Tasmanian Refugee Legal Service
Our People
Meet the staff and board that make up TRLS
Our Staff
All our staff continue to show incredible passion and commitment to our aims and are all providing vital legal assistance to some of the most disadvantaged community members in Tasmania.
Patrick O’Connor
Principal Lawyer & CEO
Trish Cameron
Senior Supervising Lawyer
Daisy Kateros
Lawyer
Melody Tan
Lawyer
Jarin White
Lawyer
Kawindi Batuwitaarachchige
Lawyer
Mariam Refaei
Lawyer
Faina Iligoga
Legal Administrative Assistant
Ricky Pearce-Flanagan
Legal Administration Assistant
Pearl Grant
Lawyer
Ashley Bulgarelli
Fundraising Manager
Marianne Nguyen
Practice Manager
Our Board & Governance
As a not-for-profit organisation TRLS is governed by a board of volunteers who provide independent advice and guidance for the direction of our organisation.
Cleo Hansen-Lohrey
Cleo Hansen-Lohrey is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Tasmania, where she teaches administrative law and civil procedure. Cleo’s research focuses on international refugee and human rights law, and displacement in the context of climate change.
Before joining the Faculty of Law, Cleo worked for a number of years in the legal, not-for-profit and government sectors. Her previous roles include: Senior Legal Officer for the former Department of Immigration and Border Protection, working in the areas of civil and administration litigation and refugee law; and Humanitarian Observer for the Australian Red Cross’s Immigration Detention Program, leading humanitarian monitoring visits to Australia’s mainland and Christmas Island immigration detention facilities. Cleo has been engaged in protection-based advocacy for asylum seekers, refugees and immigration detainees at the local and national levels in Australia
Kate Buxton
A graduate of the London School of Economics, Kate worked at a senior level in the UK independent film/tv production before migrating to Australia in 1997.
She has extensive leadership experience in the for-purpose sector and has worked with a range of community and mental health organisations, philanthropic and community foundations, peak bodies, and government. Her expertise includes outcomes frameworks, organisational and program evaluation, strategic and organisational development, governance, communication and engagement.
Kate founded Shift The Needle in 2019 to support for-purpose organisations, especially rural and regional community organisations, to be sustainable, meet challenges and seize opportunities.
She is a member of the Australian Institute of Community Directors Australia and the International Association of Public Participation (IAP2). She is a specialist consultant and founding member of The XFactor Collective, Australia’s largest and most diverse social impact practitioner community.
Mark Huber
Currently serves as Chair.
Mark Huber joined the TRLS Board in 2019.
Mark specialises in strategic policy development, project management and law.
He is a qualified legal practitioner with experience spanning Australia, Asia, and Europe. Based in Tasmania since 2018, Mark currently project manages the state’s implementation of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture. With a passion for justice and reform, Mark believes that societies prosper when social resources prioritise collaboration, and reducing barriers to participation. His previous work has involved policy and legislative development, leading complex investigations and reviews, technical assistance and capacity building to developing countries, and academia.
Dr Israel Fianyi
Dr. Israel Fianyi is a Lecturer in the School of Information & Communication Technology, situated at the Launceston Campus. His primary research interests encompass a cutting-edge fields, including Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Cybersecurity, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Data Science.
Israel’s academic journey includes an impressive academic background, holding a PhD in Information Technology from UTAS, a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Gloucestershire (UK), and Masters in Management Information Systems, along with a Bachelor’s degree in Information Studies from the University of Ghana. This diverse educational foundation equips him with a multidisciplinary perspective that greatly benefits his work.
Throughout his career, Israel has taken on pivotal roles in both tech companies and universities, demonstrating a remarkable ability to leverage technology to enhance efficiency and foster innovation.
Manuel Barragan
Currently serves as Vice Chair.
Manuel is the CEO of Artibus Innovation, a certified for-benefit (B Corp) workforce development consultancy, which focusses on projects that positively contribute to education and training, economic growth, sustainable cities and communities across Australia.
He possesses strong leadership acumen and has proven experience defining and articulating sustainable growth strategies, planning and implementing innovative initiatives and connecting with stakeholders and corporate partners to design solutions.
Manuel also has extensive experience and expertise in occupational regulatory reform, policy development and application and governance. He brings sound problem-solving capabilities paired with in-depth knowledge on governance and strategy which enable him to focus on building capacity and capability across the organisation and to visualise and capitalise on future developments for both industry and the community. His qualifications include a Bachelor of Justice Studies (San Jose State University, California, USA) and a Master of Human Rights, with Honorary Mention (Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico).
Lian Yonng
Lian has a background in immigration and refugee law and has worked with the United Nations for over ten years. She has diverse experience with non-governmental organisations and government, focusing on human rights and gender in Papua New Guinea, Cambodia, Thailand, South Sudan, Myanmar and Ethiopia.
At the moment, she serves as Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Coordinator with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Ethiopia. Prior to this, she worked with the United Nations Development Coordination Office in Bangkok covering the Asia Pacific region and supporting24 United Nations Country Teams to strengthen safeguarding systems. She has also worked with the UN Population Fund and the High Commissioner for Refugees.
As the daughter of Malaysian/Chinese immigrants in Tasmania, she has (willingly and unwillingly) been involved in the migrant community in Hobart since before she was crawling.
Sylvia Ghaly
Sylvia brings 20 years of experience working with value-based non-government organisations across Australia, Latin America, East and Central Africa, and the Middle East, in both humanitarian and development contexts. In recent years, she has held senior leadership roles with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Sylvia has experience in fostering strategic partnerships and leading high-level negotiations with donors, foreign governments, national authorities, and non-state armed groups. Her earlier experience in Australia focused on changing social policy in favour of disadvantaged and marginalised communities.
Sylvia holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland and multiple master’s degrees. In 2020, she completed a Juris Doctor from the Australian National University and was admitted as a lawyer to the Supreme Court of the ACT. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she volunteered with the Refugees and Asylum Seekers Resource Centre and served on the board of the Water Well Project, an organisation offering health promotion to refugees and migrants in Australia.