Week 2004 and for youth at risk in Campbelltown area. It is this forum style that Matt applies to Mind Blank, aligning his experience and skill with the vision of the organisation

Louisa Raft graduated from the University of Wollongong in 2015 with a Bachelor of Creative Arts (Dean’s Scholar) Theatre. As a mature-aged emerging artist, Louisa brings a unique perspective from her life journey to her work, which is influenced by her experience of navigating the world as the daughter of Greek migrants growing up in the Western suburbs of Sydney.  Louisa is a performer, dramaturg and creative producer for the newly formed professional cooperative, Wollongong Theatre Company, and the all-female contemporary performance collective, The Adelphi Experiment.  She is also passionate about community cultural development and is currently working on the Australia Council funded project Art of Belonging, a multi-arts based program working with diverse groups of women, girls and children in the greater Wollongong area to creatively share and explore their stories, memories and experiences of place, belonging, culture and change.  Prior to embarking on her professional performance career, Louisa was the founding Director of Clinical Services of headspace Wollongong.  Working with Mind Blank brings together her experience in young people’s mental health and her love of performance and Louisa feels privileged to have the opportunity to use her arts practice to help engage people in discussion and break down barriers to seeking help for mental health concerns.

Jon has been performing improvised shows for adults and children for almost 20 years. He's starred in multiple shows at the Sydney & Melbourne Comedy Festivals as well as performing in theatres across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Singapore, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Over the years, he has appeared on the ABC (Gruen Transfer, Hungry Beast, The Chaser’s CNNNN), Network Ten (Good News Week, MicroNation & Water Rats) and the Comedy Channel (Stand Up Australia) as well as in numerous commercials.

He has a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary School, Drama) and is currently the education manager for Impro Australia and director of the Theatresports Schools Challenge which involves students from over 100 high schools across Sydney, Wollongong & the Central Coast.

In the corporate realm, Jon has performed and run workshops for Woolworths, Qantas, Coca Cola, ING, AMP, Boral, Telstra, Australia Post, the Department of Fair Trading and more, as well as role plays for the Department of Defence and Westmead hospital.

Rhys is a passionate professional, innovator, leader and manager with an impressive record in strategic planning, marketing, sales and operations.

A background in medical research and pharmaceutical sales across a range of therapeutic areas, has led to a collaborative work ethic to deliver on key, first to market projects. Rhys currently leads Healthshare’s Practitioner Solutions team, proactively initiating change and implementation of strategy with the goal of driving productivity and innovation. Healthshare is one of Australia’s leading digital health companies developing innovative technology based solutions to empower Australian patients to make better health choices, while providing high quality tools for health care professionals.

Rhys has valuable experience in ongoing product development, marketing and management and is passionate about disruption in the health and technology. Rhys grew up an isolated part of rural Victoria and has is undertaken a bachelor of biological science with a focus on cell and molecular biology, also currently undertaking an MBA.

Jasmin Craufurd-Hill is a management lecturer and consultant who has held
both senior and project management roles within the government, not-for-
profit and emergency services sectors. She has previously served as an
Executive and Board Member of Women in Nuclear (WiN) Global and currently
serves as a Director of Mind Blank, the Institute for Regional Security and
WiN Australia. Ms Craufurd-Hill is an Associate Fellow of the Australian
Institute of Management, member of both the Australian Institute of Company
Directors and Australian Institute of Project Management and the recipient
of an ATSE Early Career Symposium Fellowship. Her current area of academic
interest surrounds the development of expertise and leadership in fields
that underpin nationally significant capabilities.

Connor has recently moved from regional NSW to QLD to pursue his
dreams of becoming an actor and model.  He is very passionate about the youth
of today and very passionate about making a change around mental health
especially since having gone through it myself. During his time in his
hometown of Grafton he was was the chair of the Clarence Youth Action group (CYA).

CYA is made up of a diverse group of people aged between 12-25 who meet each fortnight to help council to make decisions that related to young people, work on community projects, organise events and consult with local young people about issues that matter to them.

Julie McAllan was born in country South-East Queensland. She is an award singer/songwriter and released her second album, “Bring Me Home” in 2005. It went on to be released in Japan, Germany, U.S.A. and the United Kingdom. Julie was an early childhood teacher, and used her own music for early childhood numeracy and literacy.

From 2008 until November 2015, Julie was the Producer of Yamba’s Playtime, an Australian preschool children’s television program. She continued to keep up her songwriting skills by writing educational songs for the show as well as jingles. She was also the primary scriptwriter for the show as well as script editor. The tv show has been broadcast Australia wide on the Nine Network, Nine’s GO channel and currently on NITV (National Indigenous Television) until 2019. It's also broadcast in the U.S.A. on FNX (First Nations Experience) in ϯϬ states until 2020.

Julie has also produced a spin off series called Grandpa Honeyant Storytime which is broadcast on the ABC in Australia. From early 2011 until end of 2015, Julie also produced a healthy living traveling musical called Yamba’s Roadshow which toured to remote areas of Australia. Up until October 2015, the performance was seen by over 13,500 children in nearly 80 remote communities/towns throughout Australia.

Julie is also an actor and was the character suit wearer and voice of Yamba the Honeyant from 2007-2015. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts as well as a Graduate Diploma in Primary Education. 

Role: Chief Executive Officer & Founder

Ally Kelly is the CEO of Mind Blank. She started the foundation of Mind Blank at 22 years of age in 2011.

