QUINN CRAMER -

QUEENS­LAND FIRE AND EMER­GENCY SERVICES

Quinn joined Queens­land Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice part time in August 2008 as an Aux­il­iary Fire­fight­er in Bund­aberg while she worked full time as a Busi­ness Man­ag­er at Tar­get. In August 2011 Quinn com­menced full time employ­ment as a Fire­fight­er with Queens­land Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice and upon grad­u­at­ing the acad­e­my was appoint­ed to Rock­hamp­ton, Cen­tral Region. Quinn was the first female employed to a per­ma­nent posi­tion in Rock­hamp­ton and only the fourth female in the Cen­tral Region.

Quinn com­plet­ed her Cert III in Pub­lic Safe­ty and Fire­fight­ing & Emer­gency Oper­a­tions in 2015 to attain the rank of first class fire­fight­er and then went on to com­plete her Cer­tifi­cate IV in Pub­lic Safety/​Fire­fight­ing Super­vi­sion to become qual­i­fied as a Senior Fire­fight­er in March 2016. In 2017 Quinn com­plet­ed the Q‑Balance Women lead­ers in pub­lic safe­ty course through the Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Police Man­age­ment (AIPM). More recent­ly she com­plet­ed her OPRC025 Region­al Instruc­tion and was appoint­ed to the posi­tion of Sta­tion Offi­cer Glad­stone com­mand in July 2018.

In 2014 Quinn became involved with WAFA (Women in Fire­fight­ing Aus­trala­sia) through their bien­ni­al con­fer­ence. Through her involve­ment with WAFA Quinn saw a need to imple­ment and work towards improv­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions and men­tor­ing net­works for female fire­fight­ers in rur­al areas. Quinn joined the board of WAFA in Octo­ber 2017 and is involved in mem­ber­ship, mar­ket­ing sub­com­mit­tee. Quinn was also on the organ­is­ing com­mit­tee for the 2018 WAFA con­fer­ence in Welling­ton. She was also a part of a team the organ­ised QLD Cen­tral Regions first ever Tri-Agency Sym­po­sium link­ing QAS, QPS and QFES to work togeth­er towards joint out­comes. The Sym­po­sium held in Octo­ber 2017 in Rock­hamp­ton focused on strate­gies for Inclu­sion and Diver­si­ty and the chal­lenges that the three agen­cies face.

Her work in Cen­tral Region led to her being award­ed Out­stand­ing Female Leader in an Oper­a­tional Role at the Inter­na­tion­al Wom­en’s day PSBA awards in March 2017. Quinn also received the award for Out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion by a Female Fire­fight­er at the WAFA Awards night in 2018.

In her spare time Quinn is a com­pet­i­tive cyclist and has rep­re­sent­ed Queens­land at a Nation­al Lev­el with mul­ti­ple medals at state and nation­al lev­el. She was award­ed QLD Elite Female Track Cyclist of the Year 2014, 2015, 2016 and is a mem­ber of the Cycling QLD Women’s cycling com­mit­tee. Quinn has also com­plet­ed sev­en QFES Bike 4 Burns char­i­ty rides rais­ing funds for the Burns unit of the Lady Cilen­to Children’s Hospital.

MELINDA MCDONALD

FIRE AND RESCUE NSW

With a background in communications and project management, Melinda (Min) McDonald made a career change to operational firefighting with Fire and Rescue NSW in 2017 and has not regretted it for a moment. Having gained experience in both metropolitan and regional stations, including Australia’s largest and busiest station, City of Sydney, Min was part of deployments for the 2019 bushfires, and the 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers, Sydney’s west, and northwest NSW - where she worked as part of a multi-agency IMT, and as a community liaison officer.

Min is currently undertaking a research project with FRNSW Community Risk Reduction Unit to identify gaps, examine current approaches, and develop evidence-based programs to reduce risk for culturally diverse communities, and regularly presents on this topic in emergency management and academic forums. 

Min contributes to FRNSW Women’s Inclusive Network, Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Network, and is a passionate advocate for women in firefighting, regularly mentoring female applicants for career firefighting, and helping to host the WAFA PAT FAM Information Sessions at the FRNSW Emergency Services Academy.

Min holds a Bachelor of Business, is a Justice of the Peace, and is a member of the International Communications Association, the Diversity Council of Australia and the Institute of Public Administration Australia. 

When she’s not at work, Min likes to ride her bike, run, do yoga, and drink babycinos with her grandson Teddy – not necessarily in that order.

ROBYN ALLCHIN

Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service

With a background in environmental science and law, Robyn began her career in fire management in

2012, when she took up a role at the then Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment

(DSE) – now Forest Fire Management Victoria. During this time Robyn had several roles across the

state working in public land bushfire management and prevention activities, before relocating to her

home state of Tasmania in 2019.

