Our Board
Professor Rosemary Sheehan AM FASSA
Chair
Member: Nominations and Remuneration Committee
BSocStud, MSW, PhD
Professor Rosemary Sheehan is Emeritus Professor in Social Work at Monash University teaching into health, mental health, forensic social work and research courses. She has 17 years’ experience as a dispute resolution convenor in the Children’s Court of Victoria and has a breadth of experience dealing with vulnerable children and their families. Her studies of judicial decision-making in child maltreatment cases in Australia’s children’s courts are acknowledged as the first of their kind, and her prominence in research extends across a range of areas including child welfare and the law, family violence, mental health, and judicial and corrections responses to offenders, with particular emphasis on women.
Professor Sheehan has been a member of Victoria’s Child Death Advisory and Women’s Correctional Services Advisory Committees. She was a member of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, responding to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Professor Sheehan was awarded the Order of Australia in 2014 for her significant contribution to child welfare and the law.
She continues to do funded research into child protection decision making and the plight of children and young people across both youth offending and child protection systems.
Dr Susan Stevens
Deputy Chair
Member: Nominations and Remuneration Committee
PhD, MEd (EdAdmin), MMus, AMusA, GradDip (Adol Heal & Welf), GDipTheol, FACE, MACEA, MAICD
Dr Susan Stevens is the outgoing Principal of Loreto Mandeville Hall Toorak, retiring from this post at the end of 2021 after 20 years’ service.
Susan has devoted her professional career to the education of girls and young women. She has a breadth of experience in childhood development, staff management, problem solving and decision-making and dealing with complexity in individual and family relationships. With a commitment to creating a safe and supportive environment in which children can thrive and have their voices heard, Susan has experience in safeguarding issues and with post school and adult life concerns that can emerge from these.
Susan’s sense of social justice and her belief in working to assist others has led her to contribute her time and expertise on many committees, namely in the not-for-profit sector.
Dr Gina Georgousis
Director
Member: Nominations and Remuneration Committee
BSc (Hon), GradDip (Psych), DPsych (Forensic), MAPS, FCFP
Dr Gina Georgousis is a clinically trained forensic psychologist and consultant in the areas of mental health, forensic and organisational practice. She is the Managing Director of the psychological services and consulting centre Metapsych, located in Toorak Victoria and holds more than 20 years’ experience in principal advisory roles. The roles span areas across assessment and treatment of individuals with complex problem behaviours such as violence, sexual offending and stalking, in addition to mental disorders and personality disorders.
Gina has extensive experience in the area of trauma and long-term effects of violence and child sexual abuse on children. She has consulted in government- and non-government sectors in the development of operational frameworks and organisational processes, quality assurance standards and many reviews in health and justice. She is a Member of the Australian Psychological Society and a Fellow of the College of Forensic Psychologists.
James Fitzpatrick
Director
Member: Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
BA (International Relations & Affairs), MComm
James Fitzpatrick is a Senior Associate and Head of Operations at strategic communications and public affairs firm Michelson Alexander.
James leads campaigns for organisations that build public and stakeholder support around key social, economic and political issues.
His experience is steeped in issues management across Australia, the United Kingdom, and North America, having worked on high-profile projects during royal commissions, terrorist attacks, court cases, policy developments, and local community campaigns.
Along with on-call response, James has co-facilitated media training and other exercises for organisations ranging from universities and not-for-profits to critical infrastructure and hospitals.
James is also a Co-Founder of Sporting Chance magazine, and a Sessional Lecturer at RMIT University.
Michael Pirotta
Treasurer
Member: Finance, Audit and Risk Committee
BBus, CPA, MAICD
Michael Pirotta’s work experience spans 40 years and covers a range of industries including industrial, automotive, distribution, food processing and aviation, with the majority at Melbourne Airport.
Michael’s technical skills include accounting, finance, strategy, negotiation and general commercial.
Paul O'Beirne
Company Secretary
LLB, BSc, FSNV, FANZCN
Paul O’Beirne is a solicitor and notary public practising in regional Victoria.
He has run his own legal practice for the past 21 years, focussing on commercial law, property law and estate planning. For twelve years he also ran a separate company providing company formation and secretarial services to accountants, lawyers and their clients.
Paul was appointed as a Notary Public by the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2019 and is a Fellow of the Society of Notaries Victoria and a Fellow of the Australia New Zealand College of Notaries.
Roy Reekie
Director
LLB; BA (Politics); Certificate in Mediation Skills (Oxford and Cambridge RSA)
Roy is a lawyer with a specialist interest in social justice and community issues. He has more than 30 years experience working in an array of community-based service organisations, principally in management roles both within Australia and overseas. These include the Tackling Drugs Misuse Project in designing a community consultation framework, community awareness programs and evaluation methods, with Victoria Legal Aid in their Community Legal Services Program and with the Northern Community Legal Centre in their policy and evaluation team.
As a consultant, he specialises in organisational strategic planning and development. He has worked on contracts that include developing training for housing officers in coordinated community responses to family violence and assisted to design and develop the family violence response systems in Saudi Arabi. He has also spent considerable time working with the Gunditjmara Aboriginal Co-operative in providing strategic planning, advice and assistance.
In addition to his role as Board member at Pathways, Roy is also currently Executive Officer to Borderline Personality Disorder Community Victoria Ltd.