For several years Ally has been asked to be part of the following health panels: Community Consultation Committee for the Grand Pacific and Medicare Local and Wesley Life Force National Suicide Prevention Panels.

She believes that early prevention offers the greatest hope for intervention recovery and therefore takes every opportunity to educate the community to recognise the early signs of mental illness, without stigmatising or discriminating.

Her impact has received both National and International recognition.

Some sample community clients she has worked with include: University of Sydney, Schizophrenia Foundation, Mental Health Professionals Network, Australian Psychological Society, Youth Off the Streets, Navitas English, Strategic Community Assistance to Refugee Families (SCARF), the Illawarra Multicultural Services (IMS), Wesley Life Force Suicide Prevention Networks, TEAMhealth and NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). 

Speaking Opportunities: 

Ally is available for speaking opportunities. Her key note message addresses the topic of living with passion and sharing stories from the Mind Blank journey.

Her appearance at your conference/event will be highly engaging and inspirational. Ally is a huge mental health advocate and her energy is contagious.

Topics that she can speak on are:
Leading with mindfulness
Creative career progression
Living your passion
Building a grassroots charity
Managing with a people first focus
Following your true purpose

For more information enquire through info@mindblank.org.au or 0468912399

Role: Chairman

Adam is a believer in Toffler’s quote: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” 

He says, “When it comes to improving the future for the disadvantaged, we need to stop and reconcile what we know and readily accept there will always be new information that we can conceptualise and implement into new strategies for the long term safety of our children”.

With a background in senior management and key leadership roles with the Australian Newsagents’ Federation, CROSSMARK Australia, United Petroleum; 7 Eleven; Yum Brands / QSR and Target, Adam enjoys liaison roles with the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Institute of Criminology as part of his current role as Chief Operating Officer of the Australian Newsagents’ Federation.  

Adam is the Chairman of MindBlank Ltd and is committed to achieving social justice within the community.

Possessing masters level qualifications and membership of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Adam feels he can contribute to the overall success of MindBlank assisting in implementing strategic goals and further increasing governance procedures within the organisation.

Role: Deputy-Director

Senior Project Manager at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Former advocate Western Sydney Suicide Prevention and Support Network: Raising public awareness of services to assist suicide prevention providing a voice for those affected by suicide supporting bereaved families

Role: Director

Isha has over 18 years of business management experience.  She built and sold her first company, a significant achievement in a collapsing economy, and migrated from Zimbabwe to Australia with her family in 2003. 

In Australia, she formed a new company where she consults with SME leaders & their management teams, supporting their businesses to grow their people and their company by creating businesses that put people before profit. As a Director of the MindBlank Board, Isha is committed to educating people so they can understand how to empower themselves to manage their own mental health. 

Isha is passionate about education, as she believes awareness is the key to personal freedom. Everyone has mental health, only some people experience mental illness, yet many suffer in silence because they do not understand how to manage their own mental wellbeing. 

Role: Board Secretary and Creative Team Admin Support Contact

Janine Schramm lost her son to suicide in 2008 and since then has voluntarily worked tirelessly in the mental health sector. Janine was a founding member of the Western Sydney Suicide Prevention and Support Network based in Penrith, where she held the position of secretary for a number of years. 

Janine has help establish two Suicide Bereavement support groups in the Western Sydney area; one in Penrith and the other in Richmond.

Role: Creative Team

Lara is a Sydney based actor and performance maker. She is a founding member of Little Spoon Theatre Co. and with them has performed in "Where's My Money", "Tiger Country", and "Stitching", and last year produced the sell out season of "Danny and The Deep Blue Sea".

Over the last ten years she has performed with New Theatre, The Street Theatre, ABitOnTheSide, Stage Debris, and has devised and developed work with Lace Balloon, Earthcrosser Company, Elbow Theatre, Stage Juice, and paperweight productions. She has studied various techniques in Sydney, New York, and Glasgow. She's involved with Ninefold, an ensemble who train together in the Suzuki Method, and will be performing Antigone with them in 2016. Last year she was involved in several independent short films, and appeared in an episode of the new hit web series "Starting from... now!".

Lara works as a professional roleplayer with several organisations, is studying her Masters of Applied Linguistics, and has just taken up netball after an 18 year hiatus. Lara has been part of the MindBlank Creatives since early 2014.

Role: Creative Team

Role: Creative Team

Charlotte Truscott, or more better known as ‘Charlie’, is one of the most adaptable children’s circus professionals on the scene. From touring, creating work and running her own school she is continuously creating ways to give the circus experience to just about anyone she can. For over 15 years Charlie’s worked with children and adults of all abilities and skill level.

Luke comes from a theatre and performance background, with a BPerf from AADA and years of experience in independent thetare both on and offstage. As an actor he has appeared in roles with Rocksurfers, Sydney Chamber Opera and Left Bauer Productions to name a few, as well as being a part of numerous indie and original works.

In 2013 he founded Brave New Word theatre company, where he acts as Artistic Director. The company is dedicated to the development and production of original Australian plays, and has staged five works so far, with Luke acting as writer, producer and director for various productions over that time.

Working with Mind Blank offers a unique experience for Luke, allowing him to develop his theatre skills for a younger audience, while practicing and playing with the 'forum theatre' style of performance in a subject as important as mental health.