Robyn continued her career in fire management with the Tasmanian Fire Service, working as a

Planning Officer, assisting with planned burn activities and community fire safety. In 2023, Robyn

landed her current role at the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service as a Fire Management Officer

(Policy), which she loves.

Robyn took up a casual board vacancy with WAFA in 2023, before taking up the position of Secretary

in 2024.

Robyn is passionate about diversity in fire management and sees increasing the presence of women

at the decision-making table as an excellent way of improving outcomes on the ground.

In her spare time Robyn likes bushwalking, running and spending time with her partner and four-

year daughter, who has already been to her first WAFA conference!

TBC

ALI­SON WAL­TERS — FOR­MER TREA­SUR­ER AND PUB­LIC OFFI­CER

AIR SER­VICES AUSTRALIA

Ali­son has been an Avi­a­tion Res­cue Fire Fight­er for Airser­vices since 2012, work­ing at Syd­ney Inter­na­tion­al & Domes­tic Airport.

As part of a team of more than 900 fire fight­ers, locat­ed at 26 air­ports across Aus­tralia, Ali­son is required to be ready to res­cue peo­ple and prop­er­ty from an air­craft crash or fire and from oth­er fires on the airport. 

A busy moth­er with four chil­dren, Ali­son and her part­ner own their own Cross­Fit Box in Maroubra NSW. An exten­sive back­ground in the health and fit­ness indus­try, which includes cer­tifi­cates from nutri­tion to life coach­ing, are all high­ly valu­able skills which Ali­son has brought to the fire­fight­ing profession.

In recent years, Ali­son has been a mem­ber the Avi­a­tion Res­cue Fire Fight­ing Ser­vices’ Women in Fire Fight­ing Focus Group, aimed at sup­port­ing and dri­ving a num­ber of ini­tia­tives to bet­ter attract and retain women into avi­a­tion res­cue fire­fight­ing roles. Ali­son is pas­sion­ate about help­ing oth­ers move towards a career in fire­fight­ing and has helped train dozens of par­tic­i­pants for the phys­i­cal com­po­nent of the test­ing phase in recruiting.

In 2016 Ali­son also played a role in adver­tis­ing and events as part of Avi­a­tion Res­cue Fire Fight­ing’s ​‘Stay Fit Save Lives’ recruit­ment cam­paign which was suc­cess­ful in increas­ing the num­ber of females apply­ing for roles with Airservices.

She has enjoyed the chal­lenges of work­ing in a male dom­i­nat­ed job and has seen many pos­i­tive changes which has made her love the career even more.

After attend­ing the WAFA con­fer­ence in Can­ber­ra 2014, Ali­son was pleas­ant­ly sur­prised at the sup­port through­out the Aus­tralasian com­mu­ni­ty and learnt more about females striv­ing towards a unit­ed front. She has been a sup­port­ive mem­ber since and con­tin­ues to active­ly sup­port the women and fire­fight­ing community.

STEVE O’MAL­LEY — 

MEL­BOURNE FIRE BRIGADE

Steve O’Malley AFSM is a Lead­ing Fire­fight­er with the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Fire Brigade (MFB) ful­fill­ing the cur­rent role of Fire­fight­er — Diver­si­ty and Inclusion.

Steve has been an oper­a­tional Fire­fight­er for more than 31 years and is a grad­u­ate in the study of Human Rights. 

As well as ful­fill­ing his cur­rent role Steve is also:

Board and Hon­orary Life mem­ber of Women and Fire­fight­ing Aus­trala­sia (WAFA)

Foun­da­tion mem­ber of the Emer­gency Man­age­ment Vic­to­ria ​‘Gen­der and Dis­as­ter’ taskforce

MFB Fam­i­ly Vio­lence & Equal Oppor­tu­ni­ty Con­tact Officer

Co-Coor­di­nates the ​‘Diver­si­ty Stream’ of the annu­al Emer­gency Man­age­ment Con­fer­ence in Melbourne

Train­er and Facil­i­ta­tor of the Gen­der and Dis­as­ter Pod’s Gen­dered Vio­lence and Lessons in Dis­as­ter train­ing package 

White Rib­bon Ambas­sador since 2007 and a for­mer mem­ber of the Nation­al Ambassador’s Ref­er­ence Group, White Rib­bon Indige­nous and Tor­res Strait Islander and Cul­tur­al­ly and Lin­guis­ti­cal­ly Diver­si­ty fam­i­ly vio­lence ref­er­ence groups

