Bernadette joined YWCA Canberra in 2011 after a long career in the health sector, carrying over her passion for high-quality care to management of their children’s services.
Bernadette has been the driving force behind the significant growth of their Children’s Services portfolio, including a 200 percent growth in the number of early learning services.
She has a strong focus on their services providing quality education to children, empowering the next generations. To enable this, Bernadette has increased the number of professional development opportunities available to staff, instilled a culture of continuous improvement within their services, and increased the quality control and professionalism of their services.
Bernadette has been a member of the ACT Government’s Office of Children Youth and Family Services Advisory Committee since 2016 and was a member of the ACT Government’s Early Childhood Advisory Council from 2017 until it ended in 2020. Bernadette believes in working closely with the regulator CECA to ensure high quality across all their children’s services programs and enjoys a good, mutually beneficial working relationship with other government agencies as well.
Current role