Our team
Gina Chinnery
Associate Director of Employment and Education Partnerships.
Gina has worked in the field of youth mental health and across the employment services and career development sector for more than 20 years. She has been a key contributor to the development and evaluation of innovative vocational interventions for young people including Individual Placement and Support (IPS), youth vocational peer work, and the online career support platform, YOTES.
Gina is certified in the IPS model, completing IPS leadership training with the IPS Employment Centre in New Hampshire, USA in 2015. She has managed several youth IPS programs in primary care and specialised mental health settings, including a Jobs Victoria IPS program enhanced by vocational peer work. Gina has extensive experience conducting IPS fidelity reviews and delivering IPS training and regularly contributes to vocational research projects and conferences, both in Australia and internationally.
In 2018, Gina was awarded an International Specialised Skills Fellowship to investigate vocational peer work and online career interventions in Canada and the USA and in 2015, was awarded the Career Development Association of Australia Career Practitioner of the Year and Long-Term Unemployment Conference, Employment Officer of the Year.
Catherine Gayed
National Manager, Youth IPS Centre of Excellence
Catherine manages Orygen’s Youth Individual Placement and Support (IPS) Centre of Excellence, supporting mental health services with IPS implementation, fidelity reviews and workforce training. Catherine has extensive experience managing IPS programs, including managing an IPS team in a youth early psychosis service, and has completed IPS supervisor and fidelity reviewer training with the IPS Employment Center in the US.
With over 10 years’ experience working in employment and mental health services and holding qualifications in business and career development, Catherine is passionate about developing programs that support young people to achieve their employment and career goals. Catherine was also a key contributor on the YOTES research trial, a digital platform for young people with mental ill-health to access online career support.
James Whiting
Career Projects Innovation Lead
James plays an active role in the design, development and implementation of digital career projects, ensuring new projects are informed by the latest theory, practice and policy relating to the career development and education fields. James’ current focus is on supporting the expansion of career support across Orygen Digital’s Moderated Online Social Therapy (MOST) and Youth Online Training and Employment System (YOTES) assisting with career support service design, implementation and continuous improvement.
James has over five years’ experience working in the employment sector with the last three years dedicated to online career support in youth mental health settings. Underpinned by a Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons.), James combines an understanding of mental health with experience providing practical career support.
Tania Sacco
Digital Career Team Leader
Tania supervises a team of online career consultants delivering digital career support to young people with mental ill health through Orygen’s Moderated Online Social Therapy platform. Tania has over 20 years’ experience working across education and training in secondary schools, international language centres, registered training organisations and university settings and holds qualifications in education, training, management and career development.
Tania is passionate about developing youth training and employment support programs underpinned by career development that provide tools and build self-efficacy for young people to achieve their employment and career goals.
Rafi Armanto
Peer Work Project Officer – International Students
Rafi is a senior peer worker at Orygen and supervises a team of online peer workers on Orygen’s Moderated Online Social Therapy platform and coordinates a Study Melbourne international student mental health peer work project for education providers in Victoria.
Rafi has played an integral role in the development of digital peer support on MOST in addition to contributing to the development and delivery of mental health peer work training, facilitated peer work supervision and coordinates an international student mental health peer work project introducing peer work to education provider student wellbeing services.
Rafi is informed and trained in intentional peer support principles which ensure that peer work projects are informed by best practice and conducted through the lens of lived experience. Rafi combines this passion for lived experience work with experience in the field of youth participation and community work with young people from CALD backgrounds.
Joshua Braybrook
IPS Administration and Fidelity Support Officer
Joshua provides administrative and fidelity review support for Orygen’s Youth IPS Centre of Excellence team. Josh has completed internationally recognised training for IPS practitioners and fidelity reviewers and has supported IPS fidelity reviews in various primary care and tertiary youth mental health service settings across Australia.