Conference Speakers

David John Reed  OAM FCPA
David Reed is chairman of the “Passages” project financed by private enterprise and directed at helping homeless and troubled youth on the streets of Perth.  He is also chairman of St Vincent de Paul Centres Board which is responsible for 43 Centres in Western Australia and Patron of the Royal Flying Doctor Service’s, Eastern Goldfields Branch. In recognition of his services to the community especially the initiation of “Passages”, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal.

David Reed is a Past President of the Rotary Club of Kalgoorlie and  a current member of the Rotary Club of Perth and Past President of that club. In 2002 in recognition of his contributions to Rotary and to the community he was awarded the ‘Service Above Self’ award which is the highest accolade in the world for Rotarians. 

 He is a former Chairman of listed companies Titan Resources NL and Noble Resources NL (now Black Range Minerals Ltd) and currently Executive Chairman of Reed Resources Ltd.

Dr Rob Moodie
Rob Moodie was born in Melbourne Australia. He is currently Professor of Global Health at the Nossal Institute of Global Health at the University of Melbourne. He graduated in medicine at the University of Melbourne and studied Tropical Medicine at Paris University and Public Health at Harvard University.

He first worked in refugee health care in the Sudan and later for “Congress”, the Aboriginal community controlled health service in Central Australia. He was the inaugural Director of Country Support for UNAIDS in Geneva and was CEO of VicHealth from 1998-2007. He chaired the National Preventative Health Taskforce and was a member of the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific. He chairs the technical advisory panel of Avahan, the Gates Foundation's HIV prevention program in India. He has particular interests in non–communicable diseases and HIV/AIDS and teaches a number of courses in Australia and in Mozambique on public health leadership and health promotion. He has worked for the Save the Children Fund, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Burnet Institute, the World Health Organisation and UNAIDS.

 In 2005 he was named Victorian Father of the Year.

 Dr Jake Lynch
Associate Professor Jake Lynch, PhD (City University, London) is Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at the University of Sydney; an Executive Member of the Sydney Peace Foundation and Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association, having organized and hosted its Sydney conference in July 2010.

He has spent the past 15 years researching, developing, teaching and training in peace journalism – and practising it, as an experienced international reporter in television and newspapers. He was an on-air presenter, anchoring over a thousand half-hour news bulletins for BBC World TV. Before that, he was the Sydney Correspondent for the London Independent newspaper, and a Political Correspondent for Sky News.

He has led training workshops in peace journalism for professional editors and reporters, and in media skills for peace workers, in many countries including Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Cyprus, Armenia, Georgia, Norway and the UK. Clients have included the British Council, Council of Europe, DANIDA, GTZ, SIDA, NORAD, the Olof Palme Memorial Fund and the Australian Commonwealth Government.

In 2009, he won a prestigious competitive grant from the Australian Research Council, to investigate prospects for devising a Global Standard for reporting conflict, in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists and the aid agency, Act for Peace.

Dr Keith Suter
Dr Keith Suter is an economic and social commentator, strategic planner, conference speaker, author and broadcaster. Dr Suter has doctorate degrees from the University of Sydney on the international law of guerrilla warfare (a study of the two 1977 Additional Protocols to the four 1949 Geneva Conventions) and from Deakin University on the economic and social consequences of the arms race.

He is the Director of Studies, International Law Association (Australian Branch), Chairperson, International Commission of Jurists (NSW), and Chairperson, International Humanitarian Law Committee, Australian Red Cross (NSW). He teaches politics at the Sydney international campus of Boston University, USA and has been a member of the international think tank, The Club of Rome since 1993. He has been President of the UN Association (WA) and of the UN Association (NSW) of which he is a life member.

In the International Year of Peace, 1986, he was awarded the Australian Government’s Peace Medal and in 1994 he was voted “Australian Communicator of the Year”. He was awarded the Australian Red Cross Distinguished Service Medal in 2007.

Jenn Weidman
Jenn Weidman holds a master’s degree in Cultural and Applied Anthropology from Northern Illinois University with specialisation in Southeast Asian Studies and a bachelor’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies also from Northern Illinois University.  Most recently, she worked for Rotary International establishing the Rotary Centre at Chulalongkorn University and is now Deputy Director of the Rotary Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. This university offers the only three month course for Rotary World Peace Fellows.  Jenn Weidmanhas produced several DVDs about the program at Chulalongkorn   University and has had many years experience living and working in Thailand.

