I am a collaborative, outcomes-focused senior leader in philanthropy, social impact and education, with an abiding focus on addressing disadvantage and helping young people to thrive. My expertise is in philanthropic grant-making and evaluation, policy influence, leading education social enterprises, designing and delivering transformative social impact convenings, and recruiting and developing exceptional talent for social impact.

I have been on the leadership teams of four social purpose organisations in their start-up phases: Ravenwood High School, High Resolves, Evidence for Learning, and the Paul Ramsay Foundation, and I have closely supported many ambitious initiatives from start up, including Learning Creates Australia, the Quality Teaching Academy, and Thrive: Finishing School Well. Because of this experience, I have a keen understanding of the challenges and dilemmas unique to this time in the organisational lifecycle.

I began my career as a teacher and school leader in the United States, and I taught in Australian schools, as well. These direct experiences with young people have informed my work in designing, developing, and managing programs, and catalysing systemic impact through strategic partnerships and philanthropic funding.  I have a constant focus: “How are the things I’m working on making a difference for young people and the adults who support them?”

This means I care about impact, even as I’m working at scale. In philanthropy, I led the development and management of more than $170,000,000 in partnerships across grants, impact investing, research and evaluation, which have measurably improved outcomes for hundreds of thousands of Australian children and young people. In the design of all that work, I made sure we kept human relationships at the could hang our collective hats on those measurable improvements.