Mentors & Muesli

Anna Cornell

Visual Arts, Media/Design Teacher at Christ Church Grammar School

Anna graduated from St Hilda’s in 2001. For the last 12 years she has been a Visual Arts, Media and Design teacher at Christ Church Grammar School where she aims to inspire a love of learning with humour and to embolden students to discover their potential through practical application and critical thinking. As an experienced arts educator, her passion is encouraging curiosity, empathy and creative problem solving in the classroom.

Outside the classroom Anne continues at her own art practice, have been a Best Senior Secondary Fiction judge for the ATOM awards and a curriculum specialist for both Media Production and Analysis and the 7-10 Arts curriculum course advisory panels at SCSA. As a mum of a two year old who likes to build ‘abstract’ block designs, she is learning some new things about design, creativity and education.

Thea Kurniawan

Senior Consultant at EY (Engineer & TedXUWA)

Thea Kurniawan wears many hats. Professionally, she is a Senior Consultant at EY with experience working in engineering, mining, start-ups, health, and consumer goods industries across Indonesia, U.S.A and Australia. She just recently came back home after completing a Research Fellowship at the Emulsion Polymers Engineering Institute in Pennsylvania, USA.

Outside of work, Thea is an active community volunteer with organisations such as Millennium Kids Inc., an environmental advocacy group (run by St. Hilda’s old girls!) that enables thousands of young people to have their say about the environment. Thea is also the founder of TEDxUWA, one of Australia’s first and only fully youth-run TEDx event that aims to showcase the ideas of the local community to change attitudes, lives and ultimately – the world. TEDxUWA events reach hundreds of live audiences across Australia every year and over 850,000 people globally with their inspirational and multidisciplinary talks published on sites like TED and Youtube. Thea leads her team to continuously deliver cutting-edge events that will cater to the global audience and more importantly, provide accessibility for young people to attend and share their ideas. This year, she was awarded the Auspire Young Community Citizen Award and became an Australia Day Ambassador.

Growing up in Asia and Australia, Thea strongly believes in the importance of bridging the gap between countries, cultures and people, and building the next generation of resilient young leaders with an “I can do” approach to spark positive change in the community.

Angie Lidbury

Angie Lidbury Consulting

After leaving St Hilda’s Angie studied Graphic Design (Bachelor of Arts) at Curtin University. She has worked in various roles including Digital Director/Owner of a design agency in Subiaco, Creative Director at Deloitte Digital and is now consulting through her own business.

Angie now specialises in digital product strategy for apps, websites and other platforms. She runs UX (User Experience) workshops with key audience groups to make sure their needs are captured, before translating these needs into product wireframes and designs. Angie is passionate about advocating for the user by creating easy-to-use digital experiences.

Recent key project highlights include stakeholder engagement and UX for a chat-bot at a large mining company, design & UX lead for the student app & desktop portal for a local university, design direction & UX for a custom Iron Ore production dashboard for senior executive at a large mining company.

Lily Jones

WAAPA Graduate

Lily Jones is a performer based out of Perth and a 2018 St Hilda’s graduate. After school, Lily completed the Diploma of Music Theatre (2019) at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). She is currently in the Bachelor of Arts (Music Theatre) Class of 2022, has just completed a season at His Majesty’s Theatre of the musical, Crazy for You. Alongside her studies, Lily is a regular performer at the Fringe Festival, completing a successful season this year of the sell-out show, The Karaoke Club: A New Musical. She is currently working as a Co-Director on a new project for the 2022 season.

Susan Hounslow

TV Executive

Suzy always loved watching TV, so much so, her mother would often shout at her to turn the thing off or she would get square eyes.

Eventually armed with an arts degree and media diploma, she decided she wasn’t just going to watch TV anymore but that she would make TV shows for other people to watch and get shouted at by their mothers.

Suzy got her first job in the Today Tonight office at Channel Seven Perth, which then led to stints working in London and Singapore. She spent 15 years with Channel Seven Sydney, working her way up to the executive role of Head of Production.

Suzy spent 11 years at St Hilda’s and she loved every minute of it.

Priya Brown

Chief of Staff - Office of Minister for Finance, Lands, Sport and Recreation, Citizenship and Multicultural Interests

Priya Brown is a Chief of Staff in the West Australian Government and a 2009 St Hilda’s graduate.

During her 10 years working in politics, Priya has worked on 9 state and federal campaigns across 4 states. She has worked as a staff member for a Federal Senator and as a senior adviser in both Victorian and Western Australian State Governments.
Priya has worked across a range of policy areas including infrastructure delivery, energy, climate change, treasury, finance, sports and multi-cultural affairs.