William B. Boyd
Past Rotary International President  

Bill Boyd retired in 1995 as general manager of Gordon and Gotch Magazines Ltd., New Zealand’s largest magazine distributor. He is a trustee of New Zealand’s Trees for Survival Trust and the June Gray Trust and has represented Rotary at the National Kidney Foundation and the Intellectually Handicapped Society. He has been an elder and youth leader of the Presbyterian Church and a warranted Scout leader. He has refereed rugby union football for more than 30 years. Bill was appointed as a Companion of the Queen’s Service Order for Community Service in the 2007 New Zealand New Year Honours List.

A Rotarian since 1971, Bill has served Rotary International as district governor, training leader, International Assembly moderator, committee member and chair, assistant deputy coordinator of PolioPlus Partners, task force assistant general coordinator, regional Rotary Foundation coordinator, Rotary International Director, Treasurer, and President. He is a recipient of The Rotary Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award. His is currently Chairman of the Rotary Foundation Trustees.

Bill has also chaired the Rotary Down Under Management Committee and received a Meritorious Service Award from the Rotary Down Under regional magazine.

Professor John Braithwaite
John Braithwaite is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and a Distinguished Professor at the Australian National University. He leads a project called Peacebuilding Compared, which over 20 years will study the most significant armed conflicts since 1990. He has worked in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea where he was installed as Chief of the Naboin Clan, Selau, Bougainville.

As a criminologist, he has contributed to the application of restorative justice and is a member of the Australian National University’s Centre for Restorative Justice. He has been a visiting Research Professor and Fellow at a number of universities in Social Ecology, Law and Criminology. Dr Braithwaite was awarded an honorary doctorate by Katholieke Universitiet, Leuven, Netherlands, in 2008 and has a number of prizes in criminology.

Professor Braithwaite is an author of considerable note. His publications include Crime, Shame and Reintegration which was judged one of the 10 most influential books in the history of Australian sociology and several of his other publications have received similar accolades. His most recent book is Networked Governance of Freedom and Tyranny: Peace in Timor-Leste (with Charlesworth and Soares).

Tania Miletic
Tania is an Independent Consultant in peacebuilding and faculty member with the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, based since 2004 between Melbourne and Phnom Penh. Her role is predominantly as a researcher, analyst and trainer in peacebuilding and conflict resolution across a range of projects, courses and consultancies regionally. Tania is completing a PhD with the Institute for Social Science Research, at the University of Queensland. Her study explores contemporary conflicts from the perspectives of emerging leaders in China and she will speak about peacebuilding work involved inMyanmar and China.

Tania was in the inaugural class of Rotary World Peace Fellows (2002-2004) where she completed a MA in Public Admin (International Studies in Peace and Conflict) from the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. She has a BA and Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from Melbourne University and worked with the Victorian Transcultural Psychiatry Unit and later the Centre for International Mental Health, University of Melbourne and has been a Sessional Academic with Victoria University since 2007.

Dr Terry O’Connell OAM
Terry O’Connell served as a police officer for 17 years in Wagga Wagga and was noticed for his unique approach to policing practices. He pioneered Restorative Justice for juvenile offenders and is now an internationally recognised expert in this field. He has done extensive work in broadening the focus for law enforcers by conferencing with all parties affected by crime: victims, perpetrators and their families, in order to achieve understanding and reconciliation on both sides.

Dr O'Connell was appointed Australian Director of the International Company ‘Real Justice’ – an organisation for education and research into restorative practices. His work with criminal offenders has been accompanied by a remarkable decrease in repeat offences among those offenders.

Already a recipient of several overseas honours and acknowledged as an international expert, Terry O’Connell, was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) and an Honorary Doctorate from the Australian Catholic University.

Professor Kevin Clements
Professor Clements is the Foundation Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of the New Zealand National Centre for and Conflict Studies (NCPACS) at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, and Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association.

Prior to taking up these positions he was the Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. This Centre was the training institution for the Rotary Peace Fellows in Australia. It is one of six such centres throughout the world where Rotary Peace Fellows are prepared for their role as Peace keepers.

