Terri has over a decade’s experience working as a lived experience advocate, educator and researcher, mostly in the area of mental health. Her lifelong experiences of disability, mental distress, and mental health and social care service use inform all of her work. Her Masters thesis articulated a critical analysis of mental health and disability policy in Australia from deinstitutionalisation to the introduction of the NDIS. As a researcher, she is especially interested in how people understand and make meaning out their experiences of disability and ill health, and how policy decisions affect people’s lives. She was diagnosed with a DCC in her early 20s, and is presently undertaking her PhD at the Australian National University School of Medicine and Psychology.