Part of the program experience

Our programs connect participants with incredible facilitators and expert mentors. They contribute their energy, empathy and expertise with the goal of providing value.

We are incredibly grateful to everyone involved in delivering our Cowork Coplay program experience. And we’d like you to meet them… 

Mentors

Our mentors are brilliant. Wise, experienced and focused on sharing their knowledge and best tips related to their hometowns. Our mentors provide targeted workshops as part of the Cowork Coplay program experience.

Tina Tedesco-Vella

Tina Tedesco-Vella is an accomplished career development leader and founder of EmployCare, as well as Director of EmployCareer. With over 3 decades of experience guiding individuals through career change, transition, and workforce development, she has driven inclusive employment initiatives across public, private, and community sectors.

Tina’s contributions include pioneering disability community housing in South Australia, establishing localised aged care information and disability employment stakeholder engagement services, and advising government departments on redeployment and workforce capability. Her practice is grounded in psychology, career development, and human resources, supported by qualifications from James Cook and Flinders Universities.

A strong advocate for equitable opportunity, Tina is a member of leading industry bodies including CDAA, CICA, and NAGCAS. Her leadership has been honoured with recognition such as the SA Women’s Honour Roll and SA government awards.

Rosslyn Ward

Rosslyn is an Employment Facilitator for Adelaide North with the Local Jobs program from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. An experienced and passionate advocate for employment and empowerment, Rosslyn is well-connected with Adelaide’s employers and the jobs market. She also has a deep understanding of career development and has worked with people from all walks of life and backgrounds.

Mark Gregory

A career spanning four decades, several countries, and over 30 roles has allowed Mark to develop a diverse career pathway that reflects today’s non-linear career development landscape. With over a decade working with elite athletes, across our high performance sporting system, he is aware of the importance of ‘life alongside sport’ and developing a true sense of balance across multiple domains of our lives. 

Transitions in any career path, do not have to mean the end, as they can provide a time to reflect, restock, and reposition what our career journey has to offer a new audience. Using an array of hands-on activities, Mark is able to navigate you from where you are, to taking the next step to where might be next. His aim is that you can be Ready 4 When an opportunity presents. 

Kim Seow

Kim Seow brings a unique blend of professional expertise and personal wisdom to her work in wellbeing. As the founder of Cittalift, she is devoted to helping individuals reconnect with their inner stillness, strength, and sense of self, so they can live with greater fulfilment, intention, and meaning. Kim believes that when we create space to slow down, whether through mindfulness, yoga, or simply walking in nature, we return to the truth of who we are. From this place of deep awareness, we begin to move through life with greater clarity, resilience, and purpose. Her work is centred around this simple, powerful truth: we are already whole. We simply need the space to remember.

With over a decade of experience teaching meditation, yoga and evidence-based psychological skills, Kim blends the wisdom of Eastern spiritual practice with the science of Western psychology. She is a trained mindfulness meditation teacher under renowned teachers Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, a certified yoga instructor in the Barkan Method (Levels 1, 2, and 3), and a certified Counsellor and Psychotherapist with a Master Degree in Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of Adelaide .

Kim is also a Be Well Co Certified Trainer and was formerly the Training Lead and Master Trainer at SAHMRI’s Be Well Co. In this role, she was instrumental in the development of the Be Well Certified Trainer Program and led the training of its first six cohorts. Over this time, she delivered evidence-based psychological and resilience training to thousands of individuals, equipping them with the tools to thrive, both personally and professionally.

Leila Belle

Leila is passionate about proactively enhancing the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities. She does this through combining mindfulness meditation workshops and eco consulting at Nature Science Love. Leila particularly enjoys helping people overcome self-limiting beliefs and barriers, identify purpose and cultivate self-belief, to unlock their full potential and experience greater fulfilment and joy in daily life. Leila also has a background in medical research.

Linda Allen

Linda is passionate about wellbeing and fostering community through creating spaces that support mutual listening, so that individuals connect more with themselves and each other. Having developed her own training in deep listening and sharing circle facilitation, her work as a Program Worker at Grow Australia (mental wellbeing programs) adds an aspect of leadership development mentoring for the lived experience volunteers so that the Grow Groups thrive and are sustainable in the reciprocal mental wellbeing support and caring and sharing community of the members.

Dani Eveleigh

Dani Eveleigh is a senior leader with more than 15 years’ experience in human resources, organisational transformation, and governance across government, utilities, and community services. A Certified HR Practitioner, she has successfully led enterprise bargaining, large-scale reforms, and the development of workforce frameworks that drive inclusion and high performance. Beyond her professional career, Dani is deeply committed to supporting veterans and their families, inspired by her own lived experience. As a volunteer coordinator and advocate, she has led initiatives such as Walking Off The War Within and the Veterans Voices Conference, championing mental health, resilience, and community connection.

Belinda A’Bell

Hi, I’m Belinda — a Registered Psychologist, Transpersonal Art Therapist, veteran, and Defence spouse currently living in a remote NT posting.

I served in the Royal Australian Air Force for 14 years (8 years full-time and 6 in the reserves), including three deployments. My lived experience within Defence life, alongside my work as a psychologist, gives me a deep understanding of the unique challenges that can come with service, transition, relationships, and remote living.

I hold a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) from the University of Newcastle and an Advanced Diploma of Transpersonal Therapy (Art Therapy). My approach is holistic and grounded in the belief of asking “what has happened to you?” rather than “what is wrong with you?”.

