Carol Schwartz AO
Non-executive Director
Trawalla Foundation

Carol Schwartz is a strong advocate for women in leadership, with a passion for the arts, entrepreneurial businesses and social enterprises. Carol Schwartz AO is the Founding Chair of the Women's Leadership Institute Australia, Founding Chair of Our Community and Chair of the Trawalla Foundation. Other Board roles include Non-Executive Director Reserve Bank of Australia, Non-Executive Director Qualitas Property Partners, Non-Executive Director Equity Trustees and Director Skalata Ventures. She is also a member of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Women’s Leadership Board and the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership Advisory Board, Kings College.

Carol was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours for her distinguished service to the community as a supporter of women in leadership roles, to social justice advocacy and to business. She received the Centenary Medal in 2001 in recognition of her outstanding service as a leading business executive and committee participant.

Dr Julie Wells
Vice-President, Strategy and Culture
University of Melbourne

Julie is a member of University Executive and leads six broad Chancellery teams: Policy and Government Relations; University Governance; Strategy, Planning and Performance; Community and Cultural Partnerships; Marketing and Communications; and HR & OHS. Staff within Julie’s Strategy and Culture portfolio provide support to the program.

Julie works closely with the deans and other members of the University’s senior leadership team to develop and implement University strategy and associated initiatives.

Julie has extensive experience in the tertiary education sector as a senior administrator, lobbyist, adviser and policy expert. She has worked as a teacher and an academic, led policy, research and government relations in the National Office of the NTEU, and has enjoyed brief stints working in government as a policy analyst and ministerial adviser.

Dr Nicholas Reece
Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne and Director, Enterprise and Projects
University of Melbourne

Nicholas Reece is Principal Fellow with the Melbourne School of Government, and Director of Strategy, Enterprise and Projects in Chancellery at the University of Melbourne. Nick has considerable experience in policy making and politics in government having worked for Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Victorian Premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby. Key roles during this period include Deputy Chief of Staff, Head of Policy, and Director of Strategy. He has also served as Secretary and Campaign Director of the ALP in Victoria.

Nick currently serves as a Deputy Lord Mayor for the City of Melbourne. Previously, Nick served as Councillor in 2016, where he was the Chair of the Planning portfolio and Deputy Chair of Major Projects. In his current role, he sits as representative on the the Committee for Melbourne, Inner Melbourne Action Plan Implementation (IMAP) Committee, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute Advisory Board and Melbourne Art Trust.

Nick is a host and commentator on Sky News and is also a regular columnist with The Age, The Guardian and Herald Sun.

Nick is an original Mo Bro and director of the global men's health movement Movember which has raised over $1 billion for prostate cancer and men's suicide prevention. For over a decade Nick served as a director of the street newspaper The Big Issue, Australia's most successful social enterprise.

Ms Bridget Vallence MP
Member for Evelyn

Bridget Vallence was elected as a Member of the Victorian Parliament on 24 November 2018 to represent the Evelyn District, and upon being sworn in to Parliament was appointed Shadow Cabinet Secretary and Shadow Assistant Minister for Industry.

In March 2020 Ms Vallence was promoted to the role of Shadow Minister for Environment & Climate Change and Shadow Minister for Youth on the Victorian Liberal Nationals front bench, portfolios that Ms Vallence believes are critical to our community and future prosperity. She was re-elected as the Member for Evelyn in the November 2023 Victorian state election.

Prior to entering Parliament, Ms Vallence worked for 16 years in the automotive industry as a procurement executive in both the manufacturing and retail sectors in Australian, Asian and global markets, and is also experienced with organisational change and business transformation projects.

Ms Vallence holds a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Melbourne. In 2016, Ms Vallence was an inaugural fellow of the Melbourne School of Government Pathway to Politics Program for Women.

Ms Sarah Buckley
CEO
Trawalla Foundation

Sarah has over fifteen years’ leadership experience in sustainability, responsible business and philanthropy. Sarah is currently CEO of the Trawalla Foundation, the private foundation for entrepreneurial businesspeople Carol and Alan Schwartz. Sarah has played an integral role in the evolution of Pathways to Politics for Women, and is particularly focused on the alumni community and growth of Pathways to other Australian states.

The Trawalla Foundation works with exceptional individuals and organisations that have a vision for the future of Australia, and gender equity sits at the heart of this. The Foundation adopts a range of levers including funding partnerships, impact investments, and incubating innovative equity initiatives through the Foundation’s not-for-profit arm, the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia. Alongside the Trawalla Foundation, Sarah runs a consulting business enabling major organisations to strengthen their responsible business approaches.

Dr Meredith Martin
Program Director
University of Melbourne

Dr Meredith Martin is the Program Director for the University of Melbourne Pathways to Politics Program for Women and worked closely with Carol Schwartz to establish the Program in 2016 and has played a leadership role in its national expansion. She is Chair of the University of Melbourne Selection Committee and oversees the Program’s management, providing strategic advice on its development on behalf of Chancellery at the University.

Meredith has held a number of academic and professional roles at the university and led a range of strategic partnerships and initiatives, including the establishment of the highly successful Media and Communications Program. She has presented and published widely on equity and access in the creative industries, and is Chair of the feminist, artist-led organisation Aphids, as well as a member of the Public Galleries Association of Victoria

Associate Professor Tom Daly
Deputy Director
Melbourne School of Government

Tom is Deputy Director of the University of Melbourne School of Government, Director of the global online research platform Democratic Decay & Renewal (DEM-DEC: www.democratic-decay.org), Co-Convenor of the Constitution Transformation Network (Melbourne), and Associate Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Constitutional Law.

As well as extensive experience in the university sector (at Melbourne, Edinburgh and Copenhagen universities), Tom has worked in a variety of roles in government and international organisations, including running the Office of the Chief Justice of Ireland for over 6 years and working on judicial education at the Judicial Studies Institute.

Tom’s research focuses on democratic governance, with a strong cross-disciplinary approach drawing mainly on public law and political science scholarship, and analysing connections between law and policy at the domestic, transnational, and international levels.