Taimi Allan is the Mental Health Commissioner for South Australia, widely respected for her compassionate, future-focused leadership and her deep commitment to inclusion, lived experience, and meaningful systems change.
Her work is grounded in her own recovery from complex mental health challenges, including suicidality and a strong belief in the power of hope, dignity, and collective action. Taimi brings over 20 years of cross-sector leadership across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, spanning lived experience advocacy, system strategy, policy reform, digital innovation, and suicide prevention.
She has led national anti-discrimination initiatives, directed a Mental Health Innovations company, and co-designed practical tools and models of care that are inclusive, community-driven, and recovery-oriented. Uniquely, Taimi served for a short time on mental health commissions in both New Zealand and South Australia the only person known to have done so concurrently. This rare opportunity allowed her to bridge insights across countries, systems, and cultures, strengthening her cross-jurisdictional and cross-cultural approach to reform. She is a fierce ally for Indigenous knowledge systems, young people, geographically and culturally diverse communities and LGBTQIA+ identities, and brings a strong intersectional lens to all of her work ensuring that those seeking equity are not only included but elevated in shaping change.
Her leadership style is relational and practical; she is known for leaving behind tools, insights, and the confidence for others to create change in their own spheres of influence. Since becoming Commissioner, Taimi has been widely praised for shifting South Australia’s mental health system towards inclusion, action, and authenticity. She’s known for cutting through complexity, embedding lived experience in leadership, and progressing reforms in suicide prevention, digital mental health, trauma-informed policy, and peer-led care.
Taimi is Deputy Chair of the eMental Health International Collaborative, a member of UNICEF’s global Digital Youth Mental Health Expert Network, and sits on South Australia’s Suicide Prevention Council amongst other governance positions.
Her contributions have been recognised with the Australasian Emerging Leader in Mental Health award (2019) and as a Local Hero Medallist in the New Zealander of the Year Awards (2021) acknowledgements of her steady, values-led influence across sectors.