Elizabeth Foster
ACEL QLD Branch President
Liz is an established leader in education and is currently the Executive Principal of Wavell State High School in Brisbane. Over the past 15 years she has served in leadership positions at Ferny Grove State High School, Stretton State College, Kelvin Grove State College and MacGregor State High School. Liz has served as Chair of the Advisory Board for the Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology and is a member of the Principals Advisory Committee for the Department of Education and Executive Member of the Independent Public Schools Alliance. Liz is a member of the Queensland Executive for the Australian Council for Educational Leaders. She continues to advocate for the opportunities and importance of professional organisations. Liz is a facilitator in the Metropolitan Aspiring Leaders Program together with mentoring both cross-sector school and tertiary leaders. She actively engages with the corporate sector, regularly presenting at seminars and conferences.
Liz Foster is a school leader who collaboratively develops, articulates and enacts a vision for the future of not only her school but the broader education community. Her leadership and associated achievements are characterised by her exemplary ability to build a high performing team culture in which all people contribute. In particular, Liz ensures all people have an opportunity to contribute collectively to school decision making. Intentional in design, she creates environments that encourage conversations to consider context, listening for understanding and permission to think beyond conventional school systems, in together finding solutions that enable all people to be involved. Her strength in leadership is her capacity to connect with people whilst creating a strong sense of culture and community.
In understanding that it is the capability of people as the greatest lever for improved student outcomes, she promotes investment in professional learning for all. Liz builds highly functional teams in large, complex metropolitan schools, committed to a shared vision; leadership and faculty structures that promote collective accountability and consistency in the application of agreed learning frameworks; a learning and teaching environment leading to positive progress in learning outcomes for all students as a result of evidence based, high impact strategies contextualised to each school community.
Liz provides an environment for learning to be questioned and therefore to thrive. With an emphasis on student leadership, in multiple contexts, she has led the design of student leadership programs that provide all students with the capability to contribute and the confidence to make a difference. The impact that Liz has as a school leader is remarkable in enabling a learning culture in which everyone contributes to and influences the broader educational landscape. Liz Foster values the importance of being open to learning, leveraging research to inform practice and challenging conventions that stretch possibility in asking the question, ‘How might we prompt people to think beyond the normalised paradigms of teaching and leadership?’