Trauma informed community service consultants - Diverse Leaders
Better Outcomes for People, Organisations and Communities
Inclusive, Trauma-Informed Solutions designed to help organisations centre Intersectionality and Lived Experience.
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True inclusion isn't adding diverse voices to the conversation—it's changing the conversation so diverse voices can shape it
Diverse Leaders - why us?
Welcome to Diverse Leaders
At Diverse Leaders, our purpose is to deliver trauma-informed consultancy services that empower and support safe, inclusive teams, organisations, and communities—spaces where people with lived experience are valued, respected, and empowered as both leaders and team members.
Embedding Intersectionality and Trauma-Informed Practice
We recognise that individuals and communities are shaped by a rich tapestry of intersecting identities—such as ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability, access to resources, and lived experience of trauma and/or mental health challenges. Our consultancy is grounded in the understanding that these overlapping factors can amplify barriers or create unique challenges. By centering intersectionality, we ensure that our approaches are never “one size fits all”; ensuring we are responsive to the complex realities people and organisations face.
Our trauma-informed approach acknowledges that trauma—whether personal, systemic, or collective—can profoundly influence how people engage, communicate, and participate at work and in community life. We prioritise psychological safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment in all our engagements. This means creating environments where your people feel safe to contribute, share, and lead without fear of judgement or re-traumatisation.
Providing you with in depth sector experience guided by lived experience wisdom.
We partner with Lived experience voices and organisation to seek Lived experience expertise relevant to your unique organisational or community needs.
In the race for exceptional people, organisations that understand lived experience as 'expertise'—not just 'perspective'—will attract the workforce that others are still trying to figure out how to support.
“Trauma-Informed is not about the treatment of trauma or the symptoms, but rather a recognition that trauma experiences are a possibility for anyone”
(Kezelman & Stavropoulos, 2012)
Testimonials
Impact at Union College University of Queensland - Dr. Fiona Hawthorne
It is a privilege to work with Kris Sargeant, whose outstanding leadership and transformative impact have had a profound effect on The University of Queensland Union College community.
Drawing on her extensive background in health, human services, and community care, combined with deep expertise in psychology and management, Kris has significantly enriched the college’s culture and resident experience.
Kris is widely admired as a visionary leader committed to fostering inclusive, diverse, and supportive environments. Her approach combines strategic clarity with genuine care, allowing her to lead teams with confidence and humility.
At Union College, she has authored the comprehensive Wellbeing Framework that elevates safety, belonging, and equality as core pillars of the student experience.
Under Kris’s consultancy, Union College has made marked progress in:
- Building a strong sense of community and belonging through social, cultural, and sporting activities.
- Promoting diversity, equity, and accessibility—ensuring students from all backgrounds, including LGBTQIA+ individuals, First Nations people, and international students, feel genuinely supported.
- Developing and implementing programs for mental wellbeing and peer mentoring, with a focus on help-seeking behaviours among vulnerable populations.
Kris’s ability to translate vision into action is evident in the tangible improvements to college life, including:
- Integrated support services for mental health, wellbeing, and academic achievement.
- Safe, welcoming, and thoughtfully crafted resident engagement opportunities to promote social interaction and personal growth.
- Ongoing professional development for staff, reinforcing a culture of respect and safety.
Kris’s work exemplifies a commitment to continuous improvement, regularly evaluating and refining wellbeing and inclusion initiatives based on feedback and data. Her leadership skills ensure that Union College not only responds to residents' evolving needs but proactively creates an environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive.
Kris Sargeant brings expertise, strategic vision, and heartfelt dedication to her role at the University of Queensland Union College. She is a catalyst for positive change, championing initiatives that have a lasting impact on the wellbeing and success of all residents. Union College is exceptionally fortunate to benefit from her consulting services.
Adjunct Professor Fiona Hawthorne, PhD
Churchill Fellow, GAICD
CEO/Head of College
Union College University of Queensland
July 2025
People and Culture at Karakan -Community-Led Mental Health - Cameron Thayer CEO
The leadership team at Karakan worked with Kris from Diverse Leaders on a project focused on understanding the fundamental drivers of our current culture, identifying what is needed to develop our desired culture, and the development of a 3 year People and Culture Strategy to guide that journey.