In 2005 he was award­ed the MFB’s Medal for Long and Good Ser­vice and the Nation­al Medal for Ser­vice. He received the Vic­to­ri­an Award for Excel­lence for Ser­vice to Victoria’s Mul­ti­cul­tur­al Com­mu­ni­ty in 2008, on Aus­tralia Day 2010 he became a recip­i­ent of the Aus­tralian Fire Ser­vice Medal (AFSM) and more recent­ly a recip­i­ent of the Nation­al Emer­gency Medal for sus­tained ser­vice dur­ing the 2009 Vic­to­ri­an Bush­fires. Steve was the recip­i­ent of the 2014 Chief Officer’s Schol­ar­ship, return­ing from a trip to inves­ti­gate the Fire Brigade’s role in the pri­ma­ry pre­ven­tion of vio­lence against women in the UK.

Steve’s activ­i­ties in rais­ing aware­ness of gen­dered vio­lence have a direct cor­re­la­tion with Emer­gency Ser­vices strate­gies in mit­i­gat­ing risk to the com­mu­ni­ty. He is often relied on to present on diver­si­ty and inclu­sion strate­gies with­in the emer­gency ser­vices sec­tor, and on var­i­ous gov­ern­ing bod­ies and work­ing groups.

‘My advo­ca­cy and agency has been a dri­ver in both my per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life. I feel that the com­bi­na­tion of pro­fes­sion­al acu­men and per­son­al enthu­si­asm has estab­lished me as a leader in equi­ty and inclu­sion prac­tice in the Emer­gency Man­age­ment sector’.

‘My pur­pose has been, and still remains, the elim­i­na­tion of gen­der based vio­lence through gen­der equi­ty. This will only be achieved through the con­tin­u­a­tion of valu­able, inno­v­a­tive and strate­gic part­ner­ships both with­in and out­side the emer­gency man­age­ment sector’. 

Jour­nals and Articles

Asia Pacif­ic Fire mag­a­zine arti­cle in capac­i­ty as WAFA Board member.

http://​apf​mag​.mdm​pub​lish​ing​.com/​w​o​m​e​n​-​a​n​d​-​f​i​r​e​f​i​g​h​t​i​n​g​-​a​u​s​t​r​a​l​a​s​i​a​-​2​0​1​6​-​r​i​g​h​t​-​p​l​a​c​e​-​r​i​g​h​t​-​time/

Aus­tralian Jour­nal of Emer­gency Man­age­ment — ​“Victoria’s gen­der and dis­as­ter task­force – a ret­ro­spec­tive analy­sis” https://​knowl​edge​.aidr​.org​.au/​r​e​s​o​u​r​c​e​s​/​a​j​e​m​-​j​u​l​-​2​0​1​8​-​v​i​c​t​o​r​i​a​-​s​-​g​e​n​d​e​r​-​a​n​d​-​d​i​s​a​s​t​e​r​-​t​a​s​k​f​o​r​c​e​-​a​-​r​e​t​r​o​s​p​e​c​t​i​v​e​-​a​n​a​l​ysis/

The White Rib­bon Cam­paign and Emer­gency Man­age­ment – Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Emer­gency Ser­vices journal 

https://​issuu​.com/​c​o​u​n​t​r​y​w​i​d​e​a​u​s​t​r​a​l​/​d​o​c​s​/​n​e​r​_​s​p​r​i​n​g​_2017

ERIN POGMORE

PENELOPE CILENTO

EMMA WELSBY

LAURA SMITH

ANGE PESTELL

ANNE PICK­LES PSM, BA, GRAD DIP LIB SCI

FORMER BOARD MEMBER, PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT

FIRE AND RES­CUE NSW

Anne Pick­les is Man­ag­er Capa­bil­i­ty Pro­gram and Pol­i­cy in the Oper­a­tional Capa­bil­i­ty

Direc­torate of Fire and Res­cue NSW (FRN­SW). Anne devel­oped FRNSW’s emer­gency

man­age­ment pol­i­cy and plan­ning frame­work and leads the devel­op­ment of its emer­gency

man­age­ment plans.

Anne has worked for FRN­SW for more than 30 years, in which time she has been involved

with near­ly every aspect of the ser­vice. Start­ing as the Librar­i­an, she was a founder mem­ber

of the Aus­tralasian Librar­i­ans in Emer­gency Ser­vices (ALIES) net­work. Anne then moved

into admin­is­tra­tion, gain­ing expe­ri­ence in knowl­edge man­age­ment, pol­i­cy and pro­ce­dure

devel­op­ment, gov­er­nance and risk, strat­e­gy and plan­ning, and the work­ings of gov­ern­ment.

