CHAIR

Humanitarian, Spiritual Seeker, Visionary

Christine is a first generation Cantonese-Australian Psychologist and the CEO and founder of a purpose-driven business Beyond Story. She spent more than a decade specialising in helping working professionals and leaders optimise their mental, emotional, and behavioural capacities for higher functioning and satisfaction at work and in life. She brings a holistic and creative approach to Organisational Psychology and leads initiatives that address the root cause of diversity and inclusion issues in organisations and society. She enjoys nurturing and developing the next generation of AAOP as she strongly believes that they can elevate and leverage their lived experience as Asian Australians and professional expertise to serve our communities.

She has studied and consulted across Europe, Asia and Australia, working with businesses, government departments, NGOs and the United Nations at the intersection of governance and culture. Her career experience ranges from working directly with grassroots communities, coaching and mentoring migrants and international students, through to empowering leaders and organisations to harness the power of diversity and inclusion to strengthen leadership in Australia.

DEPUTY CHAIR, PRODUCT & INNOVATION LEAD

Designer, Problem Solver, Humanitarian

Manfred is a first generation Kiwi-Chinese Psychologist with a background in Product, Innovation, Strategic Design and Behavioural Economics. He’s studied and worked in Sydney for the past 12 years with 6 years of design experience working across financial services, retail, healthcare, technology, government, and education sectors. He loves to bring his in depth experience working in technology and design to solve business problems no matter what the problem is. In particular, he is passionate about how design can be leveraged as a process to create better health and wellbeing outcomes for people.

Talk to him about all topics service design, innovation culture, diversity and inclusion, design thinking, mental health and wellbeing tech and ideation methodologies. He promises it won’t be a boring conversation at all!

In his spare time, Manfred seeks a wide variety of unique experiences from being a plant dad to improv to dining out at new restaurants. Through his work at AAOP, he wants to ensure that the solutions they come up with remain human-centric and cater towards the needs of the broader AA community.

BOARD DIRECTOR

Nurturer, Scientist, Altruist

Monica is a second generation Vietnamese-Australian Psychologist specialising in organisational psychology. Currently Monica works as a Manager in KPMG's Behavioural Risk Advisory Team. She brings to AAOP significant commercial and strategic expertise from her transformation, risk and assurance background.

Monica deeply loves being a Psychologist - bringing together a deep understanding of human behaviour, data and research together to create positive outcomes for individuals, organisations and the community. Her favourite topics to nerd out on include personality psychology, psychological resilience and research related to inclusion, belonging and diversity.

In Monica's off time, you'll find her enjoying new food adventures (through cooking or new restaurant finds), reading, or taking an online course on a new or interesting subject matter. Through her work with AAOP, Monica is able to live her values of kindness, perspective and love of learning.

TREASURER

Energiser, Problem-solver, Connector

Jason is a second generation Chinese-Australian psychologist and leadership consultant working at the Centre for Leadership Advantage. In this line of work, he has helped a wide range of organisations, from ASX-listed companies to state and federal government departments. He has worked with people from all walks of life as he tries to figure out how to create the best workplaces via great leadership. He believes that people work best together when they allow themselves the space to fail, learn and grow - and consequently strives to do the same every day.

Jason has travelled all around the world enjoying, exploring and observing human nature in its most intimate and authentic forms. He has grown an interest and appreciation in people and their many idiosyncrasies, something he is deeply passionate about both in and out of 'the office’. He is quite fond of the outdoors also. In his off-time Jason can be found spending time playing sports and telling bad jokes, all with his dearest friends and family.

SECRETARY

Nitha is an ex international student who is a COO of Psych Press and sits on 3 advisory academic boards at major Victorian Universities and has presented at several university career lectures and sessions.

Furthermore, she is a lecturer in cross cultural psychology, personality and career development and guest lectured for the master’s program in the area of psychology. She has published and presented papers related to cultural and gender diversity issues in Australia and overseas and is an active advocate of prevention of racism presenting in Resilience Against Racism seminars and encouraging women in tech, actively presenting and sitting on panels to promote the same. She is currently a board approved supervisor with AHPRA and also an active mentor with refugees and women of colour.

Marketing Lead

Teamwork, positivity, curiosity

Chelsea is a third-generation Singaporean-Chinese-Australian management consultant. She is a Manager within KPMG’s Customer & Operations Practice and has experience in organisational strategy and operations. She acts as an advisor to large organisations within the Energy and Natural Resources, Government and Financial Services sector. She is keen to take her learnings within management consulting and apply them to AAOP.

