Board Profile
Restorative Practices International Ltd
The Inaugural RPI Board took office on 23 February 2022 when RPI was officially constituted as a not-for profit company limited by guarantee. Since that time, the board has adopted a staggered approach to replacing members in the hope of bringing in new faces and fresh ideas in whilst maintaining organisational knowledge. The current Board, elected at the 2015 Annual General Meeting, brings together RPI members from across Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The Board can be contacted via email at secretariat@rpiassn.org
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The Board
Peta Blood
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New South Wales, Australia
Peta is a co-founder and founding member of RPI, having returned to the board after a break away.
Peta has applied restorative justice practices in a range of diverse settings including workplaces, communities, policing, corrections and schools for the past two decades. She is an experienced practitioner, trainer and published author in the field. Peta presently works with victims of crime, where she is focused on the application of trauma informed practice.
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Matt Casey
New South Wales, Australia
Matt is the Professional Standards Officer for the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn; before taking up this role he was the Archdiocesan Coordinator for Parish Support where his responsibilities included a range of faith formation, education and personal development initiatives. He was a Detective for much of his 27 years in Policing, headed the School of Investigation and Intelligence at the NSW Police Academy and later consulted on cultural change with Local Area Commanders and management teams in the backdrop of a royal commission into the NSW Police Force. He has worked extensively in Restorative Practice since 1997, including three years with Real Justice, the Australian Affiliate of the International Institute of Restorative Practices. Beginning in 2000 he led a project with Goulburn Family Support Service, which developed, described and validated a mode of counselling and family work based around the explicit application of Affect Script Psychology, to assist individuals and families impacted failing relationships, neglect, abuse and violence. He and his colleagues have named their practice, Explicit Affective Practice. Matt has applied the principles of Explicit Affective Practice in the development a range of nationally accredited training packages on the management of conflict and confrontation in the non-police law enforcement sector and in faith formation, ministry and theology. Matt is a member of the Silvan Tomkins Institute and Counsellor with extensive experience in couples therapy, domestic violence, anger management and community conflict. He consults with schools, the community sector, churches, business and government. He regularly teaches, facilitates professional development seminars and has conducted workshops at conferences in Australia and overseas.
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Bronwyn Clee - Treasurer
Northern Territory, Australia![bc]()
As an advocate for social justice, Bronwyn Clee helped pioneer Restorative Justice in the Northern Territory in 2000 in partnership with Real Justice Australia. Leading a 3 year project funded by the NT Department of Public Prosecutions, she helped influence the education community to adopt Restorative Practices at a policy level. A qualified RP practitioner and trainer, Bronwyn presented at the 2005 International Institute of Restorative Practices in Penrith Sydney. Having attended the first formal gathering at that event to discuss the formation of RPI, Bronwyn is delighted to now join the Board. As Principle Director of Bronwyn Clee and Associates, she assists organisations and individuals to resolve internal and external conflict and tension using a strengths based solution focused restorative practice framework.
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Graeme George - Chair![gg]()
Queensland, Australia
Graeme has been an educator for over thirty years and has held various leadership positions within schools, as well as in governance at the school and system level. He brings these years of experience on not-for-profit Boards and Commissions to his work with the RPI Board. Graeme’s initial involvement with restorative practices was as the key part of an extensive whole-school renewal process which he led, and which positively transformed the culture of the school over a six-year period. A member of Restorative Practices International since its inception, he is an experienced researcher, lecturer, trainer and author in restorative practices and donates his time as consultant and ‘critical friend’ for schools and school systems within Australia and internationally. Graeme has a keen research interest in the intersections of restorative practices with social-emotional learning, affect and emotion in learning, and effective pedagogy, and has regularly presented papers at national and international conferences on these topics. He is passionate about sharing with others how restorative approaches in schools can build stronger relationships and safer learning communities and how young people in schools can be encouraged towards maximal development personally, socially and academically. To assist schools and school communities interested in learning about restorative practices, Graeme maintains a popular resources website at www.rpforschools.net
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Bill Hansberry
South Australia, Australia
Working in private practice , Bill works with young people who live with a wide range of learning challenges, disabilities as well as emotional or behavioural difficulties. Bill also has the privilege of supporting and mentoring teachers, school leaders and parents, assisting them to work together to meet the needs of these students. Bill specialises in teaching students with Dyslexia and offers training for schools in the area of Specific Learning Disabilities. Bill is an active advocate for the evidence based teaching of reading and spelling in schools and better recognition of learning difficulties. Bill was recently featured in the Australian Dyslexia documentary ‘Outside the Square’. Bill’s work in the field of Restorative Justice began as a School Counsellor in an Adelaide school. This school became a leader in the use of Restorative Practices in behaviour management and served as a beacon of good practice to other schools and educators from across Australia and overseas. Today, Bill facilitates professional learning for teachers, leaders and community groups in workshops and international conferences. Bill has authored / co-authored three books on Restorative Practices in Schools.