In 2005 Anne was award­ed the Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal for out­stand­ing lead­er­ship in the

devel­op­ment and imple­men­ta­tion of infor­ma­tion man­age­ment prac­tices and coor­di­nat­ing the

devel­op­ment of pro­ce­dures tar­get­ing the infor­ma­tion needs of fire­fight­ers, par­tic­u­lar­ly in

rela­tion to work health and safe­ty. Anne has also been award­ed the FRN­SW Long Ser­vice

and Good Con­duct Medal and two Clasps.

Anne was involved in the start-up of FRNSW’s Lessons Learned Cen­tre and works with

fire­fight­ers to gath­er and analyse oper­a­tional expe­ri­ence and turn it into explic­it knowl­edge

to dri­ve con­tin­u­ous improve­ment in safe­ty and ser­vice deliv­ery. Anne cham­pi­ons diver­si­ty

and inclu­sion in the devel­op­ment of FRN­SW strat­e­gy and pol­i­cy and is a mem­ber of the

FRN­SW Women’s Inclu­sive Net­work.

Anne became involved in WAFA when she attend­ed and was inspired by the 2018 WAFA

Con­fer­ence in Welling­ton, New Zealand. Anne was elect­ed to the WAFA Board in 2018 and

became Pres­i­dent at the 2021 Annu­al Gen­er­al Meet­ing. Anne is also a mem­ber of the

Aus­tralasian Women in Emer­gen­cies Net­work.

Anne has a Grad­u­ate Diplo­ma in Library Sci­ence and a Bach­e­lor of Arts degree from

Syd­ney Uni­ver­si­ty. She reads wide­ly and is an active cit­i­zen sci­en­tist con­duct­ing wildlife

mon­i­tor­ing in her Local Gov­ern­ment Area.

As a vol­un­teer, Anne con­tributed 20 years ser­vice to 2MBS-FM, a com­mu­ni­ty radio sta­tion

broad­cast­ing clas­si­cal music. Cur­rent­ly, Anne does bush regen­er­a­tion with her local coun­cil

and the Friends of Lord Howe Island. She enjoys eco-tour­ing in Aus­tralia and New Zealand

and has a par­tic­u­lar fond­ness for islands.

JOHN PAPPAS FIML, MAICD, MICDA

BOARD MEMBER/ TREASURER 

QUEENSLAND FIRE AND EMERGENCY SERVICES

John Pappas is currently Director, Regional Operations for Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES). He is the Fire and Rescue service-lead for Central Region responsible for the overall service delivery, management, and performance of Fire and Rescue Stations between Agnes Water, the Whitsundays and west to the South Australian border. 

His interest in firefighting started in March 1994 when he joined the (then) NSW Bush Fire Service as a junior member in northern Sydney. This proved to be the catalyst of his fire service career and commenced with the ACT Fire Brigade in 2002. In 2011 John was promoted to the rank of Station Officer and, transitioned to QFES in 2014. He has undertaken various roles at the rank of Inspector, Superintendent and Chief Superintendent including Zone Commander, Manager Operations Business, Area Commander, Director Regional Development, Director Regional Operations and Executive Manager, School of Fire and Emergency Services Training. 

John is a strong supporter of equality and inclusiveness believing that everyone is unique and valued; and that everyone brings something to the table. He has been a member of WAFA since 2017, is a QFES Ally of Inclusion embracing and promoting the fairness, equity and inclusion programs of QFES and a member of the International Association of Women in Fire & Emergency Services. 

He is known for his strong business acumen and strategic foresight and holds extensive qualifications in Government, Emergency and Firefighting Management including a Bachelor of Emergency Service, a Graduate Certificate in Business (Public Sector Management) and a Graduate Diploma in Strategic Leadership. He is currently completing an MBA and has professional membership with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Australian Institute of Emergency Services, Institute of Community Directors Australia, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Managers and Leaders. 

Away from firefighting John has an interest in the moving camera having had a concurrent career in television production between 1998 and 2014. He was heavily involved with the Olympics broadcast movement for the 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens, 2006 Torino Winter and 2008 Beijing Olympics.

To escape reality, John frequents his ancestral roots in the Mediterranean and tours the world by motorbike.

KELSEY TARA­BI­NI

BNHCRC

Kelsey is cur­rent­ly work­ing with the Bush­fire and Nat­ur­al Haz­ards CRC in the DEL­WP Research Pro­gram and Part­ner­ship Devel­op­ment as a sup­port role. Kelsey is an active vol­un­teer fire fight­er pre­vi­ous­ly with the South Aus­tralian Coun­try Fire Ser­vice for three years. Since Kelsey has moved to Vic­to­ria she has con­tin­ued her vol­un­teer fire fight­ing with the Vic­to­ri­an Coun­try Fire Authority.