Chelsea has particular interest in the behaviour of people in the workplace and seeks to have impact on the Australian Asian community. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling and the outdoors. She also enjoys testing her ability at latest active or sport trend to offset her true passion of food, drink and sitting on the couch watching TV!

MARKETING COORDINATOR

Teamwork, Curiosity, Humility

Nathan is a Marketing Coordinator who is passionate about positively contributing to creative, diverse and contemporary marketing teams and campaigns. He is deeply passionate about the Asian Australian community, with a history of volunteering with various social enterprises and not-for-profits focusing on the Asian Australian community. Outside of work, he enjoys board games, basketball, and technology

RESEARCH AND DELIVERY LEAD

Knowledge seeker, Advocate, Activist

Narissa is a 1.5 generation Canadian/Pakistani who has been living in Australia the past 2.5 years. Narissa currently works as a Global Talent Acquisition Partner in marketing technology, recruiting in APAC, Europe and UK. Narissa brings to AAOP a strong passion and extensive experience in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, organisational development and talent acquisition. Going through several lived experiences, Diversity and Inclusion is very close to her heart.

Narissa has a particular interest in positive psychology, reading books and listening to podcasts in her spare time on the subject. In her personal time, she enjoys food, travelling, cooking, swimming, dancing, binge watching shows and learning new skills. Narissa loves learning more about other cultural traditions, especially food and is looking forward to getting to know the AAOP community!

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT

Curiosity, Love of Learning and Judgement.

Falak is a second-generation Indian-Australian Psychology student at the University of Melbourne. He is pursuing a career in Organisational Psychology and is passionate about optimising people's performance in business and healthcare settings. He has worked across research and development roles in business consulting, volunteering, university and social entrepreneurship ventures. These experiences have not only enriched his research, critical thinking and implementation abilities, but they have also inspired him to seek and answer new ways of fighting social issues, such as workplace and cultural stigma, well-being and mental health.

At AAOP, Falak works with the R&D team as a consultant to increase the well-being and career performance of Asian Australians. He finds this role to be incredibly rewarding, not just because his work is focused around such an important issue, but because of the support and guidance that his team regularly provides.

Aside from AAOP and work, Falak has a keen interest in mixed martial arts, fitness and mindfulness practices. Taking a book to a local cafe on a rainy day is his favourite pastime. In the future, he hopes to explore more cafes around the world and improve the performance and well-being of more people at scale.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT

Curiosity, Creativity, Spirituality

Shelby is a first-generation Malaysian in Australia. Shelby is currently completing her doctorate in clinical psychology, with an interest in working with clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She has previously worked in human resources and education. Through her work with AAOP, she is driven by her passion for exploring the interactions between Asian cultural values with individuals' personal values and broader Australian culture in the daily lives of Asian Australians. Shelby is passionate about combining the knowledge of psychology and culture, with one goal in mind - that everyone can experience a sense of connection in the community regardless of where they live.

Outside of work, you'll find Shelby enjoying various classical/jazz concerts, in bookshops, having board games/mah-jong sessions or busy food-hunting across Melbourne and beyond!

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANT

Judgement, Honesty, Hope

Joy was born and raised in China, completed her secondary education in Singapore and came to Australia for university in 2015. With an Organisational Psychology background and a strong interest in process optimisation, change management and employee experience, she has been working as a Change and Communication Specialist at Hollard Insurance. She is passionate about applying her Organisational Psychology knowledge in the workplace and took a particular interest in generating evidence-based solutions for AAOP to enable and empower Asian Australians.

In her spare time, Joy enjoys working out, rocking climbing or perfecting her pole dance moves. She also likes travelling and exploring nature.

PRODUCT CONSULTANT

Honesty, humility & perspective

Tina is a 1.5 generation Chinese - Australian Service Designer working at NSW Department of Customer Service. Originally starting out in consulting before moving to product, she's worked across financial services, telecommunications and media. Tina's passionate about putting people at the core of product and services and is focused on using her professional skillset to create great experiences for AAOP.

Outside of work, you can find Tina talking about mental health, practising activities that promote mindfulness (but getting distracted every time!) and potatoing with a book.

PRODUCT CONSULTANT

Humour, curiosity, kindness

Milla is a 1st generation Korean-Australian working as graduate UX/UI designer who is passionate about learning about the experiences of the AA community and using her design skills to ensure AAOP interfaces are the best they can be!

In her down time, Milla can be found playing volleyball, eating good food, spending a little too much money on coffees or binge watching Korean dramas!