About Minds en Place

CO-FOUNDER

Rushani Epa (she/her) is the founder and editor of Colournary Magazine and a Sri Lankan Woman of Colour. She is also a consultant, public speaker and freelance food journalist and has penned pieces for some of Australia's leading publications, including Gourmet Traveller, SBS Food, Time Out, The Guardian, Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, The Age’s Good Food, Sydney Morning Herald and more. She has previously worked as a publisher in food and lifestyle at Hardie Grant Books, as the food and drink editor at Time Out Melbourne, as head of marketing for the Vue Group and in countless other corporate and hospitality roles. She is passionate about diversity (in all its forms), food, hospitality and words and is striving to create safe spaces and a platform for those who are otherwise overlooked.

CO-FOUNDER

Sebastian Pasinetti (he/him) is a seasoned hospitality expert, co-founder of OKO Restaurant, OKO Rooftop & Café and OKO Catering within the Pasinetti Group and a queer Person of Colour. Sebastian is also the Head of Partnerships at Kelly's Cause Foundation, a charity that trains Mental Health First Aiders specifically in the hospitality industry across the UK and Australia. Sebastian is also an ambassador for men’s health charity, Movember, and works to help destigmatise conversations around men’s health within the hospitality and queer communities. Having worked in the industry for over 15 years in restaurants such as Chin Chin in Melbourne, Kricket in London and most recently his own restaurant group, Sebastian is dedicated to creating safe and mentally healthy environments everywhere he goes and is passionate about advocating for space for LGBTIQA+ and BIPOC individuals in hospitality.

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Carly Findlay OAM (she/her) is an award-winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. Her first book, a memoir called Say Hello, was released in January 2019. Carly edited the anthology Growing Up Disabled in Australia with Black Inc Books. She writes on disability and appearance diversity issues for news outlets including the CNN, Vogue, ABC, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and SBS. In 2022, Carly provided a testimony at the Disability Royal Commission, speaking about abuse in public spaces. In 2020, Carly Findlay received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for her work as a disability advocate and activist. Carly identifies as a proud disabled woman – she lives with a rare, severe skin condition, ichthyosis. She organised Australia’s first Ichthyosis meet in 2015 – bringing together 75 people affected by the rare, severe skin condition Ichthyosis.

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Elsa (she/they) is a queer, Jewish and Chinese woman of colour. She is an educator, facilitator, organiser and performer. She is the co-founder of Hue, an antiracism & social justice organisation that provides training and consulting to organisations. Previously she was the Director of Training at Democracy in Colour and served two terms on the board and QTIBIPOC board committee of Switchboard Victoria. She has a background in Social Work and Psychology, and recently completed her honours thesis, an autoethnography on how multiracial people from multiple minority heritages engage with their identities. In 2020 she was awarded one of Out for Australia's 30 under 30, for LGBTQIA+ role models and leaders and in 2022 she was a semifinalist for the 7NEWS Young Achievers Awards for Community Service and Social Impact. She is passionate about platforming lived experience, building community power, and healing in the process.

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Sonia (she/her) is an Indian woman of colour who combines her passion for community organising, facilitation and anti-racism campaigning to create inclusive educational experiences. Sonia was the Director of Community Organising at Democracy in Colour and established the Community Organising program in 2017. In 2020 she co-founded Hue, an organisation that provides antiracism and social justice training and consulting to organisations.

She has over ten years experience working with international and Australian social justice and human rights organisations. She is highly skilled at navigating the internal processes and structures that often restrict the dismantling of oppression in progressive spaces. Sonia believes in the power of collective organising to create change and is passionate about elevating the voices of people with lived experiences of racism and other forms of oppression.

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Archie Beetle (they/them) is the Founder and Director at Queer Town (IG: @queertown.workshops), a queer-led business delivering educational workshops and training in workplaces, schools and events across Australia, with a focus on LGBTIQA+ inclusion and allyship. Some of Queer Town’s clients include: The Australian Ballet, Federation Square and the messaging app, Slack.

During their career, Archie has led the establishment of LGBTIQA+ advisory boards and working groups at a number of Victorian institutions, including: Melbourne Museum, The Immigration Museum and Scienceworks, and has served as a board member at Proud2Play, a not-for-profit increasing LGBTIQA+ engagement in sport and exercise.

Archie's mission is to empower LGBTIQA+ people to live authentically and to equip allies with the tools they need in order to support in this process.

WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Jamie Alexandra Bucirde (she/her) is currently studying her Sexology Degree, and is passionate about normalising conversations on critical thinking, the culture of sexuality and how to enforce positive social change. She has an extremely unique and diverse skill set working within multiple industries throughout her career including Marketing and Public Relations, Hospitality, Events and Festivals, The Arts, Radio, Sexuality Education and most recently as Growth Manager for a non for profit organisation that teaches consent to young people across Australia. Jamie also founded Not So Hospitable, a grassroots movement that highlights the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault within the Adelaide Hospitality Industry. Within 3 months, Jamie collected 400 testimonies of peoples’ experiences of sexual violence within the industry, and is now working with the University of Melbourne to turn her data into an academic case study.

Kelly’s Cause is the leading provider of Mental Health First Aid training and mental health services to the hospitality industry in the UK. Co-founder of Minds en Place, Sebastian Pasinetti, is Head of Partnerships of Kelly’s Cause and is responsible for bringing the organisation to Australia.

Hue Consulting was founded in 2020 by two women of colour - Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg and Sonia Sofat. They upskill and empower those seeking to learn about and challenge systems of oppression to create safer workplaces and social change.

Not So Hospitable is a grassroots hospitality movement highlighting the prevalence of sexual assault, sexual harassment and bullying that fosters a toxic workplace culture within the Adelaide Hospitality community and beyond. Thus far, we have received over 400 testimonies, and are working towards turning this data into accessible research to be used in legislative reform to support the safety of women and hospitality workers. Over time we also hope to gauge a quantitative understanding of the numbers of incidents occurring within this industry. We believe our stories have the collective power to drive change. Together we can help eradicate practices that enable a dangerous breeding ground of sexual assault, protect hospitality workers across Adelaide and Australia and help foster an industry culture that cultivates safety, respect and education. We believe that accessible trainings, conversations, access to resources and legislative reform are the key drivers in changing the culture of Australian Hospitality.

Since being founded in 2018, Queer Town’s LGBTIQA+ inclusivity workshops have reached thousands of Australians in workplaces, schools and events across the country. Queer Town’s mission is to ensure that LGBTIQA+ Australians can focus on their work when they’re on the job and enjoy the experience when they’re at events - without feeling out of place, unwelcome or discriminated against. These highly engaging workshops are built upon Australian research and we use a strengths-based learning framework to ensure participants can engage with the content in a safe, productive and judgement-free environment.