Kelsey is a Youth Ambas­sador for the WAFA board and is inter­est­ed in col­lab­o­rat­ing with agen­cies around Aus­tralia to see how they can best sup­port young women who are staff or vol­un­teer with­in agen­cies.

Kelsey comes from an aca­d­e­m­ic back­ground and works in project man­age­ment through the BNHCRC and is inter­est­ed in explor­ing the gaps that exist in research with youth in the emer­gency services.

ARI­ANA HEN­DER­SON

PARKS VIC­TO­RIA 

Ari­ana com­menced her career with Parks Vic­to­ria in Decem­ber 2004 as a Sea­son­al Ranger at Albert Park in Mel­bourne, and con­tin­ued as a Park Ranger in Vis­i­tor Ser­vices and Events man­age­ment. In 2006 Ari­ana joined the Edu­ca­tion and Inter­pre­ta­tion Team, where she launched Parks Victoria’s Junior Ranger Pro­gram and Ranger Roo kids receiv­ing Excel­lence Awards from the Inter­pre­ta­tion Aus­tralia Asso­ci­a­tion and the Aus­tralian Mar­ket­ing Institute. 

In 2010 Ari­ana moved into the Fire and Emer­gency Ser­vices Direc­torate and under­took a strate­gic review of Parks Victoria’s Emer­gency Man­age­ment Plan­ning process. In 2015 she com­menced her cur­rent role Man­ag­er Fire and Emer­gency Recov­ery and leads the statewide coor­di­na­tion of recov­ery pro­grams fol­low­ing emer­gen­cies on Parks Vic­to­ria man­aged land. 

Since 2006 Ari­ana has been a Gen­er­al Fire-fight­er attain­ing Crew Leader and Oper­a­tions Offi­cer 1 accred­i­ta­tions, cur­rent­ly work­ing towards Burn Offi­cer in Charge. She is a recip­i­ent of the Nation­al Emer­gency Medal recog­nis­ing her con­tri­bu­tion to the 2009 Black Sat­ur­day bushfires. 

In 2015 Ari­ana co-pre­sent­ed ​‘Bring your Lip­stick’ at the AFAC con­fer­ence high­light­ing gen­der equi­ty issues with­in the emer­gency ser­vices sec­tor. Since then Ari­ana has been a strong advo­cate through her involve­ment on the Depart­ment of Envi­ron­ment, Land, Water and Plan­ning (DEL­WP) ​‘Women in Fire and Emer­gen­cies Lead­er­ship Action Plan’; and as a mem­ber of Parks Victoria’s Diver­si­ty and Inclu­sion Lead­er­ship Group. She is proud of her achieve­ment pro­duc­ing the 2016 Inter­na­tion­al Women’s Day ​‘Burn­ing Ambi­tion’ video high­light­ing women in fire and emergency. 

Ari­ana has com­plet­ed a Bach­e­lor of Applied Sci­ence dou­ble degree in Parks, Recre­ation and Her­itage and Eco­tourism, where she received the Dean’s Award for Excel­lence and the Inter­pre­ta­tion Aus­tralia award for Aca­d­e­m­ic Excellence. 

When not at work, Ari­ana is in pur­suit of tick­ing off her 101 dreams list. She has already accom­plished walk­ing 900km Camino de San­ti­a­go across Spain, the Quar­ry trail to Machu Pic­chu in Peru, sail­ing the Greek islands, a Shaman­ic heal­ing retreat in Mex­i­co, danc­ing Sal­sa in Cuba, vis­it­ing Moroc­co, the Gala­pa­gos Islands, and dri­ving an RV across USA and Cana­da to the Cal­gary stam­pede. Dur­ing her most recent adven­ture to Africa in 2018 she sum­mit­ted Mount Kil­i­man­jaro, saw the great migra­tion in the Serengeti and vis­it­ed the Maa­sai Mara. In her spare time, she attempts to speak very bad Span­ish, enjoys tak­ing pho­tos and writes draft nov­els which she hopes to one day share with the world through her website. 

Burn­ing Ambi­tion https://​www​.youtube​.com/​w​a​t​c​h​?​v​=​8​H​o​C​N​W​1XZ4A

EMMA GAM­BLE -

NSW RUR­AL FIRE SERVICE

I am a vol­un­teer fire­fight­er with NSWRFS, at Forbes Cen­tral Brigade. I’m also part of RAFT.

My pas­sion, is to be a mentor/​advocate for any­one want­i­ng to join a brigade or RAFT, to help nav­i­gate from the begin­ning to ease into becom­ing the fire­fight­er they see them­selves being.

