Maree Kulkens
Maree has over 15 years experience in the health, disability, aged care, education, local and state government sectors. She has a demonstrated commitment to working with communities and consumers of health and community services.
Maree has extensive experience in service development and evaluation, management and quality assurance, including over 10 years experience in senior management roles. These roles have allowed Maree to develop wide ranging skills in areas of networking, strategic development, continuous quality improvement and risk assessment and management.
Since 2004, following completion of a Masters Degree in Public Health, Maree’s career has focused on management, quality assurance, health promotion and research roles.
Maree has developed and conducted social research, including developing a research project to explore the socio-cultural determinants of oral health for culturally and linguistically diverse communities; teeth tales. This included developing and managing community-based participatory research. Maree also managed the community intervention arm of a 5 year childhood research study; fun n healthy in Moreland. Both projects were collaborations between Moreland Community Health and the University of Melbourne.
In 2009, Maree was part of an academic research team at the University of Melbourne that undertook a descriptive analysis of the Community Fireguard program and members’ experiences of the 2009 Victorian Bushfires. This study was initiated by the Country Fire Authority in relation to the Community Fireguard (CFG) Program. The research was conducted to assess the influence of group membership on experience of the Black Saturday fires, to inform ongoing program improvements and the CFA contribution to the Victorian Royal Bushfire Commission.
Maree’s research and evaluation expertise is complemented by her experience in quality assurance and she is a QIC qualified auditor. She has conducted CSO Registration Standards reviews on behalf of AHA. Through her previous Quality Assurance roles in community organisations Maree has a working knowledge of a range of quality standards and frameworks including; Standards for Disability Services in Victoria, Community Care Common Standards (previously HACC National Standards), Family Relationship Services Program Approval Requirements, QIC Standards and HASS Standards.
Recent projects that emphasise Maree’s breadth of expertise and experience include: