Ms Jennifer Felton

Biography

Jennifer has been a practising Social Worker for the last 40 years, primarily in the socio-legal area holding extensive experience in child and family welfare. She initiated the establishment of the Court Services unit within the now Department of Child Safety and was the inaugural social worker at the Youth Advocacy Centre. For the past 25 years Jennifer has specialised in alternative dispute resolution and administrative review. Jennifer was instrumental in setting up pre-hearing conferences in the Childrens' Court for resolving child protection matters. She has worked as a conciliator with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and both practises and teaches in the area of alternative dispute resolution both within the School of Public Health and Social Work and the School of Law. She is a coach and assessor  in alternative dispute resolution with the Faculty of Law, Bond University and practises as a mediator. Jennifer has established the QUT Family Mediation Service offering family dispute resolution service to the public and also providing supervisory opportunities for practitioners. Jennifer has held membership of a number of Tribunals at both Commonwealth and State levels and is currently a member of Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. She was  a member of the Child Death Review Committee. Since 2002 Jennifer has been a member of staff at QUT specialising in communication and conflict management.

Research Interests

• Conflict Management
• Alternative Dispute Resolution
• Family Mediation
• Restorative Justice
• Child and Family Welfare
• Administrataive Review
• Child Protection