Board Membership
Judicial profile: Stephanie Gallagher
Located in Brisbane, the Deputy State Coroner investigates deaths in the Brisbane area, deaths in custody, or deaths as a result of police operations.
Nadia is the CEO of Women’s Legal Service Queensland (WLSQ). Nadia has qualifications in law and business and is passionate about access to justice, legal services, and women's rights and safety. Nadia has a broad range of experience across a diverse range of roles in the corporate, profit-for-purpose, and community sector. Nadia is currently a member of the Queensland Police Service Domestic and Family Violence Advisory Group.
Nadia is focused on legal and social issues affecting women and working with a diverse network of organisations and supporters who are united by a shared belief in protecting the rights of women.
Julia De Boos is a senior Emergency Physician working at North West Hospital and Health Service and a Forensic Medical Officer at the Gold Coast University Hospital. She is the regional forensic coordinator for the North West Hospital and Health Service.
Having trained predominantly in Townsville and Alice Springs, Julia now works in predominantly the rural and remote environment, completing further training in remote medicine. In addition to her work with Queensland Health, she has also worked with the Royal Flying Doctors Service as a retrievalist and with the Victorian Institute of Forensic medicine. She holds a Master in Forensic Medicine and is a fellow of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.
Her areas of particular interest include non-fatal strangulation and the intersection of medicine and the criminal justice system.
is an Aboriginal woman from the Noonuccal tribe of the Quandamooka people of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). Keryn is a solicitor with extensive experience in the fields of family law, child protection and domestic violence. She is currently the Legal Services Manager at the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health and has previously held roles as the coordinating lawyer at HUB Community Legal Centre, solicitor at Caxton Legal Centre and coordinator of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Legal and Advocacy Service. Keryn has also been employed as a senior lawyer (cultural projects and support) in the Office of the Child and Family Official Solicitor in the Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women and as an academic at Griffith University. Keryn is currently a member of the Queensland Law Society’s Human Rights and Civil Law Committee, the Law Council of Australia's Indigenous Legal Issues Committee and the Queensland Coroner’s Domestic and Family Violence Death Review Board.
Commissioner Paul Stewart APM commenced with Queensland Corrective Services (QCS) in 2018. Commissioner Stewart was previously Deputy Commissioner for QCS’s Community Corrections and Specialist Operations. During this time, he was the senior responsible officer for a number of transformational bodies of work, including the Queensland Parole System Reform and the QCS Intelligence Review. Before joining QCS, Commissioner Stewart had a 35-year career in the Queensland Police Service, holding positions including the Assistant Commissioner of People Capability Command and Community Contact Command and as the Chief Information Officer and the Director of Media and Public Affairs.
Commissioner Stewart holds a Master of Technology Management, a Bachelor of Science and is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Academy in Quantico, Virginia with studies in police leadership and management, human behaviour, criminal profiling and crime analysis. Commissioner Stewart is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds extensive experience serving on a range of Boards across the criminal justice system.
Brian has 25 years’ experience as an academic, professional practitioner, trainer, supervisor, and educator in the domestic violence sector. Initially, he was trained in the Duluth coordinated community approach to working with perpetrators and has been a facilitator of men’s programs for many years. His PhD research, completed in the USA, explored the effectiveness of court-mandated programs for male DFV offenders.
Brian recently launched SICURA Domestic Violence Training and Support Brisbane (www.sicura-dv.com.au), a training initiative to support professional development for practitioners who work with DFV victims/survivors and perpetrators. In February 2024, Brian was appointed the new CEO of the Red Rose Foundation (www.redrosefoundation.com.au). He is also a member of the Queensland Police Service Domestic and Family Violence Community Advisory Committee. His understanding of DFV is not only as a legal issue, but a public health and human rights issues where the safety, the freedom, and the dignity of women and children are under threat, now and into the future.
Ben Bjarnesen is the Founder and Managing Director of the LGBTQ Domestic Violence Awareness Foundation. He is a passionate educator and campaigner who advocates for improved services for LGBTQ+ victims and survivors of Domestic and Family Violence (DFV).
Ben is a Churchill Fellow and has travelled internationally to explore best practice solutions for Police Departments to enhance the way in which they respond to DFV in LGBTQ+ communities.
He has since been actively involved in advising government and non-government organisations internationally on a range of initiatives designed to improve service delivery to LGBTQ+ communities.
Ben is an operational Police officer, a Board Director of DVConnect and in 2023 was appointed by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to the Queensland Government Domestic & Family Violence Prevention Council.
He is an awarded educator and campaigner and has previously been named as a ‘Human Rights Hero’ by the Australian Human Rights Commission and as one of Australia’s Outstanding 50 LGBTI+ Leaders