“James combines his expertise in policy and community engagement with a unique ability to connect at the highest levels, providing strategic insight and advocacy.”
James Maskey is committed to making rights-based, community-led mental health care the standard for every Australian, delivered in partnership with the people it supports. He is a mental health leader, advocate and public speaker recognised for translating complex mental health issues into practical, human-centred conversations that inspire understanding, connection and action.
James is Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Illness Fellowship of Australia (MIFA), a national federation that has connected frontline practice with mental health reform for four decades. MIFA brings together seven community mental health organisations across Australia, supporting around 12,000 people living with high-need mental health challenges, and the families, carers and kin who walk beside them, each year. Through programs including Finding North, Out From the Mist and Schizophrenia Awareness Week, MIFA also gives people with lived experience of mental health challenges a genuine platform of their own.
James’ work spans national mental health policy reform, suicide prevention, and strengthening community-based support systems across Australia. Central to that work is a straightforward conviction that reform should be built with the people it serves, not delivered to them from a distance.
James brings together executive leadership and lived experience. A former Queensland police officer who developed PTSD as a result of occupational trauma, he understands both how transformative timely, well-matched support can be, and how much harder recovery becomes without it.
Before joining MIFA, James held senior leadership roles at the Queensland Alliance for Mental Health, Fortem Australia, Beyond Blue and Berry Street, working across government relations, policy advocacy and national program delivery.
Beyond his professional work, James is an ultra-endurance athlete who uses his platform to share his lived experience, challenge stigma, and encourage others to seek help and stay connected.
His contributions have been recognised nationally, including the R U OK? Barbara Hocking Memorial ‘Conversation Leader’ Award for his role in suicide prevention, and his inclusion in Pro Bono Australia’s ‘Impact 25’ for contributions to the social and human services sector.
James Maskey Consulting 