CALD Program 2024

Workshop One: Empowering CALD Women for Leadership

Stand Up and Be Heard: Confidence and Assertion Skills for CALD Women

Presented by Sarah Yip – Leaders Lounge

Overview: This session is designed to empower culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women with the confidence and assertion skills necessary to stand up, be heard, and become leaders within their industries. Recognizing the unique challenges faced by CALD women, this program aims to provide tailored strategies and tools to help them navigate and excel in professional environments.

Objectives:

• Enhance self-confidence and self-awareness
• Develop effective communication and assertion skills
• Equip participants with leadership techniques and strategies
• Foster a supportive network of CALD women leaders

Outcomes: By the end of this session, participants will have a stronger sense of self-confidence, enhanced communication and assertion skills, and a clear pathway to leadership within their industries. They will also become part of a supportive network of CALD women leaders, fostering continuous growth and collaboration.

Sarah Yip is the founder and CEO of KEASE International and Leaders Lounge. A multi-award-winning thought leader, she is dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion through empowerment and capability uplift. With qualifications in Business, Emotional Intelligence, Communication, and Positive Psychology, Sarah imparts the leadership behaviors needed to excel in a complex world.

For 16 years, Sarah has led a global team at KEASE International and Leaders Lounge, providing leadership development, interpersonal skills, and emotional intelligence training to global brands, ASX200 companies and government entities around the world.

In 2020, she was honoured as Multicultural Entrepreneur of the Year for her innovative response to the pandemic with the creation of Leaders Lounge. Sarah’s work has been recognised globally with recognition from DFAT, Rotary International, Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Women in Business award, Australian small business champion and Women in Business.

Known for her engaging and humorous approach, Sarah makes learning a transformational experience. As a mother of two, she balances her professional and personal life, often embarking on travel adventures with her family.

Workshop Two: Career Catalyst Workshop: Standing Out in a Sea of CVs

Presented by Nehal Shah

Navigating through each stage of the recruitment process successfully can be daunting. In this workshop, we'll show you how to avoid getting lost among hundreds of CVs and emerge as an exceptional candidate.

Workshop Highlights:

1. Crafting Your Personal Brand: Discover what makes you unique and how to effectively communicate your strengths and experiences to prospective employers.
2. Harnessing Diversity as a Strength: Embrace the power of diversity. Explore how diverse perspectives can enrich teams and bring unique insights and solutions that local candidates might not offer.
3. Little Nuggets for your pockets:

• Job Application Tips and Tricks: Learn strategies for tailoring your CV, writing compelling cover letters, and catching the recruiter's eye.
• Networking Strategies: Build meaningful connections and expand your professional network.
• Interviewing 101: Master the art of interviewing, from preparation to follow-up.
• Communication & Delivery: Enhance your communication skills to effectively convey your ideas and experiences.

Nehal Shah brings over 22 years of experience in the Talent Acquisition space. Nehal holds a Master’s in Commerce degree in Human Resource Management. Originally from India, and after 18 years of a successful career in New Zealand working in various roles Global Talent Acquisition Manager/ Sr. Manager – Talent Acquisition with Visa Inc.(previously Fraedom), she has recently migrated to Brisbane as Divisional Manager – IT & Digital with Optimum Consulting. Having started her career in IT as a Web Developer, Nehal quickly realised that she was missing people interaction and wanted to combine her passion for IT along with her passion for meeting new people from different walks of life. She transitioned her career and became an IT Recruiter in 2002 and has never looked back. She is highly passionate about diversity in the tech industry and wants to support, encourage women to apply for their dream jobs and climb the corporate ladder to make this industry more well balanced, when it comes to gender diversity.

Navigating through each stage of the recruitment process successfully can be daunting. In this workshop, we'll show you how to avoid getting lost among hundreds of CVs and emerge as an exceptional candidate.

Workshop Three: CALD Women in Action panel discussion

Panel facilitated by Professor Chamindie Punyadeera

Professor Chamindie Punyadeera is an inventor and a leader in women in STEMM. She has had a hybrid research career working in industry as well as academia. She has worked at Philips Electronics in the Netherlands and has been instrumental in developing Philips Mini-care I-20 for cardiac disease detection. She has also contributed to development of an integrated platform to detect nucleic acids (Idylla TM) commercialised by Biocartis NV (Belgium) and is a globally acknowledged pioneer in salivary diagnostics. She leads a world-class saliva and liquid biopsy research laboratory in Australia, > 14 researchers focusing on developing novel salivary technologies to detect heart disease and application of liquid biopsy to accelerate precision treatment in cancers.