For the past 12 months I have already assist­ed WAFA as a mem­ber of the Mar­ket­ing and Mem­ber­ship Offi­cer, a role which I enjoyed to the point that I want­ed to engage fur­ther with the board and I was hap­py to have been elect­ed onto the board at the last AGM.

I am a ware­house Offi­cer work­ing towards my cert 4 in Ware­hous­ing and Logistics.

ANNA STEPHAN -

NORTH­ERN TER­RI­TO­RY FIRE AND RES­CUE SERVICE

Anna Stephan Fire­fight­er North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Fire and Res­cue Ser­vice (NTFRS), Alice Springs

Anna grew up in a small vil­lage in Ger­many where her Grand­fa­ther had been the cap­tain of the vol­un­teer brigade for 25 years. Inspired by the work the local brigade car­ried out for the com­mu­ni­ty she joined the group aged 16 and con­tin­ued to serve as a mem­ber until she depart­ed for Aus­tralia in 2005. 

After set­tling down in Alice Springs she joined the Rur­al Vol­un­teer Fire Brigade (ASRVFB) in 2010 and was part of the task force that fought the cam­paign fires of 2011, brought on by unprece­dent­ed rains the year before.

Anna was suc­cess­ful in join­ing the NTFRS as a recruit in mid-2012 and after absolv­ing the four month recruit course in Dar­win has been sta­tioned in Alice Springs since. She cur­rent­ly holds the rank of Senior Firefighter.

Anna antic­i­pates to be able to assist the WAFA board through her expe­ri­ence in sales, pro­mo­tions and spon­sor­ships, (event) organ­i­sa­tion­al skills and peo­ple skills and hopes to take away valu­able infor­ma­tion to pass on to the NTFRS to assist the organ­i­sa­tion in grow­ing the num­ber of full-time female fire­fight­ers across the NT.

She and her hus­band Matt, a para­medic with St John Ambu­lance, have been liv­ing in Alice Springs over 10 years and share a pas­sion for camp­ing, fos­sick­ing and the love for their dogs (past and present), good wine, fish­ing and trav­el­ling. They wel­comed a daugh­ter in 2018 and are look­ing for­ward to her grow­ing up and show­ing her the raw, nat­ur­al beau­ty the Red Cen­tre holds.

NADIA RHODES -

ACT PARKS AND CON­SER­VA­TION SERVICE

Nadia has worked as a Field Offi­cer and Ranger in the ACT since 1997 where she start­ed as one of the very few women with­in the ACT Parks and Con­ser­va­tion Ser­vice. Her cur­rent role is Ranger in Charge of land man­age­ment pro­grams with­in the catch­ment area of Googong Fore­shores locat­ed in New South Wales to the South East of Can­ber­ra. Nadia under­takes var­i­ous fire man­age­ment roles includ­ing Inci­dent Con­troller, Divi­sion­al Com­man­der as well as spe­cialised avi­a­tion roles, such as Air Obser­va­tion, Spe­cial Intel­li­gence Oper­a­tions, Air radio and sys­tems oper­a­tions and Incendiary/​Igni­tion Supervisor.

Nadia has lead the ini­tia­tive of devel­op­ing the ACT Parks Fire Women’s Sup­port Group which aims to increase par­tic­i­pa­tion of females in the organ­i­sa­tion while pro­mot­ing and devel­op­ing staff. The Sup­port group work­shop and dis­cuss impor­tant issues such as fire ground hygiene, PPE/C, train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, fit­ness and men­tor­ing and also runs female focussed train­ing ses­sions based around fire­fight­ing oper­a­tions. This year the group will work on pro­duc­ing a set of repro­duc­tive health guide­lines for the organ­i­sa­tion as well as a return to work strat­e­gy to help women in the work­place under­stand their options when return­ing to work from mater­ni­ty leave.

Nadia has enjoyed her career in a more male dom­i­nat­ed work place and has wit­nessed the pos­i­tive change that an increase in diver­si­ty and inclu­sion has had in the organ­i­sa­tion. She men­tored, pro­vid­ed guid­ance and con­tin­u­al­ly inspires many new Rangers and fire fight­ers to chal­lenge them­selves in this reward­ing career. Nadia has been a mem­ber of WAFA since its ear­ly days and is excit­ed to become a board mem­ber to expand her skills, knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence and be able to bring back new inno­v­a­tive ideas to the ACT.

ALICE LAVEN­DER -

NEW SOUTH WALES RUR­AL FIRE SERVICE

I have been a vol­un­teer in the NSW Rur­al Fire Ser­vices since 2017 as part of Medowie Brigade in the beau­ti­ful Port Stephens. I don’t have any fam­i­ly links to fire­fight­ing, but a friend encour­aged me to join up and once I start­ed it became a new­found pas­sion of mine.

