Committee of Management
Melinda Lawley Chair
Melinda has worked with young people throughout her career, initially as a secondary teacher before moving into community and health fields. This trajectory underpins her commitment to working across sectors to enhance outcomes for young people. She is currently the CEO of the Bridge Youth Service, a youth welfare organisation in Shepparton. Melinda is committed to supporting and advocating for young people who have been disadvantaged through no fault of their own, often missing out on educational and career opportunities that other young people have had. Melinda joined the Board in 2018.
Anita McCurdy Deputy Chair
Anita McCurdy has had over 20 years experience for the non-for-profit community services field with various roles from ground youth work through to management. Her initial employment was with Berry Street supporting young people in statutory care which has advanced to leadership roles in 1-1 care support, onto leaving care and management work at the local crisis refuge. From there, Anita transitioned into the social housing space with Beyond Housing as the Client Services manager until the opportunity arose in 2016 to become the first manager of one of the three Education First Youth Foyers in Victoria.
Neha Samar
Neha is a resident of Greater Shepparton and is passionate about developing regional communities, whether that be through better educational outcomes for school goers, creating alternate education pathways for young people in the region, or providing opportunities for all women to grow personally and professionally. Neha works for a federally funded organization that supports young people re-engaging with education, where the programs empower learners to overcome personal barriers that may have led to their disengagement from education. Neha is a founder of not-for-profit called The Flamingo Project, which establishes a free mentoring program for any woman living in the Goulburn Valley. Neha is a past participant of Fairley Leadership Program and has been a nominee for Greater Shepparton, Australian of the Year 2022 Award.
Sally Bate
Sally is currently the Manager of Cobram Community House, a registered training organisation, Learn Local, and provider of community services and activities for the town of Cobram. Sally has worked in the vocational education and training sector for over 20 years in the areas of human resource management, training and assessment, grants and funding as well as general management. Prior to this she worked in human resource management in the finance and banking, mining and manufacturing sectors. Sally completed an undergraduate degree in Arts and has undertaken further qualifications in Training and Assessment, Community Business Management and Career Development. She is also involved in the management of a family business, is a mentee with the Kilfinan organisation and held positions on a number of local committees currently including the GMLLEN.
Amanda Tingay
Director Community and Planning – Strathbogie Shire Council
Bachelor of Arts, Master of Business Administration, Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Amanda Tingay is currently the Director Community and Planning at Strathbogie Shire Council leading the department areas of Capital Projects, Asset Planning, Tourism and Community Services, Economic Development and Planning and Investment.
Amanda is passionate about empowering community.
During her 17 years in the local government sector Amanda has overseen and collaborated with stakeholders on numerous community services programs, lead and delivered on strategy and managed infrastructure delivery projects.
Amanda is a past participant of the LGPro Emerging Leaders Program and is a recipient of the Local Government Professionals Young Achiever of the Year Award.
Michael Carrafa
Michael is currently employed at Greater Shepparton City Council as Team Leader Business & Industry Development which is within the Economic Development department. Michael is fortunate to have an effective and supporting team that enables them to work together in developing the local economy in industries/sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, retail, hospitality, transport, health and education. Council works towards attracting new investment to the municipality and which Michael says is an enjoyable component of his role as he’s able to witness first hand the creation of jobs and opportunities for locals.
Michael says “the creation of employment opportunities through the attraction of investment can often be the first job for a young person and therefore the start of their career. I find this motivating which has led to me taking up the exciting opportunity to have a position on the GMLLEN Board”.
