Simone is a Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University and the Centre for Social Impact, an Australian Research Council Industry Fellow and a 2024 Winston Churchill Fellow. Her key interests include youth offending, especially its relationship with broader environmental factors such as the child protection system alongside homicide, sentencing, and the impacts of care and correctional environments. In 2024, Simone was recognised by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science as a Young Tall Poppy for excellence in science and communication. She has also won the Australian and New Zealand Society for Criminology Christine M Alder Book Prize for most outstanding contribution to criminology and the Early Career Award for best publication.

Simone’s earlier legal career includes work as a criminal defence solicitor with the Legal Services Commission and in private practice, as well as serving as a supervisor of the UniSA Legal Advice Clinic and as an Associate of the District Court of South Australia. She has undertaken consultancy work for local and state governments, including contributing to the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings (Ashley Youth Detention Centre).

Belinda is a Research Associate in the College of Business, Government and Law at Flinders University and a Principal Practice Consultant with the Australian Childhood Foundation. With 25 years of experience as a social worker and a Master’s in Mediation, she brings expertise in trauma, youth justice, child protection, and support for victims of crime. Her career spans roles as an advocate, case manager, policy adviser, consultant, and official visitor and inspector of child protection residential care and youth justice facilities. Belinda currently leads government and not-for-profit consultancy projects designed to strengthen the capacity of service providers to deliver high-quality care and support for children and young people in or at risk of entering out-of-home care and youth justice settings.

Her youth justice work has taken her across multiple Australian jurisdictions. In 2019, in her role as Principal Training Centre Advocate (Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People) she initiated and conducted South Australia’s first inspection of the Adelaide Youth Training Centre, documented in Great Responsibility (2019). In 2024, she collaborated with the South Australian Commissioner for Children and Young People to elevate the voices of young people with lived experience of domestic violence for the Royal Commission in the Unseen and Unheard Report, 2024. 

Shona is the Guardian and Training Centre Visitor for South Australia. In this role, she leads the Office of the Guardian for Children and Young People, which advocates for the rights and best interests of children and young people in care and youth detention across the state. An Eastern Arrernte woman, Shona comes from a family with a long legacy of service to First Nations children, families, and communities.

Shona has been deeply committed to strengthening First Nations governance, advancing reconciliation, and contributing to a more culturally inclusive community—one grounded in honesty, integrity, transparency, and truth, and built on diverse, meaningful, and substantive relationships.

Before her appointment as Guardian, Shona served as CEO of Reconciliation South Australia. She has held several significant board roles, including with the SA Youth Centre Review Board, the South Australian Housing Trust Board (where she chaired the Aboriginal Advisory Committee), the Justice Reinvestment of South Australia Board (Co-Chair), and the Flinders University Indigenous Advisory Council. Her current board appointments include the Rio Tinto Australian Advisory Group and The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.

In recognition of her contributions across multiple sectors, Shona received the 2020 Flinders University Distinguished Alumni Award for her service to Aboriginal children, young people, and families.