Dr Jeni Wellington is a medical software as a medical device expert with a LRCPI & SI MB BCh BAO degree in Medicine from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. She is a Commonwealth Public Servant in a medical advisory role to the Department of Health and Aged Care Software Team at the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Prior to accepting this role she founded Annuo Med Tech Solutions, a company that developed innovative software solutions to tackle large healthcare challenges. She stepped back from the implementation of the flagship software Annuo to undertake her position in the Software team where she feels she can make a greater impact in supporting the health of Australians.

In 2024, she was appointed to the Queensland state advisory board of the National Council of Women Australia - Queensland (NCWQ/NCWA). Her portfolio includes the health and safety of women and girls in Queensland.

Of the last fifteen years of her clinical experience, she gained over five years of experience in the field of psychiatry and three years clinical experience in Obstetrics & Gynaecology. She has been a clinical tutor to the University of Queensland and has worked as a medical advisor to the Department of Veterans Affairs through Bupa. 

She values clinical excellence, ethical practice, continuous professional development, and continuous quality improvement, and applied evidence-based medicine in her approach to healthcare. 

She is passionate about fostering the profile of female specialists in medicine, bolstering female representation across all levels of Science Technology Engineering and Medicine (STEM). She also counts the exploration of innovative solutions to breaking down the barriers that exist in the implementation of the Health and Social Care Equity goals set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) amongst her priorities. She has received multiple awards for her medical leadership and advocacy. 

She contributes to online publications on topics related to mental health and wellness. She hopes to continue to be an advocate for the role that health technology today has in shaping the medicine practised tomorrow.

Pascale De Graeve has amassed a wealth of Business Analysis experience across many industries throughout her career, including Transport, Engineering, Utilities, Education, Retail, Hospitality, Accounting and Real Estate. She has experience working within a diverse range of complex business models, from owning her own business to working in dynamic, multisite/multinational organisations. This has given Pascale a unique perspective on her clients’ businesses. Her methodical analytical process is supported by strong communication and stakeholder management skills, which enable a perspective that is experienced, logical and aligned to a consensus of stakeholder expectations and agreed outcomes.

Pascale has been involved in business improvement and business analysis since 1999. She has implemented and led teams using AGILE methodologies such as SCRUM, as well as waterfall methodologies. She has real world implementation experience in global businesses, having worked on projects involving the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia, down to National, State and SME Business with unique and complex requirements. Further to her analysis experience, Pascale also has a Certificate 4 in Training and Assessment, which adds another layer to her analysis skillset from ideation and requirement through to delivery.

Pascale is currently the Head of Business Analysis at Auto and General, where she is able to combine her passion for business analysis with her exemplary leadership skills and her training qualification in uplifting the capability of the business analysis discipline within Auto and General. Pascale is also currently completing a Diploma in Counselling to further enhance her skills as a leader and to support people in her community.

As the Founding Partner of Utano Global, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) consulting firm, Christine Mudavanhu leverages innovative approaches, including virtual reality (VR), to create immersive leadership and training workshops. These workshops foster empathy and openness, enabling participants to engage in complex DEI conversations in a safe environment. Christine’s work allows leaders to better understand the perspectives of marginalised groups, including women of colour.

In addition to her work with Utano Global, Christine is the Founding Partner and key advisor for Migrant Women in Business (MWIB), a platform that empowers migrant women by creating opportunities for them to share their success stories and explore commercial opportunities. She also serves as the Chair of MultiLink Community Services, an organisation providing aged care and disability services to multicultural communities in Logan, Queensland. Christine is also the Principle Consultant for UC Compliance a Health and Human Services Consulting firm based in Brisbane CBD.

Christine hosts the ‘Sisters in Colour’ podcast, which redefines leadership by amplifying the voices of women of colour. Through her various initiatives, Christine continues to challenge the status quo, driving greater diversity and representation in leadership and business.