Below are some of our educators.
Tobias Kenny
Kai Tahu, Te Āti Awa
Tobias (he/him/ia) is a takatāpui person who has 8 years of experience in rainbow community work, and 4 within mental health peer support spaces. Tobias has been facilitating since 2019, mostly in education kaupapa and youth development spaces. When not working or studying Kaitiakitanga (Māori Resource Management) and Anthropology at Victoria University, he can usually be found playing DND , designing his own TTRPG s, or obsessing over wetlands.
Clarissa Chandrahasen
Clarissa (she/her) has been an educator with World of Difference since 2018 as well as working as a lived experience adviser in the mental health sector. She is also an actor, writer, comedian and theatre-maker. She debuted her award-winning solo show Committed at the NZ Fringe Festival in 2018, where she shared her story of her experience in the New Zealand mental health system. She also regularly performs in the Wellington stand-up comedy scene.
Andrea Heffernan
Andrea (she/her) is particularly passionate about how we can craft our Lived Experience stories for personal empowerment and social impact. Andrea's background is in communications, but until recently has led and facilitated Rākau Roroa, a Lived Experience mental health training programme for Changing Minds. Living in Redcliffs, Ōtautahi Christchurch, Andrea can be regularly spotted with Roxy the Spoodle, striding the coastal pathway or along Sumner Beach. Andrea is also a trustee on the board of Philipstown based, Otautahi Creative Spaces.
Meg Lyster
Meg (she/her) has been working and volunteering in the lived experience sector for both mental health and disability for the last few years. She is particularly passionate about youth voices and ensuring they are heard and valued at all levels of decision-making. She is excited to contribute to the World of Difference Kaupapa and expand making a difference in the mental health lived experience sector.
Grant Cooper
Grant (he/him) has more than 20 years’ experience working in the mental health field in a number of lived experience roles, from educator to advisor to peer support worker. He lives in Dunedin. Grant is passionate about the value that lived experience can bring to education and the importance of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’.
Serra Clark
Sarah (she/her) has been with World of Difference since 2018 and has worked within the lived experience and consumer workforce since gaining her Bachelor of Social Work in 2011. She is a member of lived experience advisory groups, and shares her experiences with students, clinicians, and services in educational settings and at conferences. Her experiences of distress and recovery, perinatal distress, and baby loss are major parts of her journey but not her whole story. She has a wonderful daughter at home and spends much of my time in nature, hiking, and travelling, and she is a photographer and jeweller.
Toni Huls
Toni (she/her) is passionate about using her lived experience to destigmatise mental distress and embrace a holistic view of mental health. Toni has a long history of involvement in the peer support community, including Rakau Rāroa, Changing Minds. She works as a Peer Worker, using art and creativity to foster connection, hope, and a sense of purpose. Toni is on the Te Wai Pounamu regional council, advocating for her community. Additionally, Toni was involved in the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, where she was involved in lived experience-based research focused on diagnostic overshadowing.