Although she studied Science/Arts at UWA, Priya did not study politics and fell into the profession through a happy accident. In her spare time, she also enjoys watching other happy accidents by conducting marriages as a registered celebrant.

Verity Burges

Senior Consultant, Enterprise Risk, EY

Verity graduated from UWA with a Bachelor of Commerce, and started her career in Audit & Assurance. After completing her chartered accountancy, Verity left behind the corporate world to become a dive instructor and opened an eco cafe on Roatan, a small Island off Honduras in the Caribbean.

She returned to Perth 3 years ago to a risk consulting role at EY. Consulting is an ever changing job, where no day looks the same. The work has taken her from ports to mines to developing an understanding WA’s road infrastructure and land developments.

Lauren Cramb

Director of the Bike Bar Studios

Lauren left St Hilda’s after 5 amazing years in 2002 and went to UWA to study Economics, where she majored in money, banking and management. Once graduated her first job was with the NAB. After 12 uninspiring months there, she packed her backpack and jumped on a plane for the Amazon to live with a tribe in Ecuador. It was here that she was inspired, and her life changed direction forever.

She returned home to study community development and finally had found something she was passionate about. Her first job was at Curtin University running programs in remote Indigenous communities and from there she landed her dream job starting The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) in WA. She then moved to New York, US, to work for a startup in Manhattan as the Head Collaborator which finally led her to moving back home to Perth 4 years ago to create Bike Bar. She now has two studios, over 20 staff and an incredible community that she is proud to call family.

Lara Clarke

Junior School teacher at St Hilda's

Lara studied a Bachelor in Education (Primary) at ECU and was fortunate to get her final 10 week practice at St Mary’s Anglican Girls School. She was offered a position the following year as a Year 2 teacher at St Mary’s.

Lara stayed at St Mary’s for 5 years before being offered an opportunity to work with unemployed youth through the Royal Life Saving Society of WA. She took leave for a year to complete this contract, which opened her eyes to how important education was to people of all ages. She returned to St Mary’s the following year and taught for a further 3 years.

After meeting her husband and having 3 beautiful boys, Lara was offered a short contract for one term at St Hilda’s in the Junior School Physical Education Department. Although not a PE teacher, she accepted the position and then applied for this job the following year. The rest, as they say, is history. Lara taught in this position for 7 years before transitioning back to the classroom 3 years ago.

Recently, as well as being a classroom teacher, she has taken on positions as JS Cocurricular Coordinator and as a Pedagogy and Innovation Leader, which are both exciting and challenging.

Rachael Oldmeadow

Information Technology

Rachael Oldmeadow has worked in IT for Government for nearly 20 years in various developer, managerial and mentoring roles. In her current role at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, she is the technical project manager in charge of public facing systems for Census 2021. Her teams work closely with Amazon and utilize AWS cloud infrastructure. Her management is across all phases of the software development lifecycle and blends methodologies Prince2 and Agile.

She is a strong advocate for women in IT and has influenced policy within her organisation to promote flexible working arrangements. Rachael also plays saxophone in the Fremantle saxophone quartet and has an eight year old daughter.

Anne Major

Process Design Team Leader in a business transformation project at the Water Corporation

Anne graduated from UWA as a civil engineer in 1996 which has led to a long career at the Water Corporation where she started as a water source planning engineer. Anne then spent a couple of years as a design consultant with the Water Corporation’s dam engineering design consultant before returning to the Corporation to spend a short period with the wastewater planning team prior to settling in the Dam Safety section. Currently, Anne is a Process Design Team Leader in a business transformation project at the Water Corporation.

She has over 24 years experience in water infrastructure planning; dams engineering and design; and design/project management.
Balancing family and work is a priority for Anne, and when she’s not in the office, she spends a fair amount of time Ubering her kids around to various sporting and musical/cultural activities.

In what spare time Anne has, she loves to read and cook. Master Chef and MKR are favourite go to shows for relaxation. She also indulges her love for music and is a recent past member of a community orchestra, “The Awkwardstra”. One day in the future, when time permits, Anne would like to return to a team sport, either softball or waterpolo.

Emma Hunt

Data Developer with The Guardian

After studying Maths and Computer Science at UWA, Emma started her career as a Data Analyst within Deloitte’s Analytics Consulting team. In this role, Emma worked with companies in Perth to understand, analyse and get value from their data. In a world where devices are generating huge amounts of data every minute, Data Analysts such as Emma play a role in getting meaning and insight from this data and putting it to good use.

