SHARC Management

Sarah Etter is the Manager of Residential Peer Programs. Full bio coming soon!

Jen Riley is the Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Manager at the Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC). She leads the Australian IPS Hub and works alongside the peer workforce to strengthen and expand IPS practice across Australia. Jen has lived experience of mental health challenges, which informs her commitment to mutual, relational ways of working and supporting organisations to embed lived and living experience leadership.

Jen has worked in the community health, mental health and AOD sectors for more than 25 years and has held senior leadership roles across strategy, evaluation and service design. She has served on the boards of Windana and Eating Disorders Victoria, and previously ran her own consultancy focused on systems change and community-led practice.

Jen holds qualifications in social policy, community development and evaluation. She lives in Bayside with her wife and two children.

Emer brings 30 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector to her role as APSU Manager at SHARC including as a campaigner, policy advisor, fundraiser and project lead in Australia and overseas.

She has worked on diverse issues and projects in health, disability, education, labour rights and corporate responsibility. Emer studied Community Development and tackles all projects through a lens of collective action. inclusion, social justice, human rights, and empowerment.

She combines these broader skills and experiences with her own lived experience as a supporter. Emer is passionate about working with individuals and communities to ensure lived experience drives service and system change.

Catherine is an NFP finance professional with credentials from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and the Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) Australia. With a robust career as a CFO in the not-for-profit sector, she has consistently demonstrated her expertise in implementing advanced financial systems and improving processes, significantly transforming financial and shared service operations. Her leadership in executing projects has led to notable cost savings and business process enhancements, establishing her as a key driver of financial efficiency and innovation.  Catherine’s professional experience spans several significant roles, including her role as CFO for TaskForce Community Agency and Bayley House, where she managed financial and IT operations.

Andrew is the Manager, Organisational Support and Development.

Andrew has a Bachelor of Business (Human Resources/Industrial Relations) and is a Fellow of the Institute of Management and Leaders, and is a Certified Member of the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI).

He has worked in human resources environments in public health and not-for-profit organisations for more than 20 years.

Clare Davies is the CEO of Self Help Addiction Resource Centre (SHARC). SHARC is a peer-led organisation that has co-produced programs to support people impacted by alcohol and other drugs, and more recently, gambling. Although the influence of lived experience is increasingly recognised in Australia, SHARC has been promoting and advocating for lived experience through services, programs and policies for more than 25 years. Clare joined SHARC in 2022 having held leadership positions in the non-profit sector for over 15 years. Clare’s work is informed by her own lived experience as well as qualifications in social work, governance, psychology and AOD work. Clare is a Churchill Fellow and Harvard Club of Victoria Non-profit Fellow and she is the current Vice President of VAADA.

Matthew, as Manager of Lived Experience Workforce & Advocacy, leads the Association of Participating Service Users (APSU) and Peer Projects – reflecting the continuum of lived and living experience from consumer engagement to professional roles. This includes driving the consolidation and expansion of the lived/living experience workforce in the AOD sector, ensuring the consumer voice is engaged and represented in the design and delivery of AOD services and working to evolve the broader community’s awareness and understanding of people who use AOD services. Matthew has over 30 years’ experience in program/project leadership and training across a number of sectors. Having worked at SHARC for the last five years, he has combined these broader skills and experience with his owned lived experience. He’s passionate about engaging with and serving AOD service consumers and their families/loved ones, and developing lived experience as a fundamental skillset in all relevant areas within sector organisations.

Rob has been working in the human services field for over twenty years across a number of fields including alcohol and other drugs, men’s behaviour change and family violence, couple and family work, community health, brain injury, and acute and ambulatory services.  His qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Social Work in Management and Human Services, Master of Counselling, Graduate Certificate in Family Therapy, Certificate IV in Alcohol and Other Drugs and Certificate IV in Work Place Training.  He has also been involved in research projects with Beyond Blue, Deakin University and ARBIAS.