Meet Toora's Board

Brooke McKail

Board Chair

Brooke McKail joined the Board in 2022. She has extensive experience in community service organisations management and in policy and advocacy roles. She brings with her knowledge of best practice community sector governance and risk management.

She has served as Chair and Deputy of several other not-for-profit boards, in the ACT and Victoria, including in the community legal, women’s health, asylum seeker and early learning sector.

Brooke recently returned to Canberra with her young family, after a decade away and is looking forward to the opportunity to support women and children to grow and thrive in our community.

Danielle Young

Deputy Chair

Danielle is a highly experienced board director with a successful track record in supporting women’s organisations in the not-for-profit sector.

With over 10 years’ board experience, she has a strong background in organisational governance and has a demonstrated commitment to the specific needs of women. Professionally, Danielle works to deliver large scale change management programs and is known for her collaborative style and her outcomes focused approach for finding solutions. In addition to her professional accomplishments, she has been highly involved in advocating for women who have suffered sexual exploitation, human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices.

Danielle is looking forward to bring her skills and experience to the role of deputy chair and looks forward to contributing to the success of Toora Women.

Kellie Friend

Chief Executive Officer

Kellie is a passionate leader dedicated to influencing system level social change.

With over 20 years experience spanning across public, commercial and not for profit sector environments, Kellie has expertise in leadership and organisational transformation and growth.

A recipient of an Australia Day commendation for innovation and improvement, Kellie has lead enterprise wide initiatives resulting in sustained business viability and evidenced based services and programs supporting people health and wellbeing.

A for purpose leader with the objective of listening to and elevating the voices of those with lived experiences to inform better social outcomes and alleviate disadvantage.

Ruth Hilton-Bell

Treasurer

Ruth is a dedicated Chartered Accountant focused on delivering meaningful and strategically focused financial management. She has over 20 years’ experience having started her career in Sydney with a big four accounting firm. Ruth has experience working with varying entities from listed companies to not-for-profit organisations. In addition to her financial expertise Ruth has management and governance experience at a senior level in the not for profit sector having held long term positions. Most recently as CFO of Community First Development, a First Nations led community development and research organisation and charity.
As a feminist and advocate for recipient led solutions, Ruth is looking forward to participating as the Treasurer of Toora Women Inc, having been appointed to the Board in December 2022.

Kate Yuille

Secretary

Kate has worked in the Australian Public Service in social policy for more than 15 years and has particular experience in policy and legislation development and implementation. Kate is a committed feminist with a keen interest in social justice issues. She is a strong advocate for the importance of the community sector and the role that Toora plays in providing gender-specific services to support women in the ACT. Kate has been a member of the Toora Board since November 2019 and is proud to support and contribute to Toora in this way alongside the other passionate and dedicated women on the Board.

Naomi Cole

Community Board Member

Naomi brings 18 years of experience in the Australian and UK public service to her role on the board with a particular focus on policy development and stakeholder engagement.

Prior to joining the public service, Naomi was a registered nurse in both hospital and community settings giving her an understanding of the challenges faced in times of crisis. She has a strong community service ethos and has volunteered for several years including with Safe Shelter, on Parish council, and working to encourage voter engagement and democracy.

Naomi is committed to supporting women's empowerment as Acting Chair of the gender equality and inclusion network at her workplace. She is proud to bring her commitment and skills to the board of Toora to strengthen and grow support for women across Canberra to achieve their goals for themselves, their families and communities.

Robyn Bicket

Community Board Member

Robyn joined the Board in November 2020. She is a former Commonwealth Government Senior Executive and Chief Counsel at Human Services and Immigration and Citizenship.

Her public service career in law, policy and service delivery included representing Australia in the UK and Geneva (Australian Mission to the UN).

She led Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program from 2002 to 2005. Now retired Robyn provides legal policy consulting, training and coaching services on topics of specific interest including disability justice, domestic violence, administrative law, leadership and resilience (particularly for lawyers).

Robyn was among the many women lawyers interviewed for the Trailblazing Women in the Law oral History project. https://www.womenaustralia.info/lawyers/

Kate Woods

Community Board Member

Kate Woods is the inaugural Principal of Margaret Hendry School, located in Canberra ACT. Kate has established an innovative learning environment where learning is inherently playful, and children’s learning is characterised by choice, voice and agency. Kate is recognised as a leader of innovation in education, being named as one of The Educator’s most innovative schools of 2020 and being selected as a finalist for Excellence in Innovation in the ACT Public Education Awards 2022.

Her philosophy for leadership is centrered around the growth, development and empowerment of all within the learning community and beyond, with a strong emphasis on community partnerships and authentic learning opportunities that contribute to the greater good of society. Kate is co-chair of the PRIDE network for the ACT Education Directorate and sits on the Board for the ACT Chapter for Learning Environments Australasia.

Amy Begley

Community Board Member

Amy is a Canberra solicitor, specialising in assisting people who have experienced family violence. Throughout her career, she has assisted hundreds of clients, many of whom are members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community or from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

Amy leads Legal Aid ACT’s family violence team, who assist members of the community in relation to family violence, personal violence and family law matters.

Amy also leads Legal Aid ACT’s Health Justice Partnership and is a member of the ACT Law Society’s Family Violence and Children’s Committee.

Joanne Connop

Staff Advisory Forum representative

Yuma, my name is Joanne Connop and I’m a proud Aboriginal woman born & raised on Darumbal country – Rockhampton QLD. I’m a mum to my 3 beautiful adult children & a very proud Nana of 5 grandchildren.

I’m still new to Canberra, relocating here to take on the Aboriginal Liaison Officer position with Toora nearly 18months ago. Prior to this, I lived and worked in the Northern Territory for 37 years. I feel privileged to now be living and working on Ngunnawal country.

My background has been working in HR Management and Community Services, particularly in the Domestic, Family & Sexual Violence & Homelessness sectors for the past 8 years and prior to this worked within the Public Service for 29 years. I have a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours) in Aboriginal Community Management & Development and a Diploma in HR Management.

Shannon Jones

Staff Advisory Forum representative

Shannon has lived and worked in the Canberra community for the past 12 years.

She commenced with Toora in early 2022 as the Executive Assistant to the CEO and was elected by staff into the Staff Advisory Forum Second Representative position not long after.

Shannon’s background spans many different fields, but her main interests have been in Health with experience working within Pathology, Orthopedic Surgery and Medico-Legal practices.

Rachel Saffron

Board Observer

Rachel has deep expertise in corporate governance, with extensive experience as Company Secretary at various Australian financial institutions. Over the course of her career, she has also worked across a range of legal, strategy and operations roles.

Rachel has degrees in Law and Political Science from the Australian National University and professional qualifications from the Governance Institute of Australia and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Rachel is participating in the Westpac Board Observer program.

Tegan Broadfoot

Board Observer

Tegan is a senior corporate lawyer in Sydney, specialising in mergers and acquisitions.

She has extensive experience in both Australia and the UK in advising domestic and foreign entities on a broad range of corporate, commercial, governance and investment matters and assisting them in making key business decisions.

Tegan holds a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Western Australia, has prior experience on the boards of other not-for-profit organisations and has a passion for empowering and supporting women.