I work in a person-centred, trauma-informed way, supporting the connection between mind, body, and soul. I draw on approaches such as mindfulness, art therapy, heart–brain harmony techniques, and nature-based practices.

I aim to create a space that feels safe, down-to-earth, and supportive — where you can make sense of what you’re going through and find ways forward that genuinely fit you.

Mita Das

Mita Das is an experienced careers practitioner and employability strategist with over 20 years in the higher education and employment services sectors across Australia, the UK, and Asia. She is the founder of Sense of Direction, where she works as a careers coach supporting individuals to navigate meaningful career pathways. Mita previously led the Careers Centre at Charles Darwin University, where she developed institution-wide strategies to enhance student employability and successfully transitioned services to accessible online delivery.

Her career includes senior roles at the University of Sydney, RMIT University Vietnam, UNSW, and Macquarie University, where she designed and delivered large-scale career development programs, managed high-impact projects, and built strong industry partnerships. Mita is also a researcher with a Master of Science (Applied), with interests in employability and career development in diverse global contexts. She is passionate about empowering individuals through inclusive and practical career support.

Michelle Burgess

Michelle Burgess is an experienced workforce development professional with over 40 years of working alongside businesses across the Northern Territory. As the Job Coordinator for the Darwin Employment Region (including Alice Springs) under the Workforce Australia Local Jobs Program, Michelle leads employer engagement and workforce planning initiatives that connect industry with practical employment solutions.

Michelle has a strong track record of building partnerships across government, industry, and community organisations, supporting businesses to address workforce challenges while creating meaningful employment pathways—particularly for the local Job seeking community. Over the past year, her work has contributed to job placements across sectors including hospitality, tourism, construction, care services, and defence support.

She is passionate about developing locally driven, culturally responsive initiatives that strengthen workforce capability, support economic participation, and deliver long-term employment outcomes for individuals and communities.

Kate Johnson

Kate Johnson is the founder of Wild & Wise Co. and a social worker with nearly 15 years’ experience across mental health and rehabilitation.

She is passionate about helping people better understand their nervous systems and build simple, practical tools to navigate stress, overwhelm, and the realities of everyday life. Her work focuses on making wellbeing feel accessible, relatable, and genuinely useful — not something reserved for perfect conditions.

Based in Darwin, Kate is also a mum and defence spouse, bringing a warm, grounded and real-world perspective to her work.

Sandy Papas

A long‑time Darwin local of 40 years, Sandy has built a diverse and people‑centred career spanning across many industries including hospitality, real estate, unemployment services, community support, and defence family services. Currently working with DMFS as a Family Liaison Officer, she is passionate about connecting families with the services, community events, and networks that help them feel supported and inspired. Sandy believes everyone deserves the opportunity to find their happy place and thrive, both personally and professionally.

Ron Kovalcik

Ron is an Integrated Logistics Support professional experienced in project management, training, coaching and mentoring. A bit unique among his peers, Ron is people-oriented and invests time and energy as standard practice to ensure people feel valued, supported and empowered through autonomy and shared purpose. As a qualified organisational coach he provides coaching and mentoring services to Defence partners and veterans.

Who helped deliver our 2024 Perth program

Tamara Paton

Tamara is our incredible Program Facilitator in Perth for 2024. She’s a wife and a mum to two beautiful children and a fur-baby. Her background includes aviation training and education. As a Defence spouse she’s familiar with the unique circumstances and challenges and is passionate about helping others to succeed. Her mission is to help people navigate their careers and she will always encourage people to be proud of what they have (and will) achieve. She says: “By leveraging our ideas, we can be innovative and aim for continual improvement as a pathway to success. I’ve done this myself and have reaped the benefits; that’s why I’m passionate about helping you to do the same!”

Aly Bannister

Aly is a Multi-Award-Winning Career Coach with 30+ years’ experience of partnering with small business owners, individuals, local government, and global organisations to achieve lasting career success. She was most recently recognised as one of the Top 15 Coaches in Perth 2023.

Aly enables and empowers individuals to build confidence, increase knowledge, upskill, and make positive career choices; leaving participants feeling more motivated to accomplish goals and long-term career success.

She is also a #1 Best Selling Author and mum to 3 boisterous and beautiful boys.

Amanda Halfpenny

Amanda has a background in Social Work and over 23 years of experience in practice. Amanda founded Connect Case Management (ccm.) in 2014 on the principle of providing meaningful, personalised and professional support for all. She has worked across diverse settings, including disability and healthcare environments, where she influences supports and creates positive outcomes for people with disabilities, employees and the wider community. Amanda is a Be Well Certified Trainer delivering workplace mental health and wellbeing training for a range of clients (including at Cowork Coplay). Her dynamic energy sees her consistently motivated to achieve positive outcomes.

Rosie Hegarty

Rosie Hegarty has over 20 years’ experience in the employment industry having worked for online classifieds including seek.com.au, running a career builder course to IT graduates, running her own business to assist jobseekers with their job applications and interviews and working in commercial recruitment. Rosie is the Employment Facilitator for an Australian Government initiative called the Local Jobs Program for the Perth South region and has been on the program for nearly 3 years. When not working, Rosie enjoys yoga, going to the gym, reading and navigating the world of 2 teenage boys.