His career has been a combination of academic analysis and practice in the areas of peacebuilding and conflict transformation. Professor Clements has been a regular consultant to a variety of non-governmental and intergovernmental organisations on disarmament, arms control, conflict resolution, development and regional security issues. He has written or edited 7 books and over 150 chapters /articles on conflict transformation, peacebuilding, preventive diplomacy and development with a specific focus on the Asia Pacific region.

Joseph Hongoh
Joseph Hongoh graduated with Class VII in July 2010. In November 2010 he won the International Student of the Year award in the category of Higher Education at the 2010 Queensland Education and Training International Awards for Excellence. In the same month, he received the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship from the University of Queensland to pursue a PhD at the School of Political Science and International Studies.

Currently, Joseph is a PhD candidate at the University and hoping to use the extra skills and his life experience to motivate others on the value of education. Apart from his academic life, Joseph has been active within the Diverse Community of Brisbane. Between May 2010 and early this year, he served as Community Development Officer – Diversity with the Brisbane City Council implementing Intercultural relations Project Jointly Supported by Brisbane City Council and Department of Immigration and Citizenship. The project aims to aims to increase knowledge, understanding and respect among diverse cultural groups. It also seeks to create a group of Elders and Leaders who will continue to meet to strengthen their skills and capacity to promote and support positive intercultural relations.

Additionally, the project bring young people from diverse backgrounds together in cooperative activities, and to work in partnership with the Elders and Leaders to share their experience with each other and the wider community. The role also involves developing frameworks for intergenerational Dialogue to resolve intergenerational conflict among diverse communities in Brisbane; and conducting analysis of intercultural conflicts and existing response strategies within Brisbane.

Dr John Skerritt
John Skerritt was a recipient of The Rotary Foundation 2011-12 Global Alumni Service to Humanity Award. Dr Skerritt, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Carlingford, New South Wales, studied as a 1983-84 Ambassadorial Scholar at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. A former Rotaractor and Interactor, he is currently a member of the Rotary Club of Hampton.

He was recently promoted to the position of Head of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), the agency that approves medicines, diagnostic tests and medical devices for marketing and use in Australia and export.

Over the past 30 years, Dr Skerritt has led a wide range of training and assistance projects addressing agriculture, medical science, environmental, and public administration issues in India, Indonesia, and other Southeast Asian and African countries. In 2010, he led a successful response to a major locust plague in eastern Australia, which otherwise would have caused $2 billion in damage. And last year, his team helped the farming community in that region recover quickly after unprecedented flooding.

Dr. Barbara Ferguson
Dr. Barbara Ferguson received an Order of Australia Medal  in 2004 – “for development of programs to meet the health, education and recreation needs of migrants, refugees and overseas students”.   She taught in the School of Social Work, University of New South Wales and initiated the Centre for Cross Cultural Social Work Education, the Centre for Refugee Research, and the Postgraduate Program in International Social Development.  During the Vietnam War she worked for eight years in non-government, humanitarian and emergency relief agencies. She has also worked in the Pacific Islands as well as in South East Asia as a social worker, teacher, researcher and community organiser for the healing of people traumatised by war, domestic violence and natural disaster. She continues to have close ties with the Australian Vietnamese community and the Oneheart Education Foundation for disadvantaged children in South Vietnam.

Dr Ferguson volunteered at the HEAL Africa Hospital in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo where she conducts trauma counselling workshops for the staff, especially for those working with rape-torture survivors.  She became involved with a group of Congolese Pygmies in the Masisi region organising sponsorship for their children to attend local schools securing land to resettle people denied access to their traditional homes and way of life in the forests. She coordinated the work of local agencies to provide shelter, literacy and income generating projects to ensure the survival of these ‘first people’.  She is a member of the editorial board of the Transcultural Mental Health Centre Diversit-e Journal, practices the Wu Tao dance therapy, participates in the Women’s Interfaith Network and the Creators of Peace – Initiatives of Change  Network and is a member of St Mark’s Anglican Church South Hurstville.
She is the author of Rain in my Heart - memories of children and war.  Melbourne: Lothian Books 2006.