PICAC Forums and Conferences

Selen has years of experience in community development, advocacy, capacity building, and culturally appropriate service delivery in aged care. She migrated to Australia from Turkey in 2009 and worked as a Social Worker with Family Community Services and as a Behavior Support Clinician with an NGO. Her interests prompted her to move into community aged care. She has been working for the Multicultural Communities Council of Illawarra (MCCI) since 2017.

Born and bred in Shepparton, Victoria, Shane Charles has worked in the education, justice, and cultural heritage sectors, most recently with the City of Melbourne. Shane co-chairs the Aboriginal Studies and Indigenous Strategies Committee at La Trobe University. He’s known for his work in cultural intelligence, teaching about the traditional wisdom and diversity of Australia’s First Peoples.

Isolde is the Director of the Aged Care Diversity and Inclusion Section in the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care. She has worked across the Department for over 20 years in Indigenous health, chronic disease, and aged care policy and program management roles, and her current role fulfils her passion for diverse cultures and promoting inclusive aged care that benefits the diversity of our Australian community.

Rafik has worked across the social ecologies of education, mental health, and social services with children and young people for the past 30 years both locally and internationally. He has extensive fieldwork experience working with children and adolescents with refugee backgrounds in casework, education, and counseling. Rafik has a continuing interest in trauma recovery, anti-racism, and youth identity formation and has developed racial literacy, and racial resilience programs for young people with refugee experiences and produced anti-racism films on Cabramatta for the NSW Premiers Department. Rafik currently works at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) as a school liaison project officer, counselor, and trainer.