Image 2023 scholarship recipients include from L to R : Youth Affairs Council of WA team and Sandy McKiernan
Scholarship recipient announcement
Social Impact Hub and the Australian Leadership Hub have collaborated again to offer fellowship scholarships to the not-for-profit community. Five recipients from a large group of impressive applicants have been awarded scholarships.
The Fellowship is a learning experience recipients can curate based on their learning and development goals. The cohort members attend two sessions a week, receive mentoring and participate in an interactive impact project to gain practical experience working to address a real-world problem from a social enterprise.
The 2024 Social Impact Fellowship Scholarship recipients include:
- Amanda McCulloch, CEO of the Greater Shepparton Foundation
- Sandy McKiernan, CEO of Youth Affairs Council of WA
- Jessica Pallotta, Project Lead and Clinical Lead Speech Pathologist, Ability WA
- Debra Walter, Non-Executive Board Director at Australian Association of Practice Management (AAPM)
- Kevin Wrigley, CEO of the Pintupi Homelands Health Service.
Benefit from collective knowledge
Sandy McKiernan is the CEO of the Youth Affairs Council of WA, the Peak Body for young people and the youth sector.
She started her professional career as a Registered Nurse, moving to the community services sector working with health charities and services that had a vision for better outcomes for the most vulnerable in our communities. Her passion to ensure our most vulnerable are not left behind and that all aspects of her work is purposeful and leads to better outcomes, has been central to her work in the NFP sector.
Sandy is looking forward to benefitting from the collective knowledge and experiences of her my fellow participants during the Social Impact Fellowship. She sharded, “being immersed with others who are doing good things is always inspiring. I’m excited to bring my learnings back to the Youth Affairs Council of WA and to better support young people who want to get started in this space but may not know where to begin.”
“I am looking forward to the collective knowledge and experiences from my fellow participants in the Social Impact Fellowship – being immersed with others who are doing good things is always inspiring.”
Sandy McKiernan, CEO of Youth Affairs Council of WA
Finding place and purpose
Kevin Wrigley is the, CEO of the Pintupi Homelands Health Service, a remote Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisation in the Northern Territory. Kevin has more than 15 years of experience working in a variety of executive and management roles in health care, aged care and community services; and a solid background in not-for-profit, and for-profit work environments.
Kevin also holds roles as Non-Executive Director on not-for-profit national and state boards, government advisory groups and school councils.
Kevin says that coming from the corporate sector he has “found my place and purpose” in the not-for-profit sector. He shares, “I am passionate about making an impact on society and have been able to raise $20 million to date to contribute to the betterment of some of the most disadvantaged people in Australia by improving health and social determinants of health outcomes”.
“I am looking forward to participating in the Social Impact Fellowship to build new connections and develop new skills in particular in the social enterprise space so that I can implement my learnings on an organisational level.”
Kevin Wrigley, CEO of the Pintupi Homelands Health Service.
Learning from seasoned change makers
Jessica Pallotta is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP) passionate about supporting children with disability and their families to reach their true potential. Working with Ability WA Jessica is the Clinical Lead Speech Pathologist and Project Lead.
Jessica shares that it is, “a true privilege to be able to do the work that I do; to be let into families lives, into their homes. As my career leads in other directions, I continue to remind myself of the children and families impacted by the various initiatives or projects I’m a part of.”
She is grateful for the opportunity to learn from seasoned change makers; making things happen to better their communities. Saying, “I’m particularly interested in building my network and learning the tools/approaches needed to create meaningful change, and inspiring others to do the same”. Hoping to to continue develop her leadership skills and share learnings with the dedicated teams at Ability WA.
“I’m particularly interested in building my network and learning the tools/approaches needed to create meaningful change, and inspiring others to do the same”.
Jessica Pallotta, Project Lead and Clinical Lead Speech Pathologist, Ability WA
CEO of the Australian Leadership Hub, Louisa Graham wished the scholarship recipients all the best noting the importance of collaborations across the sector to help develop for-purpose leaders. She said, “We thank the Social Impact Hub for collaborating on these scholarships to allow leaders to benefit from quality learning experiences and mentorships that these fellowships provide.”
Australian Leadership Hub is a charity focused on delivering training and professional development opportunities to the nation’s charities, not-for-profits and social enterprises.
Social Impact Hub is a purpose-driven intermediary that collaborates with a broad range of changemakers. Read more about how they enable Charities & Not-for-Profits to amplify impact here.
