Provisional psychologist and PhD Candidate, Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, NSW 
Carol Dabb is passionate about the mental health of parents and families. Carol's research mainly focuses on the experiences of fathers during the prenatal period, with a particular focus on pregnancy-related anxiety. Carol has recently published a systematic review exploring the range of concerns, worries, and fears experienced by expectant fathers. Through her research, Carol hopes to improve the support provided to fathers during the perinatal period.

Lecturer in Social Work, Flinders University

Kirsty Lowe has worked as a social worker with children, youth, and families across a career spanning over 20 years. Thirteen of those years was spent working in metropolitan Adelaide providing therapeutic support to families with children under the age of three, predominantly around the infant-caregiver relationship, as well as a project role involving the redesign of services for families experiencing additional vulnerability and challenges in their caregiving. A significant challenge in redesigning the model of care was increasing the engagement and support of fathers as they made the transition to parenting. Kirsty is passionate creating the conditions for children and infants to be nurtured and thrive which requires those around them to be doing well, including fathers and partners.

Kirsty has, more recently, held a teaching role in social work at Flinders University working with both undergraduate and postgraduate social work students. Teaching students in the area of human development has highlighted the silence that exists in relation to the experience of caregivers other than mothers. Supporting students to recognise the role all caregivers, including fathers, can play as a source of support and strength for children is an important aspect of her teaching.

It's an honour to be part of the panel discussing the experiences of fathers in the perinatal period and how services can best meet their needs. 

Child and Family Partner Emerging Minds

Claudius is a first-time father who lives and works in Adelaide and has generously given his time to contribute to various Emerging Minds projects about supporting infants and toddlers and their parents. Claudius and his wife have a 14-month-old son and hold many insights gained from the experiences both challenging and rewarding that the last couple of years have brought. From supporting his wife through a difficult pregnancy and learning on the fly while navigating his own and his wife’s mental health challenges in the early days and weeks of their son’s life, Claudius has stuck to the basics of having a commitment to making things work. He looks forward to contributing his lived and living experience wisdom to the panel’s discussion and hopes his insights can assist practitioners to find helpful ways that they can support fathers.

Workforce Development Manager, Emerging Minds

Dan Moss has been Manager, Workforce Development at Emerging Minds since 2017. Previously he worked as Assistant Director, Performance, Reporting and Evaluation at the Department for Child Protection. In this role, he worked closely with the Early Intervention Research Directorate to explore the social determinants of child disadvantage and child protection involvement. Dan worked for Uniting Communities for fifteen years, as a practitioner, supervisor and senior manager in a range of services with children, parents and families dealing with the effects of family violence, child sexual abuse, mental health conditions and drug and alcohol use. As a practitioner, Dan had a strong interest in narrative engagement strategies with children, parents and families. Dan’s PhD thesis included research on approaches to men’s behaviour change programs and a creative writing component.