Contributor Bios
Rachelle Coe
Team Leader | Fairfield Office
(02) 9646 6555
rachelle.coe@health.nsw.gov.au
Rachelle Coe is the Team Leader of the STARTTS School Liaison Team. Her role is to build the capacity of schools to support their students and families with refugee experience, with the aim of improving students’ school environment and overall participation in learning. This work involves training, consultation, service co-ordination, community development and facilitation of networks of schools that support refugees alongside individual and group work. Rachelle has particular interests in the use of movement and play opportunities as interventions for students who have experienced trauma. She is also interested in the interaction of refugee experiences, impact of trauma on development and participation and issues of disability.
Rachelle has undergraduate and master’s degrees in occupational therapy. She has experience working in the areas of school based occupational therapy, paediatrics and childhood disability in Australia, UK and Singapore. Throughout her career, she has held varied roles as clinician, educator, consultant, researcher and project officer. She is involved in OT Australia as a representative on the Witness Intermediary Registration Panel and as a co-facilitator of the Resettlement Special Interest Group within OT Australia.
Rafik Tanious
Trainer
(02) 9646 6555
rafik.tanious@health.nsw.gov.au
Rafik is an education and mental-health professional who specialises in addressing issues of support, inclusion and inter-cultural learning and their therapeutic impacts on learners with refugee experience in the education and settlement ecology.
Rafik brings over 25 years of direct experience working locally and internationally in the roles of educator, counsellor, and welfare worker with culturally and linguistically diverse communities with experiences of voluntary and forced migration to his role as School Liaison Counsellor-Project Worker, Regional and Rural NSW at STARTTS.
Rafik is familiar with the range of roles assigned to educators alongside the core teaching and learning tasks and the challenges of working independently with up to 25 nervous systems in a classroom situation and the impact this can have on a teachers capacity and efficacy. He is interested in supporting teacher capacity and wellbeing and by extension levelling greater support for learners with refugee experience and their needs.
Nicole Loehr
School Liaison Officer | Liverpool Office
(02) 9646 6666
nicole.loehr@health.nsw.gov.au
Nicole Loehr is a School Liaison Officer at STARTTS. Since 2007 she has worked in range of community development, clinical and out-of-home care settings with children and young people. Nicole draws on art, play, sand tray and narrative-based practices in her clinical work and enjoys supporting school staff to build their knowledge and confidence in working effectively with students with a refugee experience. Nicole holds a PhD in Social Science from Flinders University, a Master of Counselling from Monash University, a Bachelor of Science (Honours) and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment.
Maria Ha
School Liaison Officer | Auburn Office
(02) 9646 6666
maria.ha@health.nsw.gov.au
Maria Ha is a STARTTS School Liaison Officer, who co-facilitates the Community of Refugee Educators (CORE) North-West Sydney Network and coordinates The Wellbeing Hub for children and families of refugee experience in Sydney’s Fairfield Community, alongside regional facilitation of STARTTS’ School Liaison Program.
A strong advocator of social change making, intercultural empathy and multiple belonging, Maria’s background as a community development specialist and social entrepreneur, intertwines her work and passions with the voices of families and communities of refugee trauma. She has worked extensively with CALD families, within school settings and outside of school communities, to cultivate and transform communities of social capital. Maria co-designed multiple arts-based community development projects including Song of Peace – From Australia to Mesopotamia to acknowledge the resilience of and to foster the social inclusion of children and families.
Maria holds a Bachelor of Business (International Business) alongside postgraduate qualifications in Special Education and Social Entrepreneurship.
Shaun Némorin
Direct Services Counsellor | Liverpool Office
(02) 9646 6700
shaun.nemorin@health.nsw.gov.au
Shaun Némorin is a community development practitioner and psychotherapist with experience in complex emergency settings. He is currently the Team Leader of the School Liaison Program (SLP) at the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS). Established in 2017, the SLP was designed to better equip schools to better meet the psychosocial needs of learners with refugee experiences.
Prior to working for STARTTS, Shaun served internationally with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Over the best part of a decade he was posted to the People’s Republic of China, The Northern Mali border with Burkina Faso, Nepal, the Bangladesh and Myanmar border during the Rohingya crisis, and the Great Lakes operation with refugees from Eastern Congo in Burundi. He has also worked alongside remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.
Shaun has conducted workshops nationally and internationally on topics such as vicarious trauma amongst humanitarian practitioners, asset based community development and community based interventions for the recovery of trauma in contexts of mass displacement. His research into these topics has been published in various academic journals.
Shaun holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, a Masters in Social Work and has further Post Graduate Qualifications in Peace studies and Refugee Law.
Claire Phillips
Child & Adolescent Counsellor | Liverpool Office
(02) 8778 2000
claire.phillips@health.nsw.gov.au
Claire is a Social Worker with over 9 years’ experience of working in the asylum seeker, refugee and resettlement sector. Her career has spanned both micro and meso levels of practice, beginning with frontline work in crisis accommodation for women and children escaping domestic violence and case management with asylum seekers; and moving into community development with schools and refugee communities.
Claire was a part of the STARTTS School Liaison Team in 2017 – 2020, and now works as a Child and Adolescent Counsellor with STARTTS in the Liverpool LGA. She enjoys working with children and young people and collaborating with families, schools and communities to build supportive and inclusive environments.
Sarah Bailey
School Liaison Officer | Liverpool Office
(02) 8778 2000
Sarah.Bailey1@health.nsw.gov.au
Sarah is a Social Worker, who has worked at STARTTS since 2016. Sarah worked as a School Liaison Officer previously from 2016-2018 and now has rejoined the team as the School Liaison Officer supporting the Liverpool Region. Sarah has additionally worked with Bicultural Facilitators and families in the FICT program and with community leaders and families in the CICT program. Additionally she has taught pre-kindergarten in the US, and has worked as a primary school counsellor in the Catholic school system. Sarah is passionate about working with children, young people, families, and schools to build and strengthen support networks, empower via psychoeducation, and foster resilience to promote trauma recovery.
Sarah holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work, a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and teaching credentials in two US states.
