2020 Alumni

2020 ELGP Participants

Henry Burke

Henry is a legal professional with a passion for social justice. Until 2018, Henry practiced law mainly in the areas of Family & De Facto and Wills & Estates law. Looking to combine his interest in humane areas of the law, in particular Elder Law, and care for others he began work with Hall & Prior in 2019 as Governance & Administration Officer.

He greatly enjoys working with a diverse group of people in the area of Aged Care, who share compassion for others. In 2013, he was lucky enough to have volunteered with 10 other young Australians on the Overseas Action Program with World Youth International Australia in Kenya, with where he helped to construct a “dairy unit” at the Happy Villages Community Resource Centre. Outside of work Henry has umpired Aussie Rules in various metro, country and junior leagues 2012. In 2016 began a coaching and mentorship role with Claremont Umpires Association.

Enda Fahy

Enda Fahy is the Chief Finance Officer at Southcare and has over 15 years’ experience working both internationally and nationally. With a background in the public practice environment, Enda has worked with clients in the corporate, government, and not-for-profit sectors to support them to achieve their business objectives.

As a senior executive, Enda provides strategic financial advice, corporate performance reporting and leads the digital transformation at Southcare through implementing a program of digital technologies aimed at both disrupting and positioning Southcare to exceed customer expectations.

He holds a Bachelor of Business Studies, is a Chartered Accountant and a Fellow of Leadership Western Australia. Working in the NFP sector for the last four years has allowed him to realise his passion to work for a values based organisation that has a direct social and community impact.

Aishwarya loves learning, growing and knowledge sharing. She thrives in challenging environments and is passionate about empowering herself and others to be their best. Aish is an experienced business professional within Energy, Mining, Oil & Gas, Banking, Government, Start-Up, Non-Profit, IT and Higher Education sectors. She is a post-graduate scholarship recipient (HRM and International Business). She is passionate about everything under the social impact umbrella, though the focus is often on education, microfinance, environmental sustainability, mental health, diversity & inclusion. Aish is always somehow contributing to or directly a part of an NFP’s journey, and she looks forward to continuing this legacy through ELGP.

Aish has worked across 4 continents since graduating in 2018. She has been exposed to very fast paced, culturally diverse environments in positions focused on leading organisations towards their strategic objectives. Aish’s work has often focused on Project Management, Compliance, Business Analysis, Business Process Mapping, Change Management, Workforce Redesign, Organisational Behaviour, Workshop Facilitation, Ideation and Human Centered Design. Aish often balances full-time work with extracurricular involvement in Perth’s chapter of Association of Change Management Professionals, along with various other industry and charitable events. If you’re interested to know more, don’t be a stranger!

Jana Filippi

Jana is an extremely driven, motivated and ambitious young career woman who has spent over a 11 years in the technology sector. With a passion to deliver innovation, and contribute to the technological advancement of businesses and organisations, she has personally worked on projects that have changed the way companies use technology to drive them into the future. Her ability to understand and solve complex problems makes her an asset to the organisations with which she works.

Also having a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, Jana has a high level understanding of how to achieve different outcome in teams and also individually, getting the most out of people, and how to work with different personalities, and collaborate effectively to achieve desired outcomes. Jana has always had an interest in obtaining positions on boards, to offer a contribution to diversity and good governance. She is also continuously looking at ways in which she can improve upon her own professional development, and learning from mentors and leaders within the industry is always something she welcomes. Jana has a natural ability to create, maintain and nurture business relationships, which equips her with a very strong local professional network across many industries and sectors.

Sophie van Dam

Sophie van Dam is a qualified health promotion professional with additional competencies in marketing, and over ten years’ experience in customer service. Her professional skills include systematic thinking, project management, and empowering others build their skills and make a difference.

Having lived in different settings across rural and regional Australia and worked with various population groups, Sophie is aware of social determinants of health. Her motivation to facilitate change in areas of interest is demonstrated by her extensive involvement in the public health and education sectors, both within paid positions and voluntary roles.

