Pathways to Politics for Women

Carol Schwartz AO

Carol Schwartz AO is one of Australia's most dynamic business and community leaders with a diverse career across property, the arts, finance, investment, entrepreneurship, government and health. Carol has been recognised for her leadership via a range of honours including her 2019 appointment as an Officer of the Order of Australia, 2020 Leading Philanthropist Award by Philanthropy Australia, an Honorary Doctorate from Monash University, induction into the Australia Property Hall of Fame, and a Centenary Medal. Carol has chaired and participated in numerous listed and private company boards, and current board roles include the Reserve Bank of Australia, Trawalla Group and Chair of EQT Holdings Limited and Climate Council.

Throughout her career Carol has been a passionate advocate for gender equality and women in leadership, and as Chair of the Trawalla Foundation and the Women's Leadership Institute Australia, she has catalysed a range of initiatives to grow the critical mass of women in politics, business and the media.

Dr Katie Allen

Dr Katie Allen was the Federal Member for Higgins in the Coalition Government 2019-2022.

Prior to that she was Division Head of Population Head at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Professor at both the University of Melbourne and the University of Manchester, UK and a consultant paediatrician. She has authored more than 400 scientific publications.

Katie has been on the Board of Cabrini Health, was Chair of Melbourne Girls Grammar School Council and on the advisory board of several MedTech start-ups.

As Member for Higgins she initiated inquiries into Recycling and Waste, the post-COVID recovery for the Arts and facilitating improved Clinical Trials investment in Australia. She was a founding member of the National COVID Health and Research Advisory Committee that met weekly throughout the pandemic and succeeded in securing significant Federal funding for the National Allergy Council.

She Iives in Higgins with her husband and 4 children.

She is an alum of the Pathways to Politics Program for Women.

Ms Sarah Buckley
CEO, Trawalla Foundation

Sarah Buckley is a strategic leader with over seventeen years of business leadership in social innovation, gender equity, ESG integration and responsible investing. Sarah is currently Chief of Staff for Carol Schwartz AO and CEO of the Trawalla Foundation (the private foundation for entrepreneurial businesspeople Carol and Alan Schwartz). Sarah has previously been a sought-after sustainability consultant to major Australian companies, led PwC's award-winning Corporate Responsibility team, and held senior roles creating innovative new businesses including PwC's Indigenous Consulting.

Sarah has played an integral role in leading Pathways to Politics for Women nationally, and in 2021 the Trawalla Foundation and University of Melbourne won the Eve Mahlab AO Genderwise Philanthropy Award for Pathways. Overall, 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. Initiatives are high impact, including the flagship Pathways to Politics Program for Women, WLIA Fellows, and thought leadership such as the Women for Media research series.

Dr Meredith Martin
Program Director, University of Melbourne

Meredith is the Director of the program and worked closely with Carol Schwartz AO to establish Pathways at the University of Melbourne in 2016. She has also been instrumental in its national expansion, mentoring directors at partner universities in other states and territories and providing strategic leadership to the Pathways national network. Meredith oversees the program on behalf of the University of Melbourne and hosts most modules. She is also Chair of the program’s Selection Committee.

Meredith has worked at the University for many years, both as an academic and in strategic leadership roles, and has been responsible for founding a range of 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 a member of a number of boards, including the feminist performing arts organisation, APHIDS.

Ms Fiona Patten
Leader of the Reason Party

Fiona Patten is the leader the Reason Party and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Council between 2014 and 2022, representing the Northern Metropolitan Region.

Before entering politics, Fiona championed sexual rights and health movements for more than 20 years, particularly on HIV/AIDS, after initially starting out as a small businesses owner with her own fashion label.

During her time as a Victorian MP, Fiona played pivotal roles in achieving social reforms in Victoria, including the passage of Victoria's assisted dying legislation, the trial of a medically supervised drug injecting room in Richmond, and establishing buffer zones for abortion clinics to keep protesters away from patients and staff.

The Hon Jaala Pulford

The Honourable Jaala Pulford is a Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Chair of MTP Connect, Australia’s life sciences innovation centre. She is a director at Cyban and the Children’s Cancer Foundation. Jaala provides strategic advisory services to exciting and innovative organisations, large and small.

An experienced leader with deep experience in Cabinet government, public administration and governance, Jaala is passionate about making sure people and businesses can thrive in an economy undergoing fast-moving, often destabilising, but exciting and transformational change.

