The Board of Directors

Eleanore (she/her) is an experienced lawyer and Churchill Fellow whose career has focussed on empowering, supporting and protecting the rights of people with cognitive and psychosocial disability, particularly in closed environments. She worked at Victoria Legal Aid for 15 years, predominantly in the Mental Health & Disability Law team, before becoming the principal solicitor at the Office of the Public Advocate in 2021. Eleanore currently works at Justice Health, helping to drive service improvements that improve health outcomes for people in prison. In 2025, she was appointed as a sessional legal member of the Victorian Mental Health Tribunal.

Over the last two decades, she has engaged in innovative, rights-based strategic advocacy, law reform and education projects, presented at local and international conferences, and has also published some work. Eleanore values lived experience and enjoys working alongside and learning from self-advocates.

Eleanore has lived experience of receiving unexpected news about her baby’s development during pregnancy, which has motivated her enthusiasm for Through the Unexpected’s mission. She also sits on the Board of ACD, the Victorian advocacy service for children with disability and their families.

Dr d’Arcy Baxter is a medical doctor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a Fellow in Maternal Fetal Medicine. She is currently working in Sydney, with previous clinical experience across a range of tertiary and regional settings in London, Auckland and regional NSW. In her daily clinical work d’Arcy encounters many families navigating unexpected news or uncertainty and is passionate about improving their experience.

Prior to medicine d’Arcy studied international relations and completed a Master of Health Management and Leadership. d’Arcy has held previous governance roles on university academic boards, hospital clinical councils and statewide maternity safety committees. Current research interests include health service design and improving access to high-risk obstetric care in regional areas. Outside of her professional interests, d’Arcy is an avid skier and sailor.

Pieta (she/her) is a Teaching and Research Academic at James Cook University who manages research and evidence synthesis subjects in the Master of Nursing. Through her developing program of research and service, Pieta aims to addresses critical gaps in Australia’s evidence base, health policy, and pathways to equitable, holistic care for expectant parents who receive unexpected news about the health, development, or genetics of their unborn baby – inspired by her own lived experience of receiving a fetal anomaly diagnosis at 32 weeks gestation.

She has postgraduate qualifications in mental health nursing, diagnostic genomics and higher ed innovative teaching and learning, and applied statistics, and is now studying health policy and planning. Pieta worked in varied clinical mental health roles, including work with parents in the prenatal period, before transitioning to academia. Pieta’s PhD was titled: A hermeneutic phenomenological study of the maternal lived experience of receiving a prenatal diagnosis of agenesis of the corpus callosum. 

Pieta has been involved in the start-up of a national grassroots charity and held various positions within committees and not for profit organisations, including currently holding a position as co-Chair of the Perinatal Ethics subcommittee of the Perinatal Society of Australian and New Zealand.

Jill is a genetic counsellor with 25 years’ of clinical experience ranging across all aspects of  genetics, 3 different Australian states and Manchester in the UK. Originally from Sydney, NSW she has been in Perth for the last 18 years working at Genetic Health WA, the Western Australian statewide genetics service.

Jill’s passion lies in working in the reproductive genetics space, helping couples to understand complex genetic probabilities, information and diagnoses, and incorporate these into their own personal context. This led her to be the Western Australian clinical genetic counsellor on Mackenzie’s Mission, The Australian Reproductive Genetic Carrier Screening Program. The combination of working with amazing brains, a dynamic multidisciplinary national team, being involved in the creation and distribution of education materials and managing the clinical side of the project really ignited her desire to be involved in trying to make an impact outside her clinical role. This led her to volunteering with TTU.

When not working, you will find Jill being a taxi driver for her two High School aged children, enjoying a live gig or musical, in her kitchen baking or drinking coffee and having chats with good friends.

Andrea Dickson is the owner of Matrescence Australia, a Full Spectrum Doula and Placenta Encapsulation Service, providing emotional, physical and practical support to women and birthing people no matter the outcome of their pregnancy.

Andrea trained with the Australian Doula College (ADC) and has slowly been adding additional qualifications along the way in Breastfeeding Education, Placenta Encapsulation, stillbirth and infant loss support and was a part of an Australian first, joint pilot program between the ADC and Child by Choice, also holding a qualification as a certified Abortion Doula. In addition, Andrea also works for Red Nose Australia in their Hospital to Home Program part-time as Bereavement Support Worker, assisting families who have experienced pregnancy or infant loss (stillbirth, termination for medical reasons, sudden infant death syndrome & sudden and unexpected death of an infant) from 20 weeks gestation up to 12 months of age.

In 2019, along side another bereaved mother, Andrea founded a peer to peer support group for parents who have experienced termination for medical reasons. One of the first of its kind in Australia, the peer to peer group has now provided support, comfort and a safe space to over 130 Australian families. Andrea is passionate about the informed decision making process, ensuring families have all the tools, support resources and information they require to make educated decisions and advocate for themselves and their baby’s in a complex medical maternity system.

Andrea has two living children and uses her advocacy and support work as a way of ‘mothering’ her three other children lost to early pregnancy loss and termination for medical reasons. Her own struggles with infertility, pregnancy loss and the inspiring families she works with on a daily basis are her greatest source of motivation.

Kate is a specialist obstetric sonographer with over 25 years’ experience. She has worked at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Adelaide for the past 16 years, following previous roles in London and Brisbane.

Kate is widely recognised for her leadership in advancing high quality obstetric sonography and her commitment to improving care for expectant families. She is a passionate advocate for enhancing communication and person-centred approaches, particularly for those receiving an unexpected prenatal diagnosis.

Kate also works as a senior lecturer at Central Queensland University and is an active researcher, with recent projects including a preliminary evaluation of a new approach to improve antenatal and postnatal care for infants in families experiencing psychosocial adversity and Attachment-informed perinatal care – evaluating a universal program to support infant mental health at the transition to parenthood.

She regularly presents at local, national, and international conferences, focusing on improving sonographic practice in maternal-fetal care. Kate volunteers with the Australasian Sonographers Association, serving on committees that influence professional standards and best practice.

Dr Jasmine Jansen (she/her) is a medical doctor, training in Paediatrics, currently working within the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network. She has clinical experience across a range of tertiary and regional settings across NSW, and is passionate about gender equity, health literacy, and accessible, intersectional healthcare. She has seen the difficulties and stressors from families navigating an unexpected or uncertain diagnosis through her day to day clinical work, and the variable supports offered by the healthcare system – with a belief that we can do better.

Jasmine has also completed a Master of Public Health, and is a Conjoint Associate Lecturer at UNSW, with years of experience in advocacy, teaching, governance, and medical leadership. Outside of her clinical work and study, Jasmine enjoys ocean swims, running, and creating art.