CHAIR

Humanitarian, Spiritual Seeker, Visionary

Christine is a first generation Cantonese-Australian Psychologist and the CEO and founder of a purpose-driven business Beyond Story. She spent more than a decade specialising in helping working professionals and leaders optimise their mental, emotional, and behavioural capacities for higher functioning and satisfaction at work and in life. She brings a holistic and creative approach to Organisational Psychology and leads initiatives that address the root cause of diversity and inclusion issues in organisations and society. She enjoys nurturing and developing the next generation of AAOP as she strongly believes that they can elevate and leverage their lived experience as Asian Australians and professional expertise to serve our communities.

She has studied and consulted across Europe, Asia and Australia, working with businesses, government departments, NGOs and the United Nations at the intersection of governance and culture. Her career experience ranges from working directly with grassroots communities, coaching and mentoring migrants and international students, through to empowering leaders and organisations to harness the power of diversity and inclusion to strengthen leadership in Australia.

BOARD DIRECTOR

Nurturer, Scientist, Altruist

Monica is a second generation Vietnamese-Australian Psychologist specialising in organisational psychology. Currently Monica works as a Manager in KPMG's Behavioural Risk Advisory Team. She brings to AAOP significant commercial and strategic expertise from her transformation, risk and assurance background.

Monica deeply loves being a Psychologist - bringing together a deep understanding of human behaviour, data and research together to create positive outcomes for individuals, organisations and the community. Her favourite topics to nerd out on include personality psychology, psychological resilience and research related to inclusion, belonging and diversity.

In Monica's off time, you'll find her enjoying new food adventures (through cooking or new restaurant finds), reading, or taking an online course on a new or interesting subject matter. Through her work with AAOP, Monica is able to live her values of kindness, perspective and love of learning.

SECRETARY

Nitha is an ex international student who is a COO of Psych Press and sits on 3 advisory academic boards at major Victorian Universities and has presented at several university career lectures and sessions.

Furthermore, she is a lecturer in cross cultural psychology, personality and career development and guest lectured for the master’s program in the area of psychology. She has published and presented papers related to cultural and gender diversity issues in Australia and overseas and is an active advocate of prevention of racism presenting in Resilience Against Racism seminars and encouraging women in tech, actively presenting and sitting on panels to promote the same. She is currently a board approved supervisor with AHPRA and also an active mentor with refugees and women of colour.

Knowledge seeker, Advocate, Activist

Narissa is a 1.5 generation Canadian/Pakistani who has been living in Australia the past 2.5 years. Narissa currently works as a Global Talent Acquisition Partner in marketing technology, recruiting in APAC, Europe and UK. Narissa brings to AAOP a strong passion and extensive experience in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, organisational development and talent acquisition. Going through several lived experiences, Diversity and Inclusion is very close to her heart.

Narissa has a particular interest in positive psychology, reading books and listening to podcasts in her spare time on the subject. In her personal time, she enjoys food, travelling, cooking, swimming, dancing, binge watching shows and learning new skills. Narissa loves learning more about other cultural traditions, especially food and is looking forward to getting to know the AAOP community!