Our staff

Having studied creative arts, cinema and theology, Domenique brings a creative perspective to the industry. She’s been involved in frontline volunteering in a range of areas, including working with people affected by homelessness and people experiencing mental health issues.

Domenique has been with FCA since 2017 and was previously the Director of Development. She has represented FCA in many external forums on a variety of policy issues, and most recently directed the FCA’s annual conferences. She has been involved in projects to further professionalize the sector, working in areas including training, professional development and contributing to a workforce development plan.

She led a number of key initiatives during the pandemic to address workforce issues, including the intern project and the development of an online simulated placement (Steps). She shares leadership of FCA with co-CEO Peter Gartlan.

Domenique finds it rewarding to be part of a small, but dedicated team that shares a great sense of collegiality and purpose while achieving meaningful results.

Peter has been working with FCA since 2020, leading the financial counselling sector’s response to disasters. He has been part of the sector for many years, including time as the Executive Officer at Financial Counselling Victoria.

Peter has also been involved with Knowmore Legal Service on the National Redress Scheme for survivors of institutional child sexual abuse. Peter also undertook project roles with the Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network, YFS Logan City and Anglicare East Arnhem.

Peter was a director of the Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria (EWOV) and former Independent Chair of the Consumer Advisory Panel at Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). He shares Leadership of FCA with co-CEO DR Domenique Meyrick.

Rebekah joined FCA in 2024 as Director of Policy and Campaigns, bringing extensive experience as a policy strategist and consumer advocate. She has fought for systemic change across financial services, telecommunications, dispute resolution, scam prevention, and consumer law.

As Director of Policy and Campaigns, Rebekah works with a small but mighty team to build a fairer marketplace and address the causes of financial hardship in Australia. She believes that good regulation and co-design are key to making markets and systems work for people.

Rebekah previously served as Policy Manager at Super Consumers Australia. She holds a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in Political Economy and Social Policy and a Master of Public Policy from Macquarie University. Rebekah is also an Australian Progress Fellow and a graduate of the Consumers’ Federation of Australia 2021 Mentoring Program.

Rita has worked in the community sector for more than 15 years, including five years managing financial counselling, employment and child support programs. She has also been a member of the Consumer Utility Advocacy Centre Reference Group and United Energy’s Customer Consultative Committee.

Rita joined the team as Business Services Wage Assessment Tool (BSWAT) Payment Scheme Project Manager in 2015. She manages data reporting for the  National Debt Helpline, supports the Financial Counselling Foundation and coordinates the Day in the Life project, that arranges for federal politicians to visit a financial counselling service to gain a better understanding of the work of financial counsellors and the issues faced by their clients.

Rita finds her work meaningful and rewarding because financial counselling makes a positive difference to people’s lives and is proud to be part of a great team at FCA.

Lynda is a descendant of the Wangkumara people of far west NSW and is a passionate advocate for financial inclusion, fairness and financial resilience for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across Australia.

After spending more than a decade in the finance sector, Lynda joined the consumer advocacy movement. As program manager at CentaCare Wilcannia-Forbes, she was involved with a number of projects that delivered financial literacy and awareness. She also advocated for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, including in the Do Not Knock campaign and superannuation and funeral insurance products.

Lynda has completed the Diploma of Financial Counselling and has been involved with consultation groups around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander financial literacy, the Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council, Indigenous Financial Services Network, Indigenous Financial Resilience Research Project with First Nations Foundation, Australian Council for International Development and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Financial Literacy Forum, which is now in its 10th year.

Jenny has been working with Financial Counselling Australia on a range of strategic projects since late 2018, particularly those aimed at building the capacity and capability of the financial counselling sector and in ensuring it is adequately funded on a sustainable basis.

Jenny has had a long career in senior executive roles in Commonwealth and State public sector agencies and at the Financial Ombudsman Service. She has deep experience as a strategy and commercial senior executive having led and implemented significant funding, organisational structure, workforce planning and policy and governance reviews across a range of organisations.

Vanessa is an energetic and skilled evaluator, facilitator and trainer with over 16 years’ experience in a range of contexts. With qualifications in Science, Vanessa has led a range of organisational and community behaviour change programs in sustainability and agriculture.  Vanessa was the Evaluation Lead at Sustainability Victoria and is a Director with Roooftop Social, where she works to help people use evidence to plan their work and measure their impact.

Vanessa has a demonstrated track record in building individual and organisational capability for evaluative thinking, integrating training, coaching and mentoring with structural system-level changes to help establish evaluation and outcome-focussed approaches. Vanessa joined FCA in 2016 to assist with project evaluation and strategic planning.

She is passionate about working with people and is known for her use of participatory approaches and creative group facilitation techniques to embed learning and adoption of new ideas.

Maura joined Financial Counselling Australia in April 2020 as the Director of Communications for the National Debt Helpline. She is also responsible for communications and media for FCA.

Maura’s aim is to raise the profile of financial counselling in Australia and central to this is making it easier for those in financial hardship to find a financial counsellor so they can get back on track. 

Maura has almost 30 years experience in media and communications. For the past nine years she managed her own media training and communications business. Maura has managed some key national campaigns as well as media and communications planning, development and strategy for Government and private organisations. She has  also trained executives and spokespeople from a wide range of national organisations in how to talk to media. Maura has worked in newsrooms across Australia and overseas. She is a former chief-of-staff for ABC in Melbourne and senior radio producer with 774. 

Lody is a seasoned financial counsellor with a wealth of experience as a consumer advocate and strong commitment to supporting vulnerable clients.

She leads FCA’s strata levy payment difficulty reform project, the open banking pilot project, and writes content for the Financial Counselling Sector Toolkit and National Debt Helpline website. Lody is also the consumer representative on the Banking Code Compliance Committee.

Lody has previously worked as a financial counsellor with Financial Rights Legal Centre, Women’s Legal Service NSW, and at the Small Business Debt Helpline. Before that, Lody held senior roles in the investment, insurance, and financial services sector for more than 25 years.

She holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting), a Diploma of Financial Counselling and Financial Counselling Accreditation.

Deb is an experienced financial counsellor and consumer advocate who is dedicated to not only assisting people experiencing financial difficulty, but improving the systems hindering their recovery.

Deb actively engages with industry and government entities to address systemic issues and ensure improved outcomes for financial counsellors and their clients.

She mentors work placement students studying to become financial counsellors through the STEPS program. Deb has previously worked as a financial counsellor for the National Debt Helpline and Care Financial Counselling in Canberra.

Prior to her career in financial counselling, Deb held senior level positions as a commercial accountant.

Louise Hayes is a financial counsellor and FCA’s National Coordinator for Disaster Recovery. Louise has a background in disaster-related financial counselling, working with clients impacted by flood, fire and cyclones. Louise has also been significantly impacted by a natural disaster, which gives her unique insight into this sector.

Louise has a Bachelor of Arts in economics and social policy and administration, and has worked in a variety of industries including commercial banking, insurance recruitment and manufacturing. Louise was previously Australia’s Young Banker of the Year.

In her spare time, Louise volunteers as the Treasurer for the Centre Against Sexual Violence, an organisation which provides free counselling to women and girls as young as twelve who have experienced sexual assault.

Vicki Staff is a former financial counsellor from Queensland and FCA’s Coordinator for the National Debt Helpline. She is also a co-Lead for the sector’s Practice Standards Project.

Vicki has a degree in accounting and worked in the self-managed super fund sector for twelve years before taking up a teaching position in China, where she taught accounting to senior high school students for the better part of a decade.

In her spare time, Vicki volunteers as the Chairperson for the Centre Against Sexual Violence, an organisation which provides free counselling to women and girls as young as twelve who have experienced sexual assault. She was invited to take up this role following her financial counselling work with survivors of institutional child sexual abuse.

Lina is FCA’s Gambling Sector Support Coordinator. She has worked in the community sector for more than 15 years, including seven years managing tenancy at risk support, rent subsidy and maintenance recovery projects in the social housing industry.

With another seven years of experience as a specialist gambling financial counsellor and the current convener for Gambling Issues Network in Victora, Lina is passionate about connecting with financial counsellors across the nation to share information, knowledge and support to fight for reduced financial hardship.

Jill has extensive experience in the accounting and finance sector, having worked as a chartered accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and also having contracted for the Australian Tax Office, Australian Grand Prix and many others. She also worked at the Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman (now the Australian Financial Complaints Authority) for 17 years.

Since starting with FCA at the beginning of 2017, she has been responsible for all of the organisation’s accounting and finance, including payroll, reporting and bookkeeping. Jill enjoys being a part of the lovely team environment and rewarding work of the organisation.

Kate has worked with FCA since 2020 as the coordinator of the STEPS program and brings 13 years experience as a financial counsellor.

Kate was drawn to financial counselling when she was living in Alice Springs and witnessed the injustices people were facing. Kate travelled extensively around Alice Springs providing financial counselling services to very remote First Nations communities.

She has experience working in problem gambling and loves that no two clients are the same when it comes to the work. Kate now works from Western Australia and is passionate about the quality experience students can have as part of the STEPS program.

Georgia first joined FCA in 2020, to help organise the annual conference. That conference was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic but Georgia stayed at FCA for several years, working as a communications advisor.

Georgia has also worked as a journalist for the ABC, based in Melbourne and Gippsland. She filed stories across radio, television and online platforms. Georgia was a finalist at the Rural Press Club of Victoria Awards in 2023 and 2024.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Global Media Communication from the University of Melbourne.