Meet Our Team
The experienced team at EDFA is passionately driving the change for Australian families and carers impacted by an eating disorder.
Jane Rowan
Executive Director
“Starting conversations, raising awareness, and advocating for better community understanding of what families and carers are experiencing with an eating disorder present in their lives is what drives me every day.”
Jennifer Paterson
Strategic Support
“From collaboration between researchers and organisations in the eating disorder sector to the inspiration and hope at a Coffee Catch Up — supporting projects that make a difference keeps me motivated.”
Lynn Garvey
National Education Program Manager
“I love my role of sourcing eating disorder EDucation for carers and families so they have the opportunity to understand their loved one's illness in greater depth and how to support them in the best way... something I wish I’d had access to when I was so desperate for help.”
Jane is EDFA’s first Executive Director and joined the organisation in 2022. A former journalist and marketing, communications and stakeholder engagement leader, Jane and her eldest daughter, Charley, have always been deliberately open about Charley’s diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa and the effect it had on the family. She is grateful for the opportunity to support more families through EDFA and to work with the EDFA team to break down the stigma surrounding eating disorders.
A mental health advocate for the past two decades, Jane is looking forward to the day when an eating disorder diagnosis receives the same response from the community as other serious medical conditions. Jane, who has a Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, has previously worked for several private healthcare companies, including Addiction Sciences Qld where she established a face-to-face support group for parents and carers of those living with substance dependency.
She sits on two non-profit Boards and is passionate about serving the community and living a life of purpose. Mentoring and supporting the EDFA team is a main focus of her role and she is grateful for the opportunity to work with such an incredible and inspiring group of people.
Jane describes herself as a lifelong learner so in her free time, you will often find her studying or reading. If she’s not doing that, she will be in the garden with her rescue dog, cat, and hens or cooking meals for the week for her family of six. A self-proclaimed musical theatre tragic, one of her favourite treats is a night out at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane, where she is based.
Jennifer brings a passion for volunteer grassroots organisations and lived experience as a carer to her role with EDFA. With qualifications in psychology and a Masters of Public Health, Jennifer understands how important support and education is to families and carers as they support their loved ones to recovery.
With Jennifer’s daughter now in recovery from Anorexia Nervosa in 2019, Jennifer is focused on using her lived experience to connect with other carers and contribute to increasing access to EDFA’s services. She enjoys learning about best practices to support non-profit organisations and enabling research that will make a difference to treatment practice and access. She has a long-term goal, one that EDFA supports, to develop a cookbook for carers with user friendly, helpful suggestions to assist with the crucial role of refeeding.
In her free time, Jennifer is a keen wakeboarder and loves walking her two whippets. Based in Perth, she and her husband enjoy taking their three children to spend quality family time at their shack in Western Australia’s south-west region.
Lynn has been with EDFA from the beginning. One of a group of parents who recognised the lack of support for families of those with eating disorders, Lynn helped to establish EDFA in 2016 through an initial monthly, in-person support group for carers in Flemington, Victoria. Carers were soon driving for as long as four hours to attend those meetings!
Lynn’s experience as a parent of a child with an eating disorder will resonate with all: she was terrified that she was going to lose her daughter and she felt very alone and out of her depth. She adds that lived experience to the extensive knowledge she has gained though her own self-education to her role. Lynn has worked with wonderful volunteer Merril Bohn to develop a webinar library of more than 160 hours of valuable content from professional and lived experience Australian and international eating disorder experts.
Always thinking about ways to improve EDFA’s available resources, Lynn’s goal is to make sure families and carers don’t feel alone, unsupported or unaware of what’s available to them through the toughest time of their lives.
In her spare time, Lynn is an avid tennis player and loves spending time with her husband and four children at home in Melbourne or elsewhere. Now that the world has opened up again following the pandemic, Lynn would love to see a bit more of it!
Alex Kisilevich
National Support Program Manager
“I love being able to support carers, who are often forgotten, and yet so central to their loved one’s recovery.”
Penny Scarce
Support Program Administrator
“I know, first hand, the impact eating disorders have on the entire family and friendship unit and therefore, I feel motivated and inspired by the work EDFA is doing for carers within the community.”
Sallie Egglestone
Support Program Lead Facilitator and Moderator
“My journey with my daughter with an eating disorder came out of left field. I had to teach myself how to heal her and my family with few resources. What I learnt I felt I needed to share.”
Alex began her journey with EDFA in a volunteer capacity after completing her Masters of Public Health. She was looking for a fulfilling role in an organisation working towards improving community health. She says what she encountered at EDFA was incredible parents looking to do their best in caring for their child. Their positivity and generosity in helping other families and carers continues to inspire Alex, who has been with EDFA since 2020.
