Karyn Walsh, Chief Executive Officer
Karyn Walsh is a social justice advocate and the CEO of Micah Projects, a not-for-profit organisation which she established in 1995 to help the community access foundational human rights, such as housing, healthcare, safety, justice, and meaningful connection. Today, under Karyn’s leadership Micah Projects operates responses services across Queensland, working towards a society where inclusion, equality and connection are valued.
For 30 years, Karyn has been working tirelessly to break down barriers, create justice and respond to injustice in the lives of individuals, women, children and families. Karyn has a strong focus on working with people, communities, organisations and services to end the cycle of homelessness. Karyn is passionate about creating an equitable and inclusive housing system that is affordable, secure, safe and designed to meet the health and wellbeing needs of individuals and families.
Karyn has served in numerous roles including as the president of the Queensland Council of Social Services, as a member of the Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Implementation Council, as co-chair of Queensland's Anti-Poverty Week, as a council member at the Queensland Mental Health Commission and as an inaugural member and director of the Australian Alliance to End Homelessness.
In recognition of her work, Karyn was awarded an honorary Doctor of Social Work and Nursing from the University of Queensland in 2016. In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours, Karyn was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her service to the community, supporting people with mental health issues, the homeless and children through various social welfare initiatives. Karyn was named as a Queensland Great in 2021 for her social justice advocacy. In 2025, Karyn was awarded an honorary Professorship of Social Work from the University of Queensland.
Debora Jackson, Chair
Debora has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, as CEO of two industry superannuation funds, and through several other senior executive, and non-executive roles.
As a practiced non-executive director, with a demonstrated history of working in the 'Profit for Purpose' sector, Debora is a strong outcomes and governance driven professional, with proven ability to work across a range of industry sectors. She has skills in leadership, business development and transformation, superannuation, and corporate governance, and is passionate about ensuring effective organisational governance practices lead to good decisions and outcomes for all stakeholders.
Debora is currently: Governance Consultant through Community Business Australia; and facilitates various governance related training modules for the Governance Institute of Australia.
Debora holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Melbourne; a Certificate of Organisational Leadership, London Business School (2010); and recently successfully completed ‘The Effective Director’ course, at the Governance Institute of Australia.
Board Members
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Megan is a lawyer with over 25 years' experience in senior executive positions in the Queensland public service in the areas of child protection, youth justice, domestic and family violence prevention and disability services. Megan has worked in leadership roles in legal advocacy, strategic policy and legislative reform and implementation and state-wide service delivery. She is passionate about strategic leadership and supporting people to work sustainably in high performing teams with resilience to deliver better outcomes for vulnerable people.
Megan has led the design and implementation of a number of systemic change projects and reforms and has experience in performance management, governance and program design and delivery. she has a Bachelor of Laws and a Masters of Public Administration degree.
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A.D.B.E.T. B.Arch. Greenstar and Earthcheck Accredited Professional
Queensland Registered Architect, Mark Thomson has 32 years professional experience, specialising in Ecological Sustainable Development. He has 26 years experience as a company director with organisations which have won awards, including an Australian Quality Award, a Telstra Small Business Award, multiple A.I.A. (Architects Institute of Australia) Awards and UDIA (Urban Development Institute of Australia) property development Awards.
Since 2009 Mark has been an active participant in mentoring design students, via the QUT (Queensland University of Technology) Work in Learning program. He has also supported The Exchange Community Centre at Kelvin Grove Urban Village by mentoring immigrants studying at local universities. Mark is immediate Past President of the Australian Green Development Forum, a past QUT Adjunct Professor and a regular judge in local, national and international Award programs.
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PhD; B. Social Work (Hons 1); BA (Psychology and Sociology)
Jemma is a social worker with experience in frontline practice, research and teaching. She currently holds a teaching and research position within the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at The University of Queensland.
Jemma’s program of research seeks to enhance service responses to children, young people and their families, with the intention of bringing about more equitable and just policies and practices. Underpinned by a commitment to social justice and participatory practice, her work is focused on capturing the experiences of people as they navigate service systems, particularly in relation to child protection and domestic and family violence.
Prior to her roles in academia, Jemma worked in a variety of practice contexts including homelessness, disability and policing, as well as providing counselling for children who have experienced abuse and neglect. Reflected across all of her roles has been a commitment to the values of social justice, partnership and respect.
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BSc (Hons), PhD, MBA, MAICD
Patrick (Director, VenturePro) brings people together across organisational and discipline boundaries to build investment cases for new ventures and initiatives. He specialises in commercialising innovations in science, technology and the arts - from start-up companies through to large-scale industry-university collaborations and national initiatives in priority industries. In recent years Patrick has worked extensively in Innovation Precinct development, providing advice on investment attraction and precinct governance to Qld Investment Corporation, Qld Health, Qld Treasury Corporation and Qld Dept of Environment, Science and Innovation. He was previously a Director in Corporate Finance at PwC (Leader, Life Sciences Practice; Member, Global Thought Leadership Panel for Life Sciences), and a Post-doc in Chemical Engineering @UQ. He was an Industry Fellow, Qld Brain Institute, and sat on the QIC Business Development Fund Investment Panel, the i.lab Advisory Board and the QUT Research & Innovation Committee. He previously served on the Board of Qld Red Cross.