During our time working together Kris demonstrated a strong understanding of our sector as she brought expertise that was nuanced to mental health and community services. Kris brought a real balance between empathy and care for the nature of the work we do and professionalism in how she works with others and her approach to managing and delivering projects.
As a result of working with Kris we have a much clearer understanding of our internal cultural identity, our strengths to leverage, the areas we need to bring leadership to, and a clear 3 year people and culture roadmap to develop what matters to enable a contemporary organisation and strong workforce.
Kris is genuine, collaborative, and passionate about supporting organisations be their best and
I would highly recommend Diverse Leaders to anyone looking for support to build or strengthen their people and culture foundations, leadership development or require organisational development leadership and support.
Cameron Thayer
CEO
Karakan
July 2025
I am not my anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviours, my sexual abuse, my trauma, my gender, or the gender of my life partner.
I am not my past behaviours, hospital admissions, therapy hours, traumatic brain injury, or my degrees.
I am not my fears, anger, shame, guilt, or my misalignment with the system. I am not my skin colour, my family history, my ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or synesthesia. I am not my endometriosis, my infertility, the non-bio parent, I am not disruptive and I am not the problem.
All of these things contribute to my expertise but none alone define me. I live in the layers between the intersecting.
I don’t fit into neat boxes like daughter, parent, CEO, board member, patient, client, customer, lived experience advocate, or diversity hire. Not when those categories are so feircly guarded. With language and uniforms and shared expectations and experiences and behaviour and clear, and unclear rules and requirements I don't fully understand.
I am a problem, a misfit — the cement between the boxes but not of the boxes.
This is intersectionality lived authentically — embracing complexity, rejecting reductionism, and claiming power in being whole and unapologetically me.
Kris
Integrating Industry Expertise and Lived Experience Wisdom
Our Partners
Stories lived become wisdom shared
Acknowlegdments
We acknowledge and celebrate the profound expertise, wisdom, and resilience of people with lived and living experience across the full spectrum of human diversity. We recognise that lived experience encompasses not only mental health challenges, trauma, and suicide, but extends to the rich tapestry of neurodivergent communities, LGBTIQA+SB communities, disability communities, and all those who navigate invisible and visible differences.
We specifically acknowledge and honour:
People with lived experience of mental health challenges, psychological distress, substance use, and suicidality - recognising your unique expertise and the transformational knowledge that emerges from your journey
Neurodivergent communities - including Autistic people, those with ADHD, learning differences, and all forms of neurological diversity that enrich our understanding of human cognition and experience
LGBTIQA+SB communities - celebrating the full spectrum of sexual orientation, gender identity, and relationship diversity, with special recognition for Rainbow Elders who have paved the way for acceptance and inclusion
Disability communities - both visible and invisible disabilities, chronic illnesses, physical differences, and all those navigating systems that often fail to provide equitable access and inclusion
Trauma survivors and those supporting them - recognising the strength it takes to heal and the wisdom that emerges from these experiences
Carers, families, supporters, and those who love and have loved people across these communities - acknowledging your unique perspective and vital contributions
We recognise that many people hold multiple, intersecting identities and that your struggles are more often due to how systems and communities fail to provide safe, equitable access rather than due to your differences.
It is a privilege to live, work, and learn alongside such knowledgeable communities. We acknowledge that no single person holds all the answers - rather, wisdom emerges through collaboration, co-production, and the honouring of diverse perspectives at every level of decision-making.
We commit to challenging the systems that create barriers, to amplifying voices that have been marginalised, and to creating spaces where every person can thrive authentically - because of their differences, not despite them
Stories are the architects of systems. We change systems by changing stories, and we change stories by changing who gets to tell them. We are listening.
Honoring First Nations Wisdom
Acknowledgment
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies on which we live, work, and gather. We pay our deepest respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past, present, and emerging, and extend special recognition to all First Nations Rainbow Elders whose wisdom, strength, and resilience continue to guide us.
We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded - it always was and always will be Aboriginal land. We acknowledge the ongoing impacts of colonisation and commit to walking together with First Nations peoples on the path toward healing, justice, and reconciliation.
We honour the continuing connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Country - not merely as land, but as the entirety of ancestral domains encompassing all values, places, resources, stories, and cultural obligations. We recognise First Nations peoples as the custodians and caretakers of this knowledge, holding the oldest continuous civilisation on Earth