Board Of Directors

Vickie Louise is a proud Wiradjuri woman, born and raised in Griffith, NSW. She has been a Board member of ACDAN since 2022 and the Chairperson since October 2023. Vickie Louise is the Program Manager at the Griffith Aboriginal Medical Service. Her role includes co-ordinating AOD service provision to Aboriginal people across the Riverina Murray Region, as well as an Aboriginal Youth Services program in Griffith, Lake Cargelligo, and Hay.  

In addition to this, she sits on a number of other Boards, including being the Chairperson of the Griffith Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Griffith Aboriginal Community Working Party, President of the Griffith Wiradjuri Preschool, Secretary of the Marrambidya Dance Group, as well as a member of the Riverina Murray Regional Alliance.  More recently, Vickie Louise has sat on the APSAD First Nations Leadership Group and was a panel member at the 2024 NSW Drug Summit in Griffith, as well as facilitated a yarning circle with other Aboriginal Leaders and the NSW Health Minister regarding Workforce Issues in the AOD Sector.  

Vickie Louise is passionate about her community and seeing positive changes to assist in healing through community engagement processes and the facilitation of Women’s groups, Youth Cultural Camps, and the organisation of events such as NAIDOC Week activities, Survival Day, National Sorry Day, Reconciliation Week, and other significant dates for her community.

Kurt Simpson, is a proud Gamilaraay man. He has recently rejoined the ACDAN Board of Directors. Kurt has been working in the area of alcohol and drugs for about 7 years. 
He has worked at Riverina Medical & Dental Aboriginal Corporation in Wagga Wagga where he grew up, as well as at Katungul Aboriginal Medical Service in Bega. He has also managed Yitjawudik Men’s Recovery Unit, located in Shepparton VIC. 

Kurt is passionate about his work in the area of alcohol and drugs. Prior to working in this area, he was a qualified fine dining chef, which he was pretty good at. 
However, in his life experiences and his passion, his heart was somewhere else. He saw many of his brothers and sisters struggling with alcohol and drugs. He was driven by his own successful fight with addiction of alcohol and drugs. Kurt is now sober from both, alcohol for nearly 21 years and drugs going on 16 years. He felt his personal experiences and success meant he was well placed to understand and support others who wanted to take on the challenge to overcome their addictions.

He obtained academic qualifications to support his known and lived experiences in alcohol and drugs.

He loves his work, letting others know, there is light and success at the end of the tunnel.

Being present with others when they achieve
success for themselves, is the greatest reward.

Kylie Paulson is a proud Biripi woman. Kylie was first voted in as a leadership rep for the northern region on the ADAN board in 2015 and is a current ACDAN board of directors. Kylie started working in the AOD sector in 2012 with HNELHD as a trainee AHW with the AMIHS team and went on to become an Aboriginal Health worker for the drug and alcohol sector. Kylie has been a general AHW within a LHD AOD sector and has had the opportunity to support a range of treatments teams within the service, these include; pharmacotherapy, NSP, counselling, and the intake team. Kylie had taken on the role of Aboriginal Health worker for DACS in Newcastle, moved off country to Awabakal country, and has been living there for many years. Covering a larger geographical area, Kylie works with multidisciplinary teams across AOD. Kylie has a passion for working within the sector and supports our mob who are seeking treatment. Kylie’s current role is as a Policy Officer with the Governance and Systems Team, in the Ministry of Health - Centre for Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAOD). Our  team leads the development of policies, guidelines and systems to support the delivery of AOD clinical services and program. s Kylie took up a secondment in 2022  and is still currently at the CAOD on contract. Whilst working at the MoH, Kylie has made some great contributions toward many projects, policies, and frameworks from a cultural perspective that improved outcomes for services and community.

Chad is a proud Dharug man who was raised on, and continues to live and work on, Darkinjung Country. For the past five years, he has been employed at The Glen Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Centre, he sits on the management team at The Glen for Men.

In addition to his role at The Glen, he sits on the Board of ACDAN.

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He is a strong advocate for Aboriginal people impacted by addiction—a passion deeply rooted in his own lived experience of overcoming a two-year struggle with addiction.

This experience drives his commitment to supporting others on their journey to recovery and creating culturally safe spaces for healing.

Lea-Anne Miller is a Wonnarua woman from the Hunter Valley, working on Darkinjung country. A strong advocate for Aboriginal people, she has worked with the community most of her life. She has wide ranging experience in a number of professional fields. She currently works at the Yerin – Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre, enhancing the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal people seeking support for their use of alcohol and other drugs.