Meet Our Career Ambassadors

Sharon joined the community sector mid-career after 18 years in health and social policy with the Commonwealth Government and working privately in public affairs / government relations. Sharon’s interest in population health continued throughout her career, but the switch to the community sector was completely unexpected She never envisaged working in the alcohol and other drugs sector.

Sharon first joined the Board of Karralika as part of her commitment to ‘giving back’ to services in the community where she was raising her family. It didn’t take long before she knew she wanted to work at a organisation that was having such a powerful and positive impact in the lives of people and families. The alignment of Sharon’s personal values and Karralika’s purpose made sense. She left her job and joined as Services Director, later becoming the CEO. That was 11 years ago. She’s still loving it and learning every day

Being part of the community sector has been exciting, challenging, sometimes frustrating, but always rewarding. There are too many benefits to list, but it boils down to being part of something bigger than yourself, where our essential work supports others in the community in a way that is needed, valued, and purposeful.

Sue is the Chief Executive Officer of the Domestic Violence Crisis Service, she is an LGBTIQA+ community advocate as well as a passionate violence prevention and respectful relationships educator and advocate. Sue has been working in this space and aligned violence response and primary prevention spaces for over 18 years, having most recently worked at the Australian National University leading their Respectful Relationships Unit prior to taking her current role. She has contributed to the development of education programs including Oxford University Press program, Consent Matters and Griffith University’s MATE Bystander program. Sue is currently a member of the ACT LGBTIQ+ Ministerial Advisory Council serving as its Chair.

There’s a diversity of impacts that anybody can make in this sector, whether you be a qualified lawyer, a youth worker, whether you be someone transitioning from a different career later in life or whatever it might be. You have a plan, but very rarely is that plan the only thing that takes place in that day. And every interaction, every meeting, every client that you get to meet, every advocacy meeting you go to, every interaction gives you the opportunity to create change, to hopefully contribute to creating the world that would make it easier for us to live in and to thrive in. That’s a pretty remarkable thing to get you out of bed in the morning.