About WSSSA

Maurine was admitted to the bar in 1973 and appointed Queens Counsel in 2004.  Maurine’s field of practice is family law.

Maurine served on a number of Boards, WSSSA for 30 plus years, Zahra Foundation for four years since inception, and previously the Legal Services commission of SA for about 10 years, the Law Society for about 10 years and the Bar Association for about 8 years.

Maurine is currently the Presiding member of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal.

Vicki is currently a Consultant in Aboriginal Health in the SA Health Local Health Network of Yorke and Northern. Her qualifications are in Psychology and Business Management and Administration.
Vicki commenced her career as a Police Officer for nine years, where she undertook the first definitive research in Domestic Violence in South Australia and wrote the then SAPD’s Domestic Violence policy. Subsequently, she has had a diverse career managing small non-government agencies and government services in the areas of Intellectual Disability, Women’s Health, Public Health/Health Promotion, Primary Health Care and most recently in Aboriginal Health.
Vicki served on a number of Committees and Boards including Workpower Inc, Vitec Inc, the SA Premiers’ Women’s Council, Institute of Public Administration SA, Zahra Foundation Inc, Dog and Cat has been recently re-elected as a Director for Amnesty International Australia, and as Treasurer of WSSSA.

Sarah Wendt is Professor of Social Work at Flinders University. She is director of a research centre. She is currently researching domestic violence including women’s and children’s experiences of violence, men’s use of violence and how to respond in practice. 

Helen has  worked in a variety of government roles, as a private consultant and in a NFP aged care organisation. Helen’s experience includes policy development, strategic planning, evaluation, consultation, research, environment scanning and funds seeking across a range of sectors. Helen’s formal qualifications are in mathematics and social research. Helen has government, non-government and community based board/committee experience.

Jacky Dakin is a Registered Psychologist with a well-established private practice offering services in both organisational and counselling psychology.  She works in both the public and private sectors and specialises in designing and presenting training workshops, conflict mediation, working with dysfunctional teams and leadership development and coaching.  She successfully uses psychotherapy, CBT and hypnotherapy with her private clients.  She regularly speaks at seminars and conferences, lectures at Adelaide university and frequently mentors younger colleagues.  She is active on a state psychology committee and the WSSSA Board, is a published author and former finalist in the Telstra Business Woman of the year.

Lea brings extensive experience as a senior leader in the political, public sector and community spheres. She has held the positions of state Minister for Health and Shadow Minister for a wide range of human service portfolios, Director of a key government coordinating organisation and Principal in northern Adelaide secondary schools. She is currently a Board Director and supports other community-based initiatives.

Marta has been working as a psychologist since 1978 and together with her partner and husband, Ian Coats, has run her own private practice for the last 30 years.  She works with adults and children, and her clinical work includes therapy for a range of issues including anxiety, depression, as well as relationship and parenting problems. She also specialises in hypnosis. Marta also conducts family assessments for the Family Court of Australia, and appears in court as an independent expert when required. She has worked in the area of domestic violence for many years, working with women who have experienced domestic violence and on occasions, with perpetrators. Marta was the Chairperson of the management committee of the Migrant Women’s Support Service for some 26 years before it merged to become part of WSSSA.

Sharon is a Senior Sergeant within South Australia Police. Sharon has worked in a variety of positions within SAPOL including general duties policing, family violence specialist response area, Industrial Relations and most recently within the corporate area of Public Protection branch. Her current position is Manager, Family and Domestic Violence Section. Sharon’s experience includes policy development, training development and delivery, strategic planning, and interagency liaison with respect to improving collaborative responses to domestic violence, child protection matters and other victimisation from crime. Sharon was part of the Central Domestic Violence Service Board prior to the merging of services and creation of WSSSA. 

Maria Hagias has worked in the Domestic Violence Sector of South Australia for 25 years.  She has advocated and informed policy development on gender based violence which has resulted in the implementations of responsive service models that promote women and children’s safety and make men who use violence accountable for their behaviour.  She has participated in a number of National and State committees that inform systemic changes and responses.  Through her role as CEO of WSSSA has worked with the community to change attitudes and address ways of working together to eliminate violence against women.  She is the Deputy Chair of the Premiers Council for Women and previously Co-Chair for the Coalition of Women’s Domestic Violence Services in South Australia and  was South Australia’s Representative on the Prime Ministers Advisory Panel which provided advice to COAG on addressing violence against women.