After working in this team for 5 years, Emma took up a role at The Guardian (news media company) as a Data Developer within the Data & Insights team, and will move to London in mid-2021 for this job. Emma works with key data sources generated or used by The Guardian, and builds data models to help the business understand their readers, identify patterns of behaviour and make predictions about the future.

Frances Haslem

Sports Science

Frances Graduated from Notre Dame University in 2013 with a Graduate Diploma of Exercise Rehabilitation (Exercise Physiology) and went travelling for most of 2014 but then entered the workforce end of 2014 working for a rural based Voc Rehab company (SalusWA). They had offices throughout WA and Frances was based in Albany starting up their office there. She had the opportunity to travel to Esperance, Busselton, Geraldton and throughout the Wheatbelt while working for them.

Frances returned home to Pingelly in 2016 to move back to the farm but continued working for SalusWA.

In 2017 Frances set up her own mobile Exercise Physiology Practice – Wheatbelt Exercise Physiology, working throughout the southern wheatbelt in a large variety of areas such as workers compensation, private clients, Medicare, fitness classes and a few various government funded programs with the Southern and Eastern Wheatbelt Health Services such as HEAL and a self managing health program.

Most recently Frances worked with Earl Street Physio in Narrogin part time between maternity leave, working in Workers Compensation and Public Health in both one-on-one and group sessions

She is currently on maternity leave until the end 2021!

Eloise Foskett

Technology Law

After leaving St Hilda’s in 2010, Eloise commenced a double degree in Law and Arts (majoring in Politics and International Relations). After completing her studies, Eloise spent time working at a number of commercial law firms in London prior to commencing her graduate position in Perth. Eloise is currently a lawyer in the commercial litigation team at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, with a keen interest in technology law and the impact of emerging technologies on legal practice.

Kate Longhurst

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Official (DFAT) - Diplomat

Kate is a career officer with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The Department provides foreign, trade and development policy advice to the Australian Government and delivers passport and consular services.

She is currently undertaking Mandarin language training in preparation for a posting to the Australian Embassy in Beijing.
Most recently, Kate headed the DFAT WA State Office where she was responsible for managing the Department’s engagement with its diverse stakeholders in WA, across government, business, academia and civil society. Almost half of Australia’s annual merchandise exports originate from WA, and the State has close links with its Indo-Pacific neighbours.

Previously, Kate served as Director of the Office of the DFAT Secretary, Frances Adamson. She has held a number of other positions in Canberra, including Director of DFAT’s ASEAN and Regional Programs Section where she coordinated Australia’s engagement with ASEAN and oversaw Australia’s regional aid investment. Kate served in the Political Section at the Australian Embassy in Washington D.C. during the Obama Administration, with reporting responsibility for U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. She spent a year on exchange to the U.S Department of State in 2011-12, working on the U.S, ‘rebalance’ strategy and the East Asia Summit. Her first posting was to Belgrade, Serbia.

Kate has a Bachelor of Law and a Bachelor of Arts from UWA and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Political Science from the University of Melbourne.

Karen Farley

Senior Counsel

Karen graduated from St Hilda’s in 1976 and went on to UWA where she was awarded a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws. She was admitted to practice in Western Australia on 23 December 1982. Karen joined Phillips Fox where she held positions as an Articled Clerk, Solicitor and Senior Associate. She has held numerous positions at the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia since first joining in 1987, including Solicitor in Charge of the Criminal Law Section and Senior Practitioner in the Youth Law Unit.

Her current role with Legal Aid WA is Senior Appeals Consultant. Ms Farley was also the Supervising Solicitor for the Unrepresented Criminal Appellants Programme at the University of WA Law School (1999 – 2002), and later at the University of Notre Dame (2004 – 2006). She is currently a member of the Racing Penalties Appeals Tribunal, and a local government councillor.

Karen was also the Chair of Council at St Hilda’s.

Natasha Dutton

Trainee Solicitor

Natasha is a Trainee Solicitor at Allen & Overy in London.

Natasha is an Australian who studied Politics at the UWA before moving to London to study her GDL and LPC at BPP University in London. Natasha is passionate about diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and has a particular focus on mentoring young women in law.

She is the co-founder and manager of GROW Mentoring, a charity which aims to increase access to law for aspiring lawyers from underrepresented backgrounds.

Maryam Bell

Senior External Affairs Advisor for Inpex

Maryam is currently the Senior External Affairs Advisor for INPEX, a Japanese energy company involved in over 70 projects across more than 20 countries.

