Siusan MacKenzie, CEO of Emergency Services Foundation (ESF) has been appointed to the Editorial Advisory Board of MDM Publishing Ltd where she will assist the board and directors of MDM Publishing in attaining the very best editorial content across its stable of leading fire industry journals.
Siusan is the ESFs inaugural CEO. She came into the role with a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience developed through a career including roles in secondary teaching, senior public sector management and leadership with a corporate communications focus in OHS and emergency services. As a consultant, she applied her lived experience and organisational development capability to focus on workplace health and wellbeing.
She was responsible for driving formative Workplace Health and Safety campaigns in Victoria, Australia including a highly regarded Awards scheme that led to a secondment with the UK government. On her return, she began Workplace Health and Safety Week in Australia. The Awards and Week are initiatives that have been sustained for over 30 years.
It was her drive and creative thinking that drew her to the attention of the CEO/Chair at the Country Fire Authority (CFA), an organisation with 60,000 members and complex communication challenges. As she established CFA’s highly successful communications unit and built the organisation’s profile through major incidents and disruption, her reputation as a formidable change agent within the emergency services sector was established.
In her role at CFA, she shaped a groundbreaking relationship with the ABC. She instituted training and accreditation for media on the fire ground, two initiatives with national significance for the sector. Siusan was central to CFA’s response to the Linton tragedy which saw the death of five volunteers. From this her interest shifted to well-being in an organisational context, resulting in various awards for her work in the construction sector where she established leading-edge workplace wellbeing programs.
Since joining ESF in 2018 Siusan has transformed how the emergency services sector in Victoria approaches the issue of mental health. She has brought 15 agencies across the sector together to collaborate to make sector-wide improvements in mental health and wellbeing. The Leading for Better Mental Health, Well Beyond and Residential Wellbeing programs established by ESF are examples of her pioneering evidence-informed approach to helping people avoid serious mental health injury. Siusan comes with a deep understanding of the well-being issues that plague the sector and a unique sector-wide lens.
Mark Seton Director at MDM Publishing Ltd commented “We are delighted that Siusan has accepted our invitation to join our Editorial Advisory Board. Mental health is a serious issue for many professions, but those in the fire service are especially vulnerable due to the high levels of stress and trauma they encounter in the line of duty. With Siusan’s guidance, we aim to deliver more content on this subject throughout our magazines and websites.”
Siusan said of the appointment “I am delighted to be able to draw on my lived experience in a fire agency setting as well as my cross-sector knowledge and involvement to ensure readers have access to leading practice and thinking on the issue of mental health and wellbeing. It is no longer good enough to give lip service to the adage, ‘Our people are our most important asset.’ Every workplace must demonstrate how it strives for psychological safety.”
