Kate Colvin joined our national homelessness peak body, Homelessness Australia as CEO in 2022. Kate is passionate about homelessness services and the policy and homelessness system reform needed to end homelessness. She chairs the national housing and homelessness campaign, Everybody’s Home and was previously Deputy CEO at the Victorian peak body for homelessness, Council to Homeless Persons.

Caroline Hood, LICSW, is a mission-driven executive leader with more than 25 years of experience at the intersection of homelessness, substance use, mental health, and justice reform. Most recently, she served as President & CEO of RS EDEN, a $29M (AUD) nonprofit in Minneapolis–St. Paul, where she led 190 staff delivering integrated housing, addiction treatment, withdrawal management, and mental health services across 18 sites.

Caroline’s leadership is anchored in evidence-informed practice and a people-centred ethos. She is widely recognised for championing innovative approaches to addiction recovery and housing, launching new models of care including Minnesota’s first fentanyl-specific withdrawal management program and expanding telehealth services to reach rural communities facing acute barriers to access. She has testified before legislative bodies, worked in coalition with local and national partners, and represented U.S. innovation on the international stage.

In 2024, she joined a global delegation to Helsinki, Finland, to examine that nation’s fully funded Housing First framework, where homelessness has been nearly eradicated. Drawing from her U.S. leadership in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Minneapolis–St. Paul, Caroline brings unique comparative insights into what works—and what doesn’t—when systems attempt to address homelessness, substance use, and co-occurring disorders.

Now based in Sydney, Caroline is dedicated to fostering systems change that ensures housing and recovery are treated as human rights. Her voice blends lived insight, executive leadership, and global perspective to inspire innovation, accountability, and lasting impact.

As Program Manager for Mission Australia’s youth homelessness service, Sam is passionate about making a difference in the lives of the Young People they support in South West Sydney. Having worked in the sector for 9 years, Sam has seen first hand the spike in homelessness in the region and the changing face of what ‘homelessness’ looks like. Sam’s work in this space is to change the stigma surrounding those that present as ‘homeless’ and to effect change by being innovative and client centered in this practice.

Dr Lucy Burgmann is Director, Strategy at Homes NSW, the NSW Government agency responsible for the non-market housing and homelessness system. Lucy leads the development of new strategies for homelessness, social housing, affordable housing and key worker housing. Her team delivered the whole-of-government NSW Homelessness Strategy in 2025, and published the first Action Plan in early 2026.

She also supports Homes NSW’s role as steward of the housing and homelessness system, and leads engagement with the Australian Government, state and local government agencies, and delivery partners including Specialist Homelessness Services, community housing providers and Aboriginal community housing providers.

Lucy has diverse experience across the public, private and not for profit sectors including over two decades in social and affordable housing and homelessness. Previous roles include: national manager of the largest community housing provider in Australia; business development for Aboriginal housing and affordable housing; leadership of the peak body for community housing providers in NSW; and development of local government housing strategies.

She loves supporting organisations and teams to make creative, strategic decisions, and to build the capability required to implement them sustainably.

Juha Kaakinen is a Professor of Practice in the faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere,  Before retiring in 2022 he was for nine years the CEO of Y-Foundation, which is the biggest nationwide NGO  providing housing for homeless people and affordable social housing with 19000 apartments. He is an experienced developer of public administration and social and health services. He has also worked as a programme leader of the national programme to end long-term homelessness, and as a researcher and a consultant. He has written over 50 articles and research reports on homelessness, housing and social services. He is internationally known as an experienced and passionate developer of innovative housing solutions to homeless people and affordable social housing.