Bill works with schools and organisations to transform conflict and promote understanding between people. Bill helps organisations to build accountability processes that are high on both expectations of behaviour as well as the crucial support structures that allow people to work at their best. The word ‘behaviour’ is often a non-discussable in adult work environments, but it impacts everything, right down to the bottom line. After all, culture is behaviour.
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Julia Hennessy - Deputy Chair
New Zealand![JH]()
Julia has been a practicing social worker and social work senior Manager in the area of children and families for over twenty five years. She led projects in the UK introducing Family Group Conference and Restorative Justice practices into mainstream service delivery on both a local and national level. Julia was one of three finalists for the “making a Difference Award” in the UK National Public Servant of the year awards in 2001. Julia was a member of the working group that developed the first restorative justice standards of practice in the UK for the Home Office in 2004. Julia has spoken and trained world-wide on these practices. She has contributed to resources being published in these areas. Julia now lives in New Zealand and is the General Manager for one of the largest NGO social services providers. Julia was previously the Chair of Restorative Justice Aotearoa (RJA), the national association in New Zealand for restorative justice practitioners, therefore bringing two national jurisdictions of RJ practice to the RPI Board.
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Theresa Heywood
New Zealand
Ko Te Arawa, Ngati Whakaue Ko Tuhoe, Ngati Whare Ko Tainui, Ngati Haua Ko Maea Ross nee Loffley toku Mama No Rotorua ahau Ko Theresa Heywood ahau Hello everyone I am of Maori and Scottish descent. My mother is Maea Ross, and my father was Walter Ross. I have acknowledged my whakapapa (genealogy) above. My name is Theresa Heywood. Kia ora
Theresa is the Director of Mana Social Services Trust and she has been in the Director’s role since 2006. Mana Social Services Trust provides a range of counselling and social services to the Rotorua community. The Trust’s largest contract is Court Referred Adult Restorative Justice which they provide in four different districts. Theresa is a trained restorative justice facilitator and her areas of expertise are in family violence and sexual offending. Theresa works from a Maori perspective and she has a strong interest in working with vulnerable people. Theresa’s working background includes the Department of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Education, and Prisoner’s Aid and Rehabilitation. Theresa has a Bachelor of Applied Social Science, majoring in Social Work. Other qualifications include Professional Supervision and Business Management. Theresa is a Registered Social Worker with MANZASW membership. She is currently an Executive Member on Restorative Justice Aotearoa representing Maori Caucus.
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Pamela Jensen
New Zealand
Pamela has been a Trustee of the Taranaki Restorative Justice Trust in New Zealand for 16 years. She originally trained as an RJ Facilitator in 2002, and re-trained in 2013. She is an experienced and accredited Specialist Family Violence and Sexual Violence Facilitator, who has facilitated about 500 cases.
Pamela is also a lawyer and mediator, currently specialising in litigation and mediation in the Family Law jurisdiction. She also practises employment law, and previously acted in the criminal, mental health and civil jurisdictions. As Court-appointed Lawyer for Child and Subject Person, Pamela represents children and vulnerable adults in a range of challenging cases. In 2013, disenchanted with aspects of the criminal justice system, Pamela traded her role as Defence Counsel for that of RJ Facilitator, which is a sound philosophical fit for her. Pamela’s previous work experience includes: Legal Advisor/Advocate for the Children’s Commissioner, Parliamentary Private Secretary and Secondary Teacher in NZ, UK and UAE. Family violence is a key practice area for Pamela, who is a Member of the NZ Family Violence Death Review Committee.