Jaala was elected to the Victorian Parliament in 2006 as Member for Western Victoria. She was re-elected in 2010, 2014 and 2018, and left politics at the 2022 Victorian state election to seek out new challenges.

Over the first two terms of the Andrews Victorian State Government (2014-22), Jaala was the first woman to serve as Minister for Agriculture, and was Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Roads, Road Safety and the TAC, Minister for Fishing and Boating, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources, Minister for Employment, and Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy. She served as Deputy Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council from 2014-2018.

Professor Nicola Phillips
Provost, University of Melbourne

Nicola Phillips has been the Provost at the University of Melbourne since September 2021. Before arriving at Melbourne, she was Vice President & Vice Principal (Education) at King’s College London, with responsibility for King’s wide-ranging strategy for excellence and innovation in education and the student experience. She is a Professor of Political Economy.

Nicola was educated as an undergraduate at King’s, in Hispanic Studies, and then pursued her Master’s in Comparative Government and PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to returning to King’s later in her career as VP (Education), she held academic and later leadership positions at the Universities of Warwick, Manchester and Sheffield, including serving as the Head of the Department of Politics at Sheffield from 2014 to 2017. She has held visiting fellowships and professorships at a number of institutions across the world, including the Australian National University, the University of British Columbia, and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México. She undertook the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2019.

Nicola is a past President and Chair of the British International Studies Association (BISA), was a member of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) sub-panel for Politics and International Studies in 2014, and received the award of Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS) in 2016. She was proud to be the 2018 recipient of the International Studies Association’s J. Ann Tickner Prize, which is awarded annually to ‘someone who, in Tickner’s footsteps, consistently combines bravery in pursuing high-quality, pioneering scholarship that pushes the boundaries of the discipline with a deep commitment to service, especially teaching and mentoring’.

With a strongly interdisciplinary orientation, Nicola’s academic interests lie in the areas of global political economy, global development and global economic governance. Her research has centred on the theme of inequality in the global political economy, and in recent years has focused particularly on production and global value chains, global migration, and labour standards and exploitation, including forced and child labour. She is currently completing a textbook, which will be published by Oxford University Press in 2023, designed for undergraduates coming to the field of global political economy for the first time.

Dr Samantha Ratnam MP
Leader of the Victorian Greens

Samantha entered the Victorian Parliament representing the Northern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council in 2017 and got re-elected in 2018 and 2022 state election.

As an MP and the Leader of the Victorian Greens, Samantha is a strong advocate for our environment and social justice. She has actively campaigned to save public housing, reduce gambling harm and for stronger action on climate change.

Prior to entering the Victorian Parliament, she was a social worker for over 15 years in the fields of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, international development, family services and in settlement services for newly arrived migrants from refugee backgrounds.

Samantha also spent five years as a Councillor at the City of Moreland, where she was elected the first Greens Mayor of Moreland in 2015.

Samantha holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Bachelor of Social Work with Honours and a PhD in Youth Sociology.

She believes in putting people first and is proud to be part of a party that has never taken money from corporations trying to buy influence - governments should always act in the public good, not in the interests of their corporate mates. She wants our state to be all it can be by investing in world-class public transport, powering Victoria with 100% clean renewable energy, providing homes for everyone, protecting our forests from logging companies and returning essential services like electricity to public hands.

Cr Nicholas Reece
Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne

Cr Nicholas Reece was elected Deputy Lord Mayor in November 2020, after having previously been elected Councillor in the City of Melbourne in 2016.

Nick is portfolio lead for City Planning and deputy lead for Finance, Governance and Risk and Heritage portfolios.

Nick is also Council’s representative on the following committees and bodies: Committee for Melbourne, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute Advisory Board.

Nick is a senior executive at the University of Melbourne and holds the academic position of principal fellow at the Melbourne School of Government.​

Nick has considerable experience in government and policymaking, having worked as a senior adviser to Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Victorian premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby. Nick has also served as Secretary of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria.

Nick is a founder and former chairman of global men’s health charity Movember. Founded in Melbourne, almost 10 million people have participated in Movember and raised almost (AUD) $1.5 billion for prostate cancer and men’s mental health. For over 10 years, Nick was a director for the street newspaper The Big Issue, Australia’s most successful social enterprise for homeless and marginalised people.

Nick is married and has three daughters who attend school in Melbourne.

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.