I was the inaugural Director, Lived Experience, at the National Mental Health Commission, - the first senior Lived Experience position in the Australian Public Service. The lived experience expertise and leadership skills I brought to this role were honed over more than three decades contributing to community-driven social and systems change movements, including HIV activism, mental health consumer rights, and suicide prevention reform. A key focus of my work has been the implementation of large-scale, community-led approaches to change - including a place-based, “collective impact” approach to suicide prevention - and alternatives to clinical risk management responses to despair - including peer-led safe spaces for people experiencing suicidal distress. I am now an Associate with Insight Exchange, an initiative which aims to improve responses to domestic, family, and sexualised violence by centring victim-survivor expertise.