Achieve­ments I am proud of from my time in the ser­vice so far include being one of the first female BA Oper­a­tors in our brigade.

I have been inspired by the work of WAFA since attend­ing the con­fer­ence in New Zealand in 2018, the amount of knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence that is pos­sessed by oth­er women across the var­i­ous emer­gency ser­vices is a great resource for those who are just start­ing out.

I would like to help in spread­ing the WAFA mes­sage of equi­ty & empow­er­ment through the shar­ing of this knowl­edge, and in turn, expand­ing on my own learn­ing experiences.

Out­side of fire­fight­ing, my pro­fes­sion­al back­ground is in accounts and admin­is­tra­tion man­age­ment. In my spare time I enjoy going camp­ing and spend­ing as much time out­doors as I can.

CATHER­INE JOL­LY -

TAS­MA­NIA FIRE SERVICE

Cather­ine joined the Tas­ma­nia Fire ser­vice as a junior mem­ber in 1997 fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of her father. She is cur­rent­ly an offi­cer in a vol­un­teer brigade in the south of the State with respon­si­bil­i­ty for the strate­gic train­ing plan and oth­er admin­is­tra­tive duties on top of her active urban and rur­al oper­a­tional role. Recent­ly she has also a com­menced as a vol­un­teer train­ing instruc­tor, enjoy­ing the chal­lenge of shar­ing skills and knowl­edge with new mem­bers from across the South­ern Region.

Cather­ine is pas­sion­ate about increas­ing the diver­si­ty across the emer­gency ser­vices sec­tor to improve resilience in the future and also has inter­ests in impacts of weath­er and cli­mate on nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, warn­ings frame­works and safe­ty. She has par­tic­i­pat­ed in the eval­u­a­tion of fire spread mod­el used in Aus­tralia (a joint two year col­lab­o­ra­tive project with the Bureau of Mete­o­rol­o­gy, AFAC and NSW RFS) and is train­ing in fire behav­iour analysis.

Out­side of her vol­un­teer com­mit­ments with the Tas­ma­nia Fire Ser­vice, Cather­ine is a qual­i­fied civ­il engi­neer, with expe­ri­ence in local gov­ern­ment engi­neer­ing, hydraulics, hydrol­o­gy, water resource man­age­ment and flood fore­cast­ing. She is cur­rent­ly employed by the Bureau of Mete­o­rol­o­gy where she has been has been an oper­a­tional Flood Fore­cast­er, issu­ing warn­ings and work­ing with the emer­gency man­age­ment sec­tor and has also con­tributed to a num­ber of oth­er water-relat­ed projects over the years. In between work and vol­un­teer com­mit­ments she enjoys gar­den­ing, sail­ing, play­ing music with friends and bushwalking. 

KATIE MACWILLIAMS -

DBCA WA

Katie has worked for the Depart­ment of Bio­di­ver­si­ty, Con­ser­va­tion and Attrac­tions and its pre­de­ces­sors for 11 years with a focus on land man­age­ment oper­a­tions and nature con­ser­va­tion, with a focus more recent­ly in fire man­age­ment. Katie has been involved with the Women in Fire Man­age­ment Action Plan work­ing group since its incep­tion and believes strong­ly in work being under­tak­en by the depart­ment to address areas of sys­temic uncon­scious bias and can see the ben­e­fit of the changes being applic­a­ble to all employ­ees cre­at­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for indi­vid­u­als, fam­i­lies and the organisation.

MICHELLE ENGELS­MAN — 

FIRE AND RES­CUE, NSW

Michelle Engels­man is a Qual­i­fied Fire­fight­er cur­rent­ly work­ing with­in the Fire Inves­ti­ga­tion and Research Unit (FIRU) of Fire & Res­cue NSW (FRN­SW). A retired Olympic swim­mer, Michelle has a BSc Hon­ours in Chem­istry, a Mas­ters in Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies and Diplo­mas in Man­age­ment and Fundraising.

Sup­port­ed by FRN­SW, Michelle is cur­rent­ly a PhD stu­dent research­ing fire­fight­er expo­sure risks and sub­se­quent repro­duc­tive effects, research that is ongo­ing and involves bio­mon­i­tor­ing and oth­er assess­ments to deter­mine expo­sure pro­files. Pre­vi­ous research includes a 2015 study on smoke alarms includ­ing real­is­tic burn sce­nar­ios in a full scale repli­ca house, analysing ten­abil­i­ty lim­its with­in haz­ardous atmos­pheres and over­lay­ing safe egress times on smoke alarm acti­va­tion times.