In her current role, Alex, who also holds a Bachelor of Social Science, is responsible for EDFA’s support groups and Facebook forum and she is constantly in awe of the strength she sees in the carer community. She says her dream has always been to become a Program Manager and she cannot imagine a better place to work.
Based in Melbourne, Alex’s young daughter and husband take up much of her free time, but she has long-term goals of returning to a life of reading and running.
EDFA is incredibly grateful to have someone with Penny’s intelligence and insight working to provide administrative assistance to the smooth operation of our Support Program. Penny’s Honours Degree in Psychology, where she researched the role of self compassion in mediating the relationship between perfectionism and weight-restrictive eating and compulsive exercise, and her own lived experience of anorexia nervosa mean she is uniquely placed as a source of knowledge for the EDFA Support Program. Penny also witnessed her older sibling’s eating disorder while a child.
As a former elite dancer who developed an eating disorder from her ballet pursuits, Penny wanted to give back to her community, and spent her third year of university studies volunteering at a “drop in” mental health service for students. She also volunteered with Eating Disorders Victoria on their helpline. Based in Melbourne, Penny continues to work for RMIT on an ad hoc basis in casual academic roles after working there as a clinical assistance after graduation.
Penny is now focussed on leading a balanced life. She says she finds fulfilment in serving the community as she loves to help people. A particular aspiration of hers is to reduce the stigma associated with eating disorders and she wishes to use her sociological studies to highlight that society’s dieting and body ideals are not conducive to a healthy life.
When she is not busy planning and organising EDFA’s Support Groups, Penny can be found composing music, swimming in the ocean, scoping out local food and wine spots with my loved ones, attending music and art shows. She is a proud and devoted aunt to her nieces and nephews.
Sallie’s background as a naturopath and mindfulness meditation teacher combined with her lived experience enable her to guide other carers on the eating disorder recovery journey with empathy and deep understanding.
A strong belief that community is key drives Melbourne-based Sallie’s interactions in EDFA support groups and in mentoring other EDFA facilitators and moderators. Sallie, who holds a Bachelor of Applied Sciences, says it is a privilege to be a part of everyone’s journey and to witness the vulnerability, pain, and heartbreak as well as the resilience, love, and kindness that inevitably accompanies those journeys.
Sallie’s vision is to bring carers together to champion each other, to share in their triumphs, and create a national community of hope, whilst raising awareness of what these carers can and have achieved. She believes eating disorders and the impact they have on families should be visible and everyone’s business.
Swimming in the ocean, reading a book with a pot of tea, and sharing a beautiful home-cooked meal and a glass of pinot with family and friends is what a perfect day looks like for Sallie. Of course, her favourite music would be playing in the background and her dog and cat would be at her feet.
Jess Schulz
Marketing & Communications
“I feel privileged that my skills can help ensure parents and carers feel heard, understood, and can trust the information that EDFA is sharing.”
Ruby Garvey
Social Media Coordinator
“My role gives me the opportunity to be a voice for those on the inside with an eating disorder, and for that I am so thankful.”
Jess joined EDFA in 2023, taking on responsibility for the organisation’s efforts to increase awareness and understanding of how eating disorders can impact the entire family and ensuring families and carers know where to turn for help and support.
A qualified graphic designer who also holds a Bachelor of Communications and Media, Jess has worked across multiple not-for-profit organisations since 2013 and she enjoys the challenge of helping to raise awareness and create social change through online engagement and community campaigns.
She joined EDFA because she felt an affiliation with her own personal journey with lived experience charity Still Aware. Her own experience meant she has developed a passion for giving families a voice and in doing so, helping to increase awareness of subjects like stillbirth and eating disorders that remain taboo in many ways. She understands that families and carers need more support and attention from the wider community.
Motivating Jess always is a desire to live a life with purpose and to undertake work that is helping to create a safer and better world for her children. Jess, who is based in Adelaide, also harbours a goal of learning the guitar one day.
Jess’ spare time is devoted to her three daughters and their puppy, their dance lessons, their school sports and slowly renovating a seaside house with her husband. She and her family also love packing a tent for a trip to their favourite holiday spots along South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.
Ruby joined the EDFA team in 2020, bringing her creative energies and artistic talent to her role. As someone with lived experience of an eating disorder, Ruby adds a valuable perspective and depth to EDFA’s social media activities. Currently completing a Bachelor of Primary Education, Ruby also has a passion for working with neuro-divergent children and those experiencing trauma and hardship. She has volunteered with vulnerable, primary school children. Her goal is to take this passion forward into her future career.
Ruby enjoys being creative, both professionally and in her free time. She finds it rewarding to be a part of a team that is filled with passion and motivation to help families, carers and their loved ones who are experiencing eating disorders.
If she’s not creating art or writing in her spare time, Ruby will be found at a beach in Victoria with her friends or doing yoga.