Meet Our Career Ambassadors

Carmel worked at Care for over 22 years, 13 of them as the CEO. She started in a part-time education role after taking a pause from teaching to raise her young family. She took extended maternity leave for 4 years but eventually found herself back at Care where she has remained ever since. Carmel returned briefly to teaching but ultimately felt that her interest in social justice was best served by working to the community sector.

She absolutely loves her job – the work Care does, the clients they support and the staff she works with – those are the reasons why she continues to postpone retirement! Over her years in the organisation, she has had several roles ranging from community education, client work, policy and now management. The opportunity to develop her knowledge and skills within the same organisation has made her time richer and more rewarding.

Working in the community sector has so many benefits including flexible work practices, shared values and salary sacrificing arrangements. But most importantly Carmel is there because she wants to make a positive impact on people’s lives. She wouldn’t want to be anywhere else!

I love the people I work with because we have shared values. We’re doing it for the same reason. We’re driven by a similar passion. I love it because I feel like the work we do makes a difference. It’s doing something that means the lives of the people in our community can be improved. And I love it because you meet such a great mix of people in the community sector, it’s such a diverse sector and there are some fabulous people who work there.

Since national online charity GIVIT launched into Canberra in 2017, Caroline led its ACT operations during a rapid period of growth. With the vision of making GIVIT a household name, Caroline has recruited thousands of community donors, commercial retailers and 250 local charities to match those who have, with those in need. More recently, Caroline took on a new role as Corporate Partnerships Manager, leading GIVIT’s corporate response to the 2022 East Coast Floods which attracted more than $15 million in donations.

Caroline has over 10 years’ experience in marketing and development roles across a range of non-profits in Australia and abroad, including the Edinburgh Science Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and the Australian Institute of Architects. Caroline has a Bachelor of Creative Arts (International Studies) from Macquarie University, Sydney.

In a mad, mad world where there’s so many hopeless things happening, to make that small real difference most days is pretty special. Not many people have the opportunity to make the world a better place, so it is a real privilege to do our best to try and make it a better place.