About Us
Read below to find out more about the team.
Dr Louise Byrne
Dr Louise Byrne is a leading international expert on Lived and Living Experience, acknowledged as a thought-leader in workforce development and the change management strategies required to build authentic, effective and impactful Lived Experience (Peer) workforces.
Louise’s name is synonymous with highest quality, evidence-informed work, setting benchmarks for best practice, and enhancing understanding of authentic Lived Experience principles and practice.
Louise’s work is informed by her personal (consumer) Lived and Living Expertise and her experience in a diverse range of designated Lived Experience work roles across sectors and settings, since 2005.
Louise trained in Intentional Peer Support, and since 2010 has led an internationally ground-breaking body of research on Lived Experience workforce development, culminating in numerous frameworks, policies and models including the Australian ‘National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines’. Louise is a Fulbright alumni, has been awarded multiple research fellowships including her current RMIT Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellowship, and holds an Associate Professor Adjunct position at Yale University.
Louise’s program of research has created a theory of change for how to advance understanding, respect and leadership opportunities for the Lived and Living Experience workforces.
Dr Melissa Chapman
Dr Melissa Chapman is a Family/Carer Lived Experience Researcher with a PhD in Industrial and Organisational Psychology. She currently uses her knowledge and skills across broad areas, such as: inclusion and diversity, mental health/wellbeing and the changing nature of work. Melissa has worked collaboratively with private, not-for-profit, university and government organisations and since 2019 has been contributing significantly to the Lived Experience evidence base, including being a core team member on the Australian ‘National Lived Experience (Peer) Workforce Development Guidelines’, the ‘Queensland Framework for the Development of the Mental Health Lived Experience Workforce’, and the ‘Victorian Mental Health Consumer Discipline Framework’, amongst others.
Puneet Sansanwal
Puneet is a Lived Experience Researcher. He holds academic roles at University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and at RMIT University as a Consumer Academic and a Research Assistant. Puneet is also a member of the Lived Experience Advisory Panel at the Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing. Puneet gained experience as a consumer peer support worker and a consumer consultant within Victoria’s public mental health system, developing relationships with fellow community members with lived and living experience of mental health distress. Puneet has a passion for contributing to systemic and policy change by advocating for consumer rights in the decisions related to consumer care and having Lived Experience roles and perspectives embedded into every part of the consumers’ journey. Puneet is a recent graduate from Victoria University, gaining a master’s degree by research, exploring workplace stress and staff wellbeing and is currently contributing to research led by Dr Louise Byrne and Dr Melissa Chapman on peer roles in the Department of Veteran Affairs. Puneet is committed to advocating for reduced workplace stress across all sectors and for work culture that is supportive of positive mental health in workplaces.
Dr Louise Byrne & Associates acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the unceded lands upon which we live and work nationwide. We acknowledge past and present Elders, their cultural knowledge and deep connection to land, sea and community. We pay our deep and heartfelt respects to these essential leaders and thank them for their guidance
