Brigid Monagle was appointed as Victorian Public Sector Commissioner in February 2023. The Commissioner is responsible for driving excellence, professionalism, and integrity in the sector.

She is a senior public servant who previously acted as Secretary for the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing (DFFH).  

Prior to that Brigid was the Associate Secretary at DFFH and before that she also held several Deputy Secretary roles in that department.

In the second half of 2020, Brigid was seconded to the then-Department of Health and Human Services to serve as Deputy Secretary, Public Health Policy and Strategy during the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2018, Brigid established and led the Fairer Victoria Division as Deputy Secretary in the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC).

Brigid was also an Executive Director at DPC, leading advice in the areas of Aboriginal Affairs Policy, including the formation of Treaty Authority legislation and self-determination, health policy and reform, and inter-governmental strategy.

Before that, Brigid worked at The Treasury in New Zealand for several years.

Brigid is committed to supporting Victorian public sector employees to continue to meet the high standards that the community rightly expects of the sector.  

She holds a Master of Public Policy from Victoria University of Wellington and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) from University of Melbourne.

Michele Clark currently holds the position of Director at the Office for Women in Victoria. In this capacity, she assumes the vital responsibility of spearheading the formulation and execution of gender equality policies and initiatives throughout the Victorian Government. Her role encompasses the implementation of significant reforms such as the Victorian Gender Equality Strategy, Our Equal State, and the incorporation of Gender Responsive Budgeting practices into core Government processes. With a career spanning both the State and Commonwealth public service, Michele possesses a breadth of experience in policy development, program delivery, and public administration. Her expertise extends to various domains of public policy, encompassing social and economic policy and national security. Michele has worked with public entities, private industry, unions and the community sector to further outcomes from women and girls across Victoria. She is passionate about challenging gender stereotypes and increasing the representation of women in traditionally male-dominated industries.

Jodi was appointed as Deputy Secretary, Youth Justice in March 2024 and has worked in the public sector for over thirty years. Jodi has held various senior executive roles in Victoria, including Chief Practitioner at the Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, Commissioner for Youth Justice, Justice Regional Director and Executive Director, North Area and Loddon Mallee Region, and Chief Executive Officer at the former Malmsbury Youth Justice Precinct. As Regional Director and Executive Director, Jodi led a large multi-disciplinary workforce that offers a suite of Justice Services across the area. 

Jodi holds a Diploma of Teaching with Distinction, a Bachelor of Education (Honours), and an Executive Masters of Public Administration (EMPA). She is also a member of the Australia New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) Fellows program. In the 2014 Queen’s Birthday Honours, Jodi was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding public service and excellence in the delivery of justice services to the community of Victoria, in particular the Loddon Mallee Region.

As Deputy Secretary, Jodi is committed to re-establishing the Victorian Youth Justice system as a world leader in best practice, rehabilitation and improving community safety outcomes.

Fiona was appointed Victorian Legal Services Commissioner and CEO of the Legal Services Board in January 2018. Fiona is the former CEO of the access to justice organisation Justice Connect and has previously held the positions of General Counsel at World Vision Australia and Special Counsel at Clayton Utz.

Fiona has a BA (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, majoring in psychology with honours in criminology, an LLB from the University of NSW and an LLM in public and international law from the University of Melbourne. She also has an LLM in public service law from the New York University Law School and has attended both the Harvard and Stanford Business Schools.

Fiona was appointed Director and Board Chair of Health Justice Australia in 2016 and is the Deputy Chair of Equality Australia. She was the augural Deputy Chair of the Australian Non-for-Profit and Charities Commission for five years and was on the Human Rights Law Centre board from 2010 to 2017.

Kristen Hilton is Victoria’s former Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner and is recognised as one of the country’s leading equality and human rights experts. She has worked across public, private and community sectors, driving transformational policy and legal change and promoting ethical leadership.

Kristen led comprehensive, multi-year reviews of human rights compliance and gender equality within Victoria Police, Victoria’s Fire Service, and Ambulance Victoria. In 2023, she led an independent review of Victoria’s Corrections system with a specific focus on Aboriginal cultural safety, women in prison and therapeutic models of incarceration and rehabilitation. She has recently served as an expert advisor to numerous inquiries into abuse and harm, including online abuse and is an expert advisor to Queensland Police’s review into family violence and diversity within the police force.

Kristen is a long-standing contributor to the Champions of Change Coalition and convenes a number of Champions of Change groups across Australia, promoting gender equality within organisational and institutional settings. Kristen is the current Chair of the AFL Players Association as well as the inaugural Chair of the AFLPA’s Human Rights Steering Committee. Kristen is a former Churchill fellow and a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and now runs her own specialist human rights advisory practice. She is currently the co-interim CEO of the Victorian Treaty Authority.

Councillor, 2020 to 2024, including role as Mayor, 2024, Bayside City Council

Served overseas as Programme Manager, United Nations Volunteers in Peacekeeping Missions, including Timor Leste, Liberia, Sudan and South Sudan, for over 20 years.  As a part of the management team Fiona was able to observe a diversity of leadership and organisational approaches from leaders within civil society, the United Nations, diplomatic core and world political figures.  Fiona’s career spanned pre-fabricated “dongas” in the Sahara Desert of Sudan to the skyscrapers of New York. Learnings were consolidated at the United Nations mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica, obtaining a Masters of Environment, Development and Peace.  As Mayor, she has promoted acting with kindness, equality, participation and understanding of our interconnectedness and interdependence on each other and the environment.

