I was the inaugural Director, Lived Experience, at the National Mental Health Commission - the first senior designated Lived Experience position in the Australian Public Service. The lived experience expertise and leadership skills I brought to this role were honed over more than three decades contributing to community-driven social change movements, including HIV/AIDS activism, mental health consumer rights, and suicide prevention reform. A key focus of my work has been the implementation of large-scale, collaborative approaches to change - including a place-based, “collective impact” approach to suicide prevention - and alternatives to clinical risk management responses to despair - including peer-led safe spaces for people experiencing suicidal distress. I have worked in a variety of independent Lived Experience expert advisory roles across the health and social services sectors, providing strategic advice to decision-makers on how to effectively partner with people with lived experience in their work. I am now an Associate with Insight Exchange, an initiative which aims to improve responses to domestic, family, and sexualised violence by centring victim-survivor expertise.