Her employ­ment at FRN­SW has includ­ed her being an active duty fire­fight­er sta­tioned at Bankstown Fire Sta­tion, fol­lowed by Lid­combe Fire Station.

Pre­vi­ous employ­ment has seen her work­ing with­in the fields of social and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice, and she is pas­sion­ate about human rights.

Michelle is the moth­er of a tod­dler and a lover of gar­den­ing and surfing.

STEPHANIE LOOI -

NSW RUR­AL FIRE SERVICE

Stephanie is a vol­un­teer with the NSW Rur­al Fire Ser­vice. She per­forms mul­ti­ple roles in the Ser­vice, includ­ing as a remote area oper­a­tor, heli­copter res­cue crewie, train­er and asses­sor, as well as a mem­ber of a local brigade.

She is pas­sion­ate about advo­cat­ing for women in remote area fire­fight­ing and avi­a­tion and pre­sent­ed at Afac in 2017 on sup­port­ing women in remote area fire­fight­ing through learn­ing and development.

Stephanie is a qual­i­fied optometrist, with a Mas­ters in Pub­lic Health as well as a Cert IV in train­ing and assessment.

In her pro­fes­sion­al life, she has worked in many facets of health, includ­ing clin­i­cal prac­tice, advo­ca­cy, project man­age­ment, research man­age­ment, prod­uct devel­op­ment and the devel­op­ment and exe­cu­tion of strategy.

DON­NA WHEAT­LEY — 

FORMER PRESIDENT AND BOARD MEMBER

MET­RO­POL­I­TAN FIRE BRIGADE, MELBOURNE

Don­na Wheat­ley is a Com­man­der with the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Fire Brigade (MFB) in Mel­bourne. With a pro­fes­sion­al back­ground in Gestalt Psy­chother­a­py, she was work­ing in fam­i­ly coun­selling and advo­ca­cy roles before she joined the oper­a­tional ranks of the MFB in 2003. She con­tin­ued work in pri­vate prac­tice and research for a num­ber of years as her fire­fight­ing career devel­oped. Mov­ing into lead­er­ship as an Offi­cer in 2008 the pos­si­bil­i­ties grew and engaged her aspi­ra­tions for progress with­in the ranks and devel­op­ing influ­ence with­in the cul­ture of MFB.

Over the 15 years of ​“catch­ing trucks” there have been many oppor­tu­ni­ties to explore beyond the day to day of emer­gency response – as excit­ing and chal­leng­ing as some of these respons­es have been. Don­na has worked across many direc­torates at MFB includ­ing Oper­a­tions, Com­mu­ni­ty Resilience, Strat­e­gy and Inno­va­tion, Emer­gency Man­age­ment, the Office of the CEO and Train­ing. These years saw her pro­mote through the ranks; break­ing ​“glass ceil­ings” along the way. An exu­ber­ant and opti­mistic com­mit­ment has deliv­ered many rewards for great effort, includ­ing vol­un­teer work in the employ­ee assis­tance pro­gram and numer­ous com­mu­ni­ty edu­ca­tion pro­grams. Vol­un­teer­ing out­side of MFB in Cam­bo­dia, Peru and the Philip­pines as well as ongo­ing local vol­un­teer roles, and tak­ing edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties with the Aus­tralian Insti­tute of Police Man­age­ment (AIMP) and Lead­er­ship Vic­to­ria (Williamson’s Com­mu­ni­ty Lead­er­ship Pro­gram 2015) and exten­sive com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment activ­i­ties with MFB have all added depth to a colour­ful career.

The oppor­tu­ni­ty to men­tor both with­in the brigade and in the com­mu­ni­ty has been abun­dant and grat­i­fy­ing over the years of work­ing with MFB. Hav­ing start­ed out in the 90s employed in the cor­po­rate are­na of MFB, the increased expo­sure to var­i­ous facets of the organ­i­sa­tion has cre­at­ed ongo­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty to work with­in diverse posi­tions with myr­i­ad per­spec­tives on organ­i­sa­tion­al pri­or­i­ty – allow­ing a breadth to the reflec­tion that Don­na brings to her men­tor­ing and work roles. With a diverse ter­tiary edu­ca­tion, includ­ing a Bach­e­lor degree and numer­ous post grad­u­ate qual­i­fi­ca­tions, the thirst for learn­ing has nev­er been quenched. Don­na is grow­ing­ly dri­ven by the under­stand­ing that our great­est lessons come from life and some­times through the most unex­pect­ed teach­ers; with a deep com­mit­ment to explo­ration of the ​“grow­ing edge”, life­long learn­ing is a ten­ant in the com­mit­ment of liv­ing a whole heart­ed life.