Nicola Atwool

Associate Professor, Social and Community Work - University of Otago
OYWT Board Member

Nicola Atwool is an Associate Professor in the Social and Community Work department at the University of Otago and an OYWT Board Member. She returned to academia at the beginning of 2012 having spent six years as a Principal Advisor in the Office of the Children's Commissioner. She previously worked at the University of Otago as a lecturer and senior lecturer in the social work programme from 1994 to 2005.

Nicola has professional qualifications in social work and child and adolescent psychotherapy and was employed in a variety of roles by what is now Oranga Tamariki for nearly twenty years before taking up an academic position. Her research interests include the social construction of childhood and adolescence, attachment theory, resilience, the impact of trauma on children and young people, the experience of children in care and social work intervention with children, young people and their families. Nicola is committed to bridging the worlds of academia, policy and practice.

Kathryn Berkett

www.engagetraining.co.nz

The session will be delivered by Kathryn Berkett of ENGAGE.

Kathryn has her Masters in Educational Psychology, and has certified as a Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics practitioner with Dr Perry. Kathryn has extensive experience in understanding how trauma can impact on development. She has worked and trained, nationally and internationally, on the subject of neuroscience for over twenty years, delivering to a variety of organisations including: the Police; Oranga Tamariki; Teachers; Corrections; Parents; Recreation Groups; Mental Health Professionals; NZ Rugby; and Corporates.

Kathryn also has a TEDx talk titled ‘Neuroscience of Device Zombies’ that you can watch here.

His Honour Judge John Walker

Principal Youth Court Judge for New Zealand
Kaiwhakawā Matua o te Kōti Taiohi

His Honour Judge John Walker was appointed to the role of Principal Youth Court Judge for New Zealand in 2016.

Born in Belfast, Ireland, Judge Walker graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington. He was admitted to the bar in 1976 and practised with Macalister Mazengarb and then as a barrister at Harbour Chambers until appointment to the District Court Bench in 1994.

Judge Walker has been instrumental in the development of court assisted interventions for alcohol and other drug dependency, including the establishment of the Youth Drug Court in Christchurch and the Adult Drug Courts in Auckland. During his time as Resident Judge for the Porirua District Court, Judge Walker encouraged better engagement between the Court and the community, mainstreaming the community justice centre model and developing a solution focused judging approach.

In recent years, Judge Walker has been leading the development of District Court responses to Family Violence. A focus for Judge Walker is the implementation of Young Adult List pilot, a court for 18-25 year olds taking Youth Court approaches into the Adult Court, in Porirua, which has recently begun.

Judge Walker is engaged in the education of judges through the Institute of Judicial Studies on a number of subjects, including the use of the court processes to encourage offender engagement in programmes addressing the underlying causes of offending, Family Violence, and judicial leadership.