Kristy McKellar is renowned in the family violence sector, both in Victoria and nationally, with an academic background ingrained in Social Science and Social Work. Kristy was named in the top 100 Women of Influence in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac 2016 Awards and further named a finalist in the 2016 Women's Agenda Leadership Awards as the Agenda Setter of the Year.
She is uniquely positioned to bring important context and insight into the debate around family violence, equality and respect as both, a professional and also as a courageous survivor of family violence. She has been able to highlight system failures and influence important decision making.
Kristy is dedicated to improving the lives of others. Her dedication for social justice has been evident in various senior managerial roles in community and government service sectors across almost two decades. She is dedicated to ensuring the family violence system works as a whole, both reliably and consistency, giving victim's rights reality in everyday practice.
Kristy’s perspectives have provided clarity to law makers and policy developers on the impacts of family violence and the system inadequacies and have successfully led to implementation of new legislation in Victoria.
Kristy has further contributed to a Victorian Parliament landmark, invited to address Members of the Legislative Assembly and Council, in a unique sitting in Parliament House and has played a significant role in the Victorian Royal Commission into family violence, further co-hosting a royal commission collaboration workshop with the Minister for Women and Prevention of Family Violence.
Kristy is the co-chair of the Victorian Royal Commission’s Victims Survivors’ Advisory Council and further is a founding member of the Victorian Royal Commission’s Social Services Taskforce with the Special Minister of State. She is a delegate to the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence Steering Committee and sits on the Women’s Health East ‘Speaking Out’ Eastern Media Advocacy Program (EMAP) Steering Committee and is the Ambassador and chair of the first Victorian local government ‘Together We Can’ Community Advisory Group.
Kristy has partnered Victoria Police in an education reform, developing a mandated family violence dynamic module e-learning package, which now educates from Superintendent ranks and below, equating to around 15,000 sworn members being trained after successfully highlighting gaps and failures in the family violence policing response.
Kristy continues to work with the corporate sector, including the Male Champions of Change nationally, educating on family violence as a workplace responsibility as well as influencing and educating sporting codes and associations, working closely with the Australian Football League and having established in partnership with the Carlton Football Club their “Carlton Respects” family violence initiative, with a focus on respect and equality.
She is a family violence and social change consultant to various organisations including Premier and Cabinet, The Australian Human Rights Commission, Victoria Police, various government and community organisations and is also a consultant to the Luke Batty Foundation.
Her work is recognised by various Commissioner’s nationally, the Victorian Attorney General and Premier, Victoria Police and the Lord Mayor of Melbourne.