The Right Honourable Dame Jacinda Ardern became the Prime Minister of New Zealand at just 37 years of age. During her time in office, she faced the challenges of a live-streamed domestic terror attack against New Zealand’s Muslim community, a volcanic eruption, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms Ardern’s focus on people, kindness, and what she has called “pragmatic idealism” saw New Zealand achieve some of the lowest losses of life experienced by any developed nation through the pandemic, the ban of military-style semi-automatic weapons in her country, and the creation of the Christchurch Call to eliminate violent extremism online, which Ms Ardern continues to hold the role of Special Envoy.

Ms Ardern is a champion of women’s empowerment. While in office, New Zealand reached 50 percent representation of women in parliament, and on government-appointed boards. She decriminalized abortion, improved pay equity laws, and extended paid parental leave to 6 months – all while being only the second woman in the world to have a baby while leading her country.

Ms Ardern is a passionate advocate of climate action and is a board member of The Earthshot Prize, focusing on solutions to climate change and environmental issues. She is also an Arnhold Distinguished Fellow, Conservation International where she is advocating for climate action and better treatment of the environment.

Ms Ardern is the 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Hauser Leader in the School’s Center for Public Leadership, a program where leaders from public, private, and nonprofit sectors engage with students and faculty on building skills in principled leadership.

She is also the Knight Tech Governance Leadership Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where she is focused on ways to improve content standards and platform accountability for extremist content online.

Ms Ardern holds an Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University.

Tania Farha is the CEO of Safe and Equal, a merged identity of two organisations: the Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria (DVRCV) and Domestic Violence Victoria (DV Vic). Previously, Tania has held executive positions across the Victorian Departments of Justice and Community Safety and Premier and Cabinet, including as CEO of the former Office of Prevention and Women’s Equality. Tania worked at UN Women for over four years as a policy specialist in the Ending Violence Against Women Section and worked for Victoria Police for over nine years to improve its responses to family violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Cara is the Director of Prevention in Action at Our Watch and the Director of the Our Watch Institute, a profit for purpose service working to end violence against women.

Cara oversees specialist expert teams leading the development of the primary prevention workforce and sector, as well as expanding prevention activity in the big reach settings of media, universities and VET education, workplaces and sport.

Cara brings over 15 years’ executive and leadership in preventing violence against women, gender equality, women’s rights, and security in Australia and internationally, including several non-executive director roles and advisory roles. Cara has previously worked at VicHealth and the Australian Government Office for Women and at Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in Geneva.

Adele is the Chief Executive Officer of Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health, a national women’s health centre run by and for migrant and refugee women.

Adele has a PhD in History and Women’s Studies and extensive specialist research and practice expertise in taking an intersectional feminist approach to gender equity and violence against women in multicultural communities, workplaces, and other settings.

Adele also has extensive experience providing expert advice to key government stakeholders and non-government partners on migrant and refugee women’s health, gendered violence, and gender inequity. She is a member of numerous national, state and ministerial councils and taskforces, including, currently, National Women’s Health Advisory Council, the Primary Prevention Sector Reference Group, and Victorian Women’s Health Advisory Council, among others.

Kate is an internationally recognised expert in domestic and family violence, femicide, perpetrator interventions, and the impacts of policy and practice reform in Australia and internationally. Kate is a Professor (Practice) with the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University, and an Honorary Professorial Fellow with the Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. In 2024, Kate founded Sequre Consulting, which is committed to advancing safety and equality.

Kate has advised on homicide law reform and family violence reviews in Australia and internationally, and has led submissions to state, national and international inquiries. Kate has published her research extensively, including in the 2024 book, Our National Crisis: Violence against Women and Children (Monash University Press). Her research has also been cited by the High Court of Australia. 

In recognition of her expertise, Kate has been appointed to a number of board, committee and advisory group roles by state and federal governments in Australia. In 2021 Kate was appointed Chair of Respect Victoria by the Victorian Government. Kate is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders 2024 class.

Sue-Anne Hunter is a proud Wurundjeri and Ngu rai Illum Wurrung woman and the Deputy Chair and Commissioner of Australia’s first truth telling process – the Yoorrook Justice Commission. She is an Adjunct Professor of Global Engagement at Federation University and a member of the National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth, and Justice Advisory Board.

A child and family services practitioner by trade, Sue-Anne has over twenty years’ clinical experience responding to developmental, transgenerational and community trauma. She is widely recognised for developing rights-based, transformative practice responses that
empower Aboriginal people to heal from the continuing effects and processes of colonisation.

Sue-Anne has extensive experience in the governance and the leadership of Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, and her expertise is regularly sought for government inquiries, parliamentary and ministerial advisory committees, academic research projects and media interviews.

Elizabeth Molyneux is the Deputy Secretary, Energy and commenced in the role in October 2022. With 25 years of experience in energy markets and policy reform, including as a senior executive at AGL Energy, Elizabeth has demonstrated significant expertise in energy wholesale and retail markets, network regulation, new energy technologies and consumer protection frameworks.  

Elizabeth brings a strong focus on consumer outcomes in a dynamic period of change and transition in Victorian and national energy systems. With her background, Elizabeth is well placed to support the Victorian Government’s leadership in energy policy and programs, new energy supply chain investments, regional economic development opportunities and the decarbonisation of gas, transport and industrial systems in Victoria.  

Elizabeth also holds a Bachelor of Science and post graduate qualifications in Economics and Applied Finance and Investment.