Within the past year, she has undertaken a health promotion project investigating the implementation of the government’s Healthy Food and Drink policy in WA schools in order to develop compliance recommendations. She was also involved In the Leavers WA Strategy as a Social Media Coordinator where she collaborated with a broad range of stakeholders to produce harm minimisation messages for secondary school graduates.  Both roles allowed her to demonstrate well developed and effective leadership skills.
 
Sophie has received numerous awards and scholarships, including the LEAP Leadership Program at the University of California, Health Promotion Scholarship funded by Healthway WA and Marketing Team of the Year Award by the Australian Marketing Institute.

In addition to paid job roles, Sophie has worked on a number of boards and committees, including the Public Health Association of Australia (Western Australian Branch) committee and Curtin Young Alumni Advisory Board.

Kathryn Penno

Kathryn ‘Kat’ Penno had an auspicious start to her audiology career after leaving her corporate business role in the mining & resources sector. Kat’s passion for proactive healthcare, communication and human connection coupled with her interest in business and technology has led her to become a leader in Telehealth, digital health, online healthcare service delivery and inclusive technology and design.

Having written her thesis on the Future of Audiology and being an advocate for online hearing health care and proactive healthcare, Kat founded the Hearing Collective; is an online audiological service providing an alternative and complementary services, to traditionally delivered business models. Kat believes in healthy ageing across the lifespan, inter-generational collaborations and effective communication to enable the best quality of life for all. She is actively involved in her cycling community, technology development and inclusion for healthcare and enjoys spending time with her family and friends.

Jamiela Khan

Jamiela holds a Bachelors degree in Psychology with Honours in Neuroscience. She has worked as a research assistant, therapy administration officer and is currently working with the Department of Communities as a graduate project officer. She volunteered at Radio Lollipop for three years, providing support to children in hospital and their families. Subsequently, Jamiela volunteered and then worked at Therapy Focus, a not for profit therapy organisation, where she worked to create resources to support clients with disabilities, and their therapists. Through these experiences, she developed curiosity about the governance of not-for-profit boards. Her previous and current experiences are building towards contributing to supporting the vulnerable members of our community in more effective and sustainable ways.

Lisa King

An accredited HR Professional Lisa has a multidisciplinary background that includes private, in-house Legal, recruitment, OHS and HR. This experience has been gained through private legal practice, global financial services, not for profit member based and agency service providers. Additionally, Lisa has achieved an impressive academic record that only supplements that capability and at present is striving towards completion of her AHRI accreditation and ER/IR Masters. Lisa made the bold move to immigrate to Australia alone following an invigorating period of travel and a placement with a NFP in Philippines. Having held a trustee role, Lisa is now starting to contribute in her new home, in her own way by volunteering at events, associating with specific charities, coaching netball and singing in a choir. Lisa sees great opportunity in for NFP’s in WA and loves to make a difference where her values of integrity, commitment and reflection align.

Krishan Shah

Krishan has spent the last six years working at Curtin Volunteers (CV) to bridge the gap between passionate, community-minded university students and not-for-profit organisations. He coordinates the flagship Remote & Indigenous Program as well as CV’s largest project John Curtin Weekend. These programs see over 500 volunteers deliver services annually to metropolitan, regional and remote communities across Western Australia. After graduating from the University of Melbourne with a BComm (Finance), he spent three years travelling and volunteering. Following a range of international volunteering experiences he found an organisation in Peru which engaged volunteers in a holistic, integrated and empowering way where he spent a year working pro bono. Growing up in Kenya, his passion for social change, inclusion and diversity is rooted in his exposure to civil unrest and has continued to drive his involvement in the community sector. He strives to utilise his capabilities to contribute to better social outcomes.

Joanna Davis

Joanna’s passion for people was shaped early in life, seeing a loved one recovering from a stroke and undergoing rehabilitation. She developed a passion for working within care related industries, pursuing studies in psychology. While studying, Joanna volunteered at Graylands Hospital and worked within a Not-For-Profit in the Disability sector. Joanna believes this period developed her passion for the sector, and an understanding of aspects other than direct care. Joanna then pursued professional roles as a Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) Consultant, a blended role of providing direct services as well as organisational development. This included 2.5 years working in Kalgoorlie which broadened her experience to working with Aboriginal people and families, and consulting for National Disability Services on their Quality & Safeguarding Project. Having developed a strong PBS service at Ability Centre, Joanna broadened her role to Quality Governance Manager, serving the same passion for high service standards.

