International Women’s Day 2022 with ACEL Speakers
Rosemary Kariuki
Rosemary is a Multicultural Liaison Officer with New South Wales Police, where she links and facilitates communication and interaction between the police and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Through this role, Rosemary has helped build relationships in the community and improved service delivery to culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) people.
When Rosemary arrived in Australia in 1999 to flee tribal clashes in Kenya, she struggled to navigate her new life in Australia, facing loneliness and lack of information. This difficult time helped her recognise that isolation is a huge issue for many migrants and Refugee Women and that’s when she began her journey of supporting them,. She co-founded the African Women’s Group, an organisation that empowers and breaks down social isolation for CALD women through programs like the annual African Women’s Dinner Dance and the Cultural exchange program that connects CALD women with Australian families. These programs have positively impacted the lives of women limited by language barriers, restrictive gender roles, religious practices, lack of education and insufficient or inexistent integration processes.
Rosemary is an advocate for CALD women’s social and economic empowerment as it ultimately sets the ground for them to live in freedom and independency.
Her work has earned her many recognitions including Australia’s Local Hero (2021), Community Fellow- Western Sydney University (2021), Civilian Employee of the year- Parramatta Rotary Club (2016) and Parramatta Citizen of the year (2012), to name a few.
When she’s not working, Rosemary can be found empowering people through storytelling. She has been involved in Baulkham Hills Ladies Troupe and Rosemary’s Way, two documentaries about forgiveness, resilience and empowerment.
Rosemary’s story has been described as impactful and life changing and it’s no wonder that many refer to her as ‘Mama Africa’ and ‘Big Mama’.
Kristen Douglas
Kristen also specialises in Education Executive & School Principal mental health, school staff self-care, and the impact of critical incidents in school communities. headspace is one of the largest mental health platforms and organisations in the OECD. headspace is contributing to a national ground swell of conversations and strategies to ensure that education staff take care of their own mental health and prioritise their wellbeing.
Kristen has significantly contributed to the synergy between education and mental health, combining her experience as an educator and principal, with her passion and experience in education and mental health and wellbeing, from government policy to leading transformational change in education systems and in the mental health sector.
Kristen Douglas, leads a large national multidisciplinary team through headspace working across all Australian Primary and Secondary Schools to enhance the mental health and wellbeing of whole school communities with a focus on school leaders and staff. And was instrumental in collaborating with Beyond Blue to curate the Be You national online mental health initiative, which supports educators and schools in developing positive, inclusive and resilient learning communities.
In doing this work, Kristen has worked with, and alongside, thousands of Australian school leaders and their communities when they have been impacted by a critical incident or distressing event. This has included death, suicide, homicide, shootings, natural disasters, and large-scale events like COVID 19.
Tracey Ezard
Tracey is known for her ‘Ferocious Warmth’ leadership approach and
professional collaborative culture work via The Buzz Academy. Tracey’s
collaborative framework The Buzz which creates an environment of
learning, trust and innovation is used in education and organisational
systems throughout Australia. Her Buzz Diagnostic has been used by over
5000 schools and has had over 9500 educators participate. Tracey has
run leadership programs for education and system leaders for over 15
years in all education sectors in Australia and in New Zealand. She also
works with education federations in the UK. The Buzz Academy is an online
portal that assists school leaders skill up their learning leaders in building
authentic professional learning culture.
Tracey has presented in conferences on programs alongside educational
global leaders such as Professors John Hattie, Michael Fullan, Carol Dweck
and Lynn Sharrat, Maggie Farrar and Pasi Sahlberg. She works extensively
with principal and assistant principal networks and associations. She runs
symposiums and conferences for school leaders using a combination of
keynote, workshop and interactive activities throughout Australia.
Tracey is an author of three books. In 2021 Tracey launched her third book
‘Ferocious Warmth - School Leaders Who Inspire and Transform’.
Her previous books are ‘Glue -The Stuff that Binds Us Together to do
Extraordinary Work’ for leaders across all sectors who want to lift beyond
convention to create high performing teams and ‘The Buzz – Creating a
Thriving and Collaborative Staff Learning Culture’, designed for education
leaders to support schools to bring about transformation in education.
