Carmel Guerra
Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY), CEO 
CMY is a community based organisation that provides services to and advocates for the needs of young people from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Carmel has over 20 years experience in the community sector. She has served on numerous boards and committees for the Government and non-Government sectors on a federal, state and local level. In 1994 Carmel was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to investigate issues of refugee and migrant youth overseas. In 2003 she earned a Centenary Medal for services to young people, migrant and refugee communities, and in 2005 was entered into the Victorian Women’s Honour Roll for her services to the community.
Adam Steen
Professor of Accounting, Australian Catholic University
Having worked for a number of leading Australian and International Business Schools, Adam Steen has developed expertise in teaching, research and administration. His research has been published in leading international journals and is interdisciplinary in nature, applying Accounting and Finance-based methodologies to questions and issues in diverse areas including Corporate Governance, International Business, Tourism, Human Resource Management, Unemployment and Homelessness. He is an active member and Fellow of CPA Australia and has lectured internationally and conducted consulting assignments for the Commonwealth Government, World Bank, Government of Indonesia and other local and global organisations. He has successfully supervised Honours, Masters and PhD students in a number of areas.
David Eldridge AM
David has been a key figure within The Salvation Army both in Australia and the United Kingdom where he has worked for over 28 years, in a variety of senior social policy and programme development roles, including 15 years at the Crossroads Youth Network and 12 years as Director of the Brunswick Community Programme. David has also been an adviser to the Commonwealth Government on key social policy issues particularly in relation to young people and has headed a number of significant Task Forces, which have delivered ground breaking reports and recommendations. David has also been influential in the development of employment policy and was a Board Member of the Employment Services Regulatory Authority, which oversaw the development of a case management approach in employment services. He has also been a board member of the Enterprise and Career Education Foundation and the Foundation for Young Australians.
David MacKenzie
David is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University. David has a strong record of research and development on issues associated with youth issues and youth policy and is internationally recognised for his work on homelessness. He is co-author of Youth Homelessness: Early intervention and Prevention (1998) that outlines an early intervention policy perspective for a deeply coordinated community infrastructure of services and schools. He is also an author of the report Indigenous Homelessness in Victoria. David is an experienced program evaluator, who has recently completed the national evaluation of the HOME Advice program. Over the past 10 years, David has served on a number of government advisory committees and taskforces – the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness, the national SAAP Data and Research Advisory Committee, the national SAAP Information Services Committee, the JPET Needs Committee and the Victorian Integrated Data Project committee.
Keith Waters
Keith has worked in community services for over 20 years. He held the role of CEO, Anglicare Canberra Goulburn between 2005 – 2009. Prior to this he served as the Director of The Salvation Army’s youth, drug and alcohol, homeless, crisis, care and protection, domestic violence, prison and courts, emergency relief and disability services in metropolitan Melbourne, for 5 years. This involved managing over 150 programs and 1200 full time employees. In addition to being a leading NGO executive manager, he has pioneered numerous innovative programs for disadvantaged young people over the past 15 years, most notably the Inside Out post release service for young people leaving juvenile justice centres and the very successful Hand Brake Turn program which has been nationally replicated.
Keith has also contributed to a number of landmark reports, which have impacted youth homelessness policy, including ‘Forced Exit’ (1989) as well as co-authoring ‘Unfinished Business,’ (1991) ‘No Place Like Home’ (trilogy) (1995) and ‘No Place to Be’ (1993), Department of Community Services Victoria Adolescent Services Review (1995). Both the ‘Forced Exit Report’ and ‘No Place Like Home’ reports involved Keith leading a team of interviewers and peer youth interviewers in a consultative process similar to that described in the methodology proposed for this project. Keith was one of the key facilitators responsible for convening and reporting on the National Youth Round Table in 2005/06 and in 2007.