Meet Our Career Ambassadors

Rachelle is a proud Baakindji Noongku woman on her mother’s side. She was raised, lives, works and studies on Ngunnawal/Ngambri Country.

Rachelle comes from a career in the public service (both APS and ACTPS). She began her career in the community sector in 2020 as a paralegal with a community legal service. Now as the Senior Gulanga Program Officer Manager at ACTCOSS, Rachelle has been able to use her wide range of skills to advocate for the community. She is passionate about supporting Aboriginal people, sharing her knowledge, and building capacity within the sector.

Rachelle is in her final year of completing a Bachelor of Law and hopes to be admitted as a solicitor in 2023.

I feel like I’m in a really good environment. Flexible working hours, really caring workplace as well. I feel like it’s a really safe workplace, especially being Aboriginal woman as well with lots of kids and also lots of study commitments too. They have been really accommodating of that as well.

Shane volunteered at Meridian for several years before becoming employed there. As a volunteer he was given the opportunity to learn and contribute to the wonderful and valuable work they do, as well as the goals they have for the future. He very quickly identified that Meridian’s values aligned with his own and jumped at the opportunity to work there.

Shane moved into the community sector after over a decade of experience working in management within security and retail. After discovering his passion for advocacy, working with people from diverse walks of life, and contributing to positive change for our communities he knew that this was the right direction for him.

Since beginning in his new role, Shane has been given countless opportunities to further his skills and knowledge through training, education, and overwhelming support with his professional development plan. Words cannot begin to describe how rewarding and fulfilling this change has been.

I’ve been in the community sector for just under a year now. The biggest change for me was the impact that it made on the person I was. I felt a sense of accomplishment and I felt that overflow into the rest of my life. I was an entirely different person just because I felt satisfied and fulfilled by my role. I was a more at peace person, I was a more content person. Being able to impact and have that sense of accomplishment every day and knowing that you genuinely made a difference.