Tracey is an educator and a National Fellow of the Australian Council of
Education Leaders (FACEL) and a Certified Speaking Professional. She
has a background in teaching and educational leadership, business
management and HR in fine dining restaurants and project management
in the automotive industry (variety is the spice of life!). Her last education
position was as Assistant Principal in the Australian school system.
Tracey has been running her own speaking and consulting practice for
sixteen years. She has two teenage children, two dogs and when not at
work loves spending time exploring the world. She is Board Chair of the
social enterprise The Corner Store Network.
Deborah Netolicky
Dr Deborah Netolicky has more than 20 years of experience teaching and leading in independent schools in Australia and England. She is currently Head of Teaching and Learning (K-12) at St Mark’s Anglican Community School, Honorary Research Associate at Murdoch University, Chair of a local primary school board, and member of national and international education advisory committees. She is the recipient of awards including the 2021 ACEL WA Certificate of Excellence in Educational Leadership, the 2021 AERA Educational Change SIG Emerging Scholar Award, the 2021 Michael Fullan Emerging Scholar Award, the 2018 WA Research in Educational Leadership and Management Award, and the 2016 ACEL ‘New Voice’ In Educational Leadership Research Scholarship. She blogs at theeduflaneuse.com, hosts the The Edu Salon podcast, and is author of Transformational Professional Learning: Making a Difference in Schools, editor of Future Alternatives for Educational Leadership: Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Democracy and co-editor of Flip the System Australia: What Matters in Education.
Nicole Wade
Nicole is a proud Nyoongah woman, from a strong matriarchal lineage of ‘Healers.’ Generations of Haywood, Eggington and now Wade women, nourished the physical, mental and spiritual health of Aboriginal communities. Nicole, a primary school principal for over 8 years, recently commenced her appointment as the Executive Principal of Curran Public School as part of the New South Wales Department of Education’s Connected Communities Strategy.
Nicole herself went from being a school refuser as a child, to leading the way in Aboriginal education for the school communities she has served in Sydney’s South-West. She navigated the internal conflict arising from her cultural identity as an Aboriginal person and the challenges of being a teenage mother. Nicole leveraged these experiences to harness the belief that she could make a difference to breaking bias and empowering children and families in the communities she leads. She promotes the idea that schools need to be places of healing.
Nicole received an NSW Department of Education Nanga Mai Award in 2015 for her outstanding leadership of Aboriginal Education and was nominated again in 2021. She was recognised as a finalist in the 2021 Australian Education Awards category of School Principal of the Year- Government.
Jane Wilkinson
Jane Wilkinson is Professor of Educational Leadership and leader of the *Reimagining Educational Leadership* Research Theme in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of educational leadership for social justice, women and leadership, refugee education and practice theory. Jane has conducted extensive research with principals and schools on leading change in schools and educational districts and supporting refugee education in schools and universities.
Jane’s new book is entitled Educational leadership through a practice lens: Practice matters. She is a former deputy principal, English and EAL secondary teacher in rural and urban Victorian schools. For more information click here.
Barbara Watterston
Barbara has extensive experience in education and has held a number of
executive leadership positions across Australia within the education and
not-for-profit community sectors. An engaging facilitator, Barbara’s
national and international research, consultancy, high performance
coaching, and speaking engagements, centre on leadership development
that emphasises the impact of high-quality leadership on creating the
enabling environments for students to learn.
An author, Barbara’s most recent co-authored book Step In, Step Up: Empowering women for the school leadership journey, received a silver medal in the international 2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards.
Recognised for her contribution to educational leadership and professional learning, her national research report, Insights: Environmental Scan Principal Preparation Programs
contributed to five major national recommendations for preparing future
school leaders. This has informed her design and delivery of bespoke
emerging, principal and system leadership programs.
Barbara was the inaugural recipient of the Women of Achievement Award
(WA DoE), is an Honorary Fellow of the Melbourne Graduate School of
Education and is a National Fellow of the Australian Council for
Educational Leaders. Her expertise is regularly sought out to contribute
in an advisory capacity as a member of numerous university,
departmental, school, and professional boards.
She has a special interest in the links between leadership
sustainability, wellbeing, and impact on performance to ensure learning,
for all, can thrive.