Prior to joining INPEX, Maryam worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) from 2009 – 2018. Her responsibilities in Canberra ranged from international development and humanitarian response, to regional cooperation and economic diplomacy. Maryam was posted to Afghanistan as a civilian advisor in the Uruzgan Provincial Reconstruction Team. Her other international experience includes United Nations New York, Cambodia, Israel, Madagascar, New Caledonia and Vanuatu.

Maryam has a Master of Public Policy (international development) from the Crawford School, ANU, and was a double major in French and History (Honours) at UWA.

Ella Crust

Pharmacist

After leaving St Hilda’s in 2016 Ella completed a Bachelor of Pharmacy (Honours) at Curtin University. While at university Ella sat on the committee for the WA Pharmacy Students’ Association, served as an Executive Director on the National Australian Pharmacy Students’ Association and also acted as the representative and contact person for Australia on the International Pharmacy Students’ Federation.
Ella graduated from Pharmacy last year, and through her career, as a pharmacy student and current intern pharmacist, has been able to travel both internationally and nationally, and pharmacy has taught her far more skills than she ever thought possible.
Ella currently works in Bridgetown and is absolutely loving every minute of rural practice.

Kylie Morrison

Social Worker

Kylie Morrison graduated from St Hilda’s in 1986 when she travelled overseas on a Rotary Exchange Program and returned to Perth to study. In 1991 she graduated from UWA with a Bachelor of Social Work. Since then Kylie has had an extensive career in Social Work, practicing in a variety of areas in both urban and regional Western Australia and the United Kingdom. She was awarded the St Hilda’s OSA Travel Award in 2013 and through that grant was lucky enough to attend a Children and Families conference in Melbourne.
Kylie currently works as a Social Work Manager in the Child Protection Unit at Perth Children’s Hospital and is passionate about her profession and its wonderfully diverse nature. She would love to encourage others to think about a career in Social Work and to really use the privilege of an amazing education at St Hilda’s to making a real difference to the lives of others.

Dr Sarah Finlay-Jones

Residential Medical Doctor - State Trauma Ward

Sarah is a junior doctor currently working at the Royal Perth Hospital. After graduating from medicine at Notre Dame University in 2019, Sarah has worked in a variety of fields including emergency medicine, orthopaedic and general surgery, and trauma.
Highlights of Sarah’s medical degree included participating in a year long placement with the Rural Clinical School in Kalgoorlie and undertaking a month-long medical elective in Tanzania following her final exams. Sarah maintains an active interest in many medical specialities and is yet to select a training pathway. Her current interests include emergency medicine, general practice, and child health. She also has a strong passion for medical education and hopes to one day be involved in the training of medical students and young doctors.

Prior to studying medicine Sarah completed a Bachelor of Science in physiology at UWA, including being awarded First Class Honours for her thesis in sleep medicine.

Melinda Simpson

National HSE Manager UGL

Melinda Simpson is the National Health and Safety Manager for a large Global resource contracting company based in Perth (UGL). Melinda has an extensive background in oil and gas, and mining specialising in both onshore and offshore Health, Safety, Hygiene, and Environment. Her current leadership role oversees 15 Projects and over 2500 employees. Her specialty is facilitating behavioral based safety leadership programs.

Melinda started her career in nursing after leaving St Hilda’s in 1986, and it was during her nursing degree that one of the placements was in an industry setting, working as an occupational health and safety nurse. It was here that she found her passion for occupational health as safety and went back to university to complete her Masters in HSE.

Whilst completing her MA, Melinda went to work in an underground mine in the Kimberly and then entered the oil and gas industry working for Woodside offshore in the Timor Sea. This led to further leadership career opportunities in WA and also overseas in Singapore, Korea, London and Japan.

Melinda has also been a Director and owner of Prosafe Personnel, an Occupational Health and Safety Consulting Business, which she sold prior to having her son in 2010. Melinda has also lectured at University in HSE.

Melinda is the current Chairperson of UGL’s Sustainability working group and is a mentor to female employees entering the Resource industry, along with being a facilitator of the Petroleum Club Next Generations School Program.

Dr Sneha Neppalli

Anaesthetic Provisional Fellow at King Edward Memorial Hospital

Sneha was awarded the St Hilda’s Foundation (full academic) scholarship in 2003 and graduated in 2007. She completed her MBBS with Honours from UWA in 2013 and is now specialising in anaesthesia at the King Edward Memorial Hospital, WA’s largest maternity hospital and only referral centre for complex pregnancies.

Sneha is a trivia nut and appeared on national TV shows Millonaire Hot Seat and The Chase. She spends her spare time playing netball, basketball and travel.