Mariette Luitjens

Mariette is an enthusiastic individual with a passion for leading positive change in healthcare. Starting her career as a Physiotherapist, Mariette developed invaluable interpersonal skills and gained experience in providing direct clinical care in both hospital and private practice settings. After working for three years, Mariette moved to the Netherlands to complete a Masters of Health Science specialising in Health Policy and Economics. This experience provided her with insight into different healthcare system structures and innovative ways to direct limited resources to achieve health outcomes. After completing her degree, Mariette moved back to WA and joined WA Health, where she completed a Diploma of Leadership and Management and demonstrated her ability to negotiate, influence and lead others through a range of change initiatives. Mariette has a keen interest in giving back to the community and is eager to use her skills to drive positive change in the Not-For-Profit sector.

Kassia Ralston

Kassia is an Engineer and former Australian Water Polo athlete. Her career focus is the project management and planning of major public infrastructure projects across Australia – an area she believes is crucial to building more inclusive and accessible Australian communities. Kassia is a Committee Member for the WA Division of Engineers Australia, a not-for-profit organisation, to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. She is passionate about the importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in Australia. For the past three years she has volunteered as a mentor for female, low socioeconomic and/or indigenous students who are aspiring engineers through various university and community based mentoring programs such as the Smith Family Work Inspirations Program. Kassia has benefited from playing elite sport, and believes sport is an excellent way of developing resilience, grit, teamwork and determination, and is a volunteer surf lifesaver at Swanbourne Nedlands Surf Life Saving Club.

Ryan Quinn

Ryan’s interest and passion for environmental justice has been the main driver in both his professional career and volunteering experience over the past decade. Upon completing his Bachelor of Arts (Urban and Regional Planning) with 1st Class Honors, Ryan commenced his PhD at Curtin University investigating the relationships between humans and nature in the land-use planning system of Western Australia which he completed in 2019. Concurrently, Ryan volunteered for 2.5 years at the Kaarakin Black Cockatoo Rehabilitation Centre and was a committee member for the Friends of Underwood Avenue Bushland. In addition, Ryan has recently completed a 2.5 year tenure as the state Secretary for The Greens (WA) where his strengths in project management, policy review and internal governance matters were capitalised upon. Currently working for Senator Rachel Siewert, Ryan is enjoying a shift in focus from environmental to social justice policy matters including social security and mental health. Ryan is interested in further developing his governance and leadership skills so he can continue to be an effective contributor to the not-for-profit sector in the years to come.

Tegan Chick

Tegan’s career commenced in 2018 when she was employed as a graduate at Lavan (a multi-disciplinary law firm). Tegan commenced her graduate rotations in the family law team, and moved to the planning and environment team. Each of these teams provided Tegan with the opportunity to work closely with people, and assist in resolution of issues which directly impacted individuals. Tegan is currently in the ‘litigation and dispute resolution’ team, which provides a range of opportunities to broaden her experiences including in defamation, property, and corporate law. Prior to commencing her career, Tegan volunteered at a community legal centre (Consumer Credit Legal Service) as well as with her university’s law student’s society, and other ad hoc events. Since commencing full time work, Tegan has sought to engage in a variety of volunteering opportunities, including within the firm (such as with the Reconciliation Action Plan committee) and with Women Lawyers (WA).

Nick Loke

Nick is a chemical engineer by training and gained an MBA from UWA in 2017. For most of his early career, Nick worked as process engineer in the oil & gas sector. He is currently employed as a management consultant with Solution Minds Consulting (SMC). His professional work focuses on helping organisations improve their business processes through digital strategy and transformation and systems-based improvements. Nick’s skills include business process improvement, process systems design, project management and technical-commercial feasibility analyses. Nick is heavily involved in community work through his local church. He currently volunteers as a Connect Group leader and leads a New People & Visitors hospitality team at Kingdomcity Church. Nick is very passionate about building connections in the community and fostering better and stronger families, relationships and marriages. He is especially interested to work with NFP organisations involved in community outreach and social care.

