Meet the Team
Dr Kate Toone
Kate Toone began her career in community services as coordinator of a support program for young mothers, of which...
About Kate
Kate Toone began her career in community services as coordinator of a support program for young mothers, of which she was formerly a participant. She graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work and Social Planning in 2015 and completed a PhD looking at experiences of identity and community with queer sex workers, in 2023. Kate’s clinical work has spanned across the out of home care sector, youth, suicide prevention, maternal mental health, chronic illness and grief and loss. As well as recently joining the UniSA team as a lecturer, she continues her work as a clinical social worker in pregnancy and abortion support and relationship counselling.
Kate is an active member of the local queer communities, having held positions on the Pride March Committee, Feast Festival Community panel, created and owned a queer nightclub and community space for over three years, and now running an event production company that hosts inclusive, accessible queer parties. Kate’s research interests include gender and sexuality, queer cultures and activism, reproductive health and sex positivity, visual research methods, and alternative relationship structures.
Dr Jared Dmello
Jared Dmello, a new resident to South Australia, is a Senior Lecturer of Criminology at the University of Adelaide...
About Jared
Jared Dmello, a new resident to South Australia, is a Senior Lecturer of Criminology at the University of Adelaide, a Research Associate at the Rutgers University Center on Public Security, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism (AVERT) Research Network. He holds a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell but also holds master’s degrees in Criminal Justice (UMass Lowell) and National Security Studies (California State University San Bernardino, along with a bachelor’s in Political Science (University of Hawai`i at Mānoa). Dr. Dmello is an internationally recognized expert on illicit organizations, focusing on criminal street gangs and extremist organizations, with methodological expertise in network science and advanced quantitative methods, but he also specialises in research advocating for marginalised and under-represented communities. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Ken Peak Innovations in Teaching award and the 2025 Critical Criminal Justice Scholar award from the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences for his integration of visual criminological research methods into a classroom setting as a method for documented lived experiences in a border community.
Dr Michele Jarldorn
Michele was born in and has lived in Adelaide her entire life. Before attending university, she...
About Michele
Michele was born in and has lived in Adelaide her entire life. Before attending university, she worked in the rag trade, making everything from wedding dresses and men’s suits to denim jeans and motorcycle leathers. She went on to study a double degree in Social Work and Social Planning at Flinders University as a (very!) mature aged student. In 2018 she completed her PhD, where she used Photovoice to hear from formerly incarcerated people to learn about their post release experiences.
Michele is a Senior Lecturer in social work at UniSA. She loves being in the classroom with students, while her research speciality is the use of creative, participatory and action-oriented approaches. Recent projects have included co-designing an information chatbot with and for formerly incarcerated women, working with young women to co-design online resources for mental wellbeing, and understanding the possibilities for people with lived and living experiences of homelessness to influence policy and practice.
Michele lives with her family and her two rescue dogs, Chase the Kelpie and Clyde the Sharpei. When she’s not teaching or writing, she volunteers for Seeds of Affinity: Pathways for Women, a grassroots community group that supports currently and formerly incarcerated women.