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John Lennox
Tasmania, Australia
John is a former Police Officer who has had 30 years experience in community policing, training and conferencing of juvenile offenders. He was an early advocate of conferencing in Tasmania, Australia. Police and has been largely responsible for training of Authorized Police Officers (pursuant to Youth Justice Act 1997) since 1997. He has also delivered training in restorative practices to all police cadets since 2004. He has presented papers at National and State conferences and attended international conferences. He has contributed to the development of Tasmania Police youth policy and the development of a revised Authorized Officer training course. In recent years, he has advocated restorative practices in schools and provided personal development courses to teachers and students, social worker courses and other non-government agencies. John’s work in this area has resulted in the award of two commendations by Tasmania Police. He is based in Tasmania, Australia and is presently a consultant in Restorative Practices and provides services to a diverse range of Government Departments, Non Government Organizations and private enterprise in conflict resolution and training. He is an experienced board member.
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Jim McGrath![jim]()
Northern Ireland
Jim McGrath’s experience includes post-conflict mediation and peacebuilding in his native Northern Ireland and community building through bringing together residents and statutory agencies for meaningful dialogue on decisions that will impact on the community. In 2010 Jim developed NetCare Restorative Parenting Programme which helps parents respond effectively to conflict and is now the largest restorative parenting programme in the UK and Ireland.
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Chris Straker
United Kingdom
Chris was a teacher for thirty years, and was the Head Teacher at Endeavour High School, balancing his time between school and the Hull Centre for Restorative Practice. From 1 January 2022 he has worked independently of the Hull Centre to allow him to work more effectively outside of the Hull boundary. He trains and offer consultancy to all agencies working with young people, families and communities across the UK, including developing restorative practice in Approved Premises; and restorative work in prisons. Recently he has drawn on his experience to develop training in restorative approaches to leadership within schools, and across agencies in children’s services. He has also worked with these agencies on strategic, city-wide, implementation. Chris has been a speaker at national conferences across the UK; and internationally in the USA, Canada, Australia and Hungary, and wrote the Comennius grant for Hull to develop restorative practice in Palma, Majorca, in 2012. In the May of 2013 Chris was asked to become one of ten Assessors and Consultants for the Restorative Justice Council’s new Restorative Services Quality Mark award. As a result of his MA, completed in November 2014, he has started to develop work reviewing the restorative journey of organisations and Local Authorities. Since September 2015 he has been one of eight people selected by the RJC to be part of an ‘expert’ panel to advise and devise policy and practice in restorative work across the UK. Finally, working in conjunction with the organisation, Restorative Thinking Ltd, he has written a book and resources, for the development of restorative thinking in students and teachers in secondary schools which was published in the spring of 2014.. He has also been published in the RJC’s ‘Resolution Magazine’. Chris is a Director of Restorative Thinking Ltd.
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Margaret Thorsborne
Queensland, Australia
Marg is a co-founder and founding member of RPI. Starting out as a biology teacher, Marg came to restorative justice through her work as a school counsellor.
Now a published author and recognised expert in the field of RP in schools and workplaces, she works across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA. Her interests lie in organisational culture change and developing emotionally healthy workplaces. Marg is based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
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Maurizio Vespa - Secretary
New South Wales, Australia![mV]()
Maurizio, has a solid background in Education with thirty years of experience in this profession as well as counselling and mediation expertise. He is a highly skilled facilitator and presenter of student and adult workshops. He has been a presenter at national and international conferences on Restorative Practices. He has coordinated and facilitated Restorative conferencing and mediation services for schools and organisations whilst working in a managerial role for Marist Youth Care (MYC). He played a significant role in the introduction and growth of Restorative practices in schools on behalf of MYC and he continues this ongoing commitment to their work today. Maurizio is the author of “Teach them a lesson… or help them to Learn” The Australian Educational Leader Vol 28 No1, 2006 and currently works as Director of Restorative Wellbeing and Day Program Manager for Rosemount. Maurizio holds a Masters in Education (ACU), a Graduate Diploma in Counselling (Institute of Counselling Sydney), Mediation Certificate with Relationships Australia and Triple P Parenting facilitator (University of Queensland) and a professional member of Restorative Practices International, Mindmatters and Headspace training as well as Adolescent Trauma training.