Elsie Blay

Elsie Blay is a strategic manager specialising in health service design. Elsie has over 15 years experience in the community health sector and has held roles ranging from front line nursing, academia, projects, risk, as well as leadership and executive positions. Elsie is passionate about all things health having a strong background in public health with a focus on program implementation and mobilisation.

Elsie is a systems thinker, working across the sector to influence solutions or maximise access to health care and education. Elsie’s background in clinical nursing has driven her commitment to seeking out upstream solutions to social disadvantage.

Elsie has a strong commitment to voluntary service, volunteer nursing in Timor, Uganda and the USA. Elsie is a Notre Dame and UWA graduate, has a Masters in Public health with a thesis focus in health economics and health work force design and planning. She has further post graduate studies in clinical oncology nursing, biomedical science and curriculum design.

Dianne McWilliam

Dianne’s background is in management consulting, and Economics and Social research. As a consultant with McKinsey & Company, Dianne built a record of success serving private, public and non-profit clients across Australia, in a range of industries (health care, education, mining, telecommunications) and functional areas (strategy, operations, capability building, organisational performance and design). Undertaking research with the Centre for Social Impact while studying her BPhil (majors in Economics and Finance) at UWA, she developed an interest in social innovation to improve the lives of vulnerable Australians. She has volunteered on the leadership teams of Bloom, a non-profit supporting young entrepreneurs, and TLG, a non-profit providing tutoring to rural students. Currently, she volunteers at a residential aged care facility. Dianne is passionate about applying her skills to help create an Australia where the elderly are leveraged as a valuable resource of mentorship and expertise, and enabled to live high quality lives – where Australians no longer have an ‘expiry date’.

Cristiana Anca

Cristiana is a social entrepreneur passionate about creating a world where all members of the community have equal access to employment opportunities and skill development. After moving to Australia and working in a consulting company for 1 year, Cristiana founded and now manages Wholefood Enterprises, a leading local manufacturer of gourmet vegan products. The business was transformed 2.5 years ago, to operate as a social enterprise at the core, providing employment to at-risk categories and receiving recognition for the work conducted to date. Prior to moving to Australia, Cristiana served for the United Nations Development Programme in Romania as national advisor on 2 national programs, whereby she authored and co-authored 3 publications – a research study, a journal article and co-authored a collaborative, grass roots, actionable sustainable development model with the UNDP. Cristiana’s experience also includes community development advisory work within mining and metals, oil and gas sectors.

Sarah Parkin

Dr Sarah Parkin is a Clinical Psychologist who has focused her career on understanding how to support individuals with their mental health needs across the lifespan. Her volunteer history has focused on mentoring those who may be vulnerable such as mentoring first year psychology students at university, mentoring students to engage at her local high school, and helping students who were having difficulty with research degrees. After working in various positions across the public and private sector Sarah made the decision to seek employment in a not-for-profit organisation as she considered this more aligned with her values and aspirations to positively support local communities. Sarah is currently employed as a Clinical Psychologist by Youth Futures WA where she provides psychological support to young people with mental health issues who have experienced barriers to engaging in mainstream education. Sarah is passionate about engaging systems such as family, friends, schools, services and the wider community in order to support individuals and their families to overcome adversity.

Thomas Parayil

Thomas is a chartered engineer with a diverse background in engineering, project management, construction, operations and strategic planning. He is a certified project management professional and change management practitioner with a passion for creating a culture where people volunteer their best efforts. Thomas’ recent volunteering experiences have been centred on developing the next generation of learners through his involvement with the CareerTrackers Indigenous Internship, Kwinana Industrial Council iScience Project and mentoring engineering students during their 12 week vacation program. Thomas has the desire to use his skills to give back to the community and is interested in further developing his governance capability in order to apply his experience more broadly within the not-for-profit sector.