Karen is the CEO of Full Stop Australia. She has more than 30 years’ experience working across not-for-profit organisations, government and research institutions in roles including CEO and executive leadership, strategy, advocacy, research, training, service delivery and community development.

Karen has worked in areas including child protection, early childhood education, out of home care, domestic and family violence, family law, homelessness, disability services and mental health.

She has worked extensively with culturally diverse communities. As a consultant, Karen advised federal and state government departments in areas such as program design, procurement and system reform and ran a training and coaching practice supporting sector workers and leaders. Karen is a passionate advocate for prevention, recovery and healing.

Tara Hunter is based on Gadigal Land (Sydney) and is the Director of Client and Clinical Services at Full Stop Australia, first established in the 1970s and now one of the country’s most recognised sexual, domestic and family violence response services.

With a Master of Social Work and various workplace training and family dispute resolution certifications, Tara’s approach to leadership is trauma-informed and backed up by over 20 years of experience in the sector, from front-line client work to high-level strategic advisory roles.

Having managed sexual assault support services within the public health network system, led and mentored teams of clinicians through complex caseloads, spoken publicly and in parliament on key law reform matters, including sexual consent, Tara offers an important client-centred approach to the national conversation on ending violence and abuse.

Tara is committed to building stable and reliable trauma-specialist systems that support clients and front-line workers, while also addressing the underlying systemic and social causes of gender-based violence.