Our staff

Cindy provides support to our team of passionate staff and volunteers, and collaborates with other organisations and stakeholders, to ensure Counterpart’s programs and activities meet the needs of women with cancer living in Victoria.

She has over 18 years of experience delivering programs and services in the not-for-profit health sector, including advocacy, psychosocial and financial support, peer support and information services.

Outside of work Cindy loves spending time with her friends and family, travelling, gardening and trying new recipes.

Kellie is responsible for ensuring the smooth delivery of many of Counterpart’s programs and coordinating and supporting our team of dedicated volunteers.

Her professional background in nursing and women’s health, and drive to see people connected and supported when and how they need, complement her role.

She enjoys travel, spending time with friends and collecting frequent flyer points – especially if all three happen at once.

Ellen’s background is in education and health, supporting children with additional needs and their families.

She provides support to our volunteers in the Counterpart Resource Centre and provides back up support at Bridge of Support. Ellen feels fortunate to be part of a team that provides such amazing support to women living with cancer, through the generosity of volunteers.

When she’s not in the Resource Centre, Ellen enjoys exploring the Melbourne tram and rail lines (she’s travelled them all).  She is currently exploring the VLine rails around Victoria, enjoying mini breaks in each town at the end of the line. Swan Hill and Warrnambool are the last to explore …toot toot.

Grace is responsible for coordinating and running our events for women with cancer — including 10 wellbeing days across regional Victoria a year to meet the needs of women in regional Victoria living with cancer. She works closely with local services and organisations to develop partnerships to support women in different communities.

Grace has a background in health promotion and gender equality, and is passionate about promoting holistic, inclusive health and equality for all genders.

When Grace isn’t working, she loves riding her bike, trying new recipes, and going on camping trips with friends.

The central part of Katherine’s role is to help spread the word about Counterpart’s service.

As well as stakeholder engagement, Katherine also gets to satisfy her inner nerd maintaining Counterpart’s database. Most of her non-working hours are taking up running around after her young daughter.

Lieve works mainly at the Resource Centre, teaming up with our peer support volunteers, to connect with women with cancer. The generosity and commitment of Counterpart’s peer support volunteers never ceases to amaze her.

When she’s not working for Counterpart, Lieve is working freelance as an educational project manager, and as a casual lecturer across 3 universities (Occupational Therapy programs). Lieve is interested in how the interaction between person, environment and occupation shape the experiences of women with cancer (or any health or life changing adversity). When not working, she is often lost in the bush.

Linda works with a group of our Program Volunteers to coordinate our information collection, including the Navigator app, recorded webinars and hard copy resources.

With a background in nursing and information services, Linda has a special interest in consumer health information. She gets a buzz out of providing usable and reliable health information, so that women feel confident about making decisions and managing their health.

Rebecca is responsible for developing promotional packages for our wellbeing days, crafting our e-updates, overseeing our social media, contributing to website content, and designing marketing materials.

Hiking, reading, and volunteering with animals are Rebecca’s go-to wellbeing activities.

As a dedicated advocate for women’s health, Rejoice spearheads the establishment of peer support hubs across regional Victoria, focusing on the unique needs of women with cancer. She works to ensure equitable access to our support services for women from culturally diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and people from the LGBTIQA community.

Rejoice is equally committed to international health equity. She is involved in initiatives to improve the accessibility of cervical cancer screening in Sub-Saharan Africa, with the goal of making this critical service available to all women and girls.

Rejoice’s advocacy highlights her unwavering dedication to enhancing health outcomes for all women, particularly those from underserved communities.

Mary liaises with hospital staff to bring volunteers and women undergoing treatment for cancer together for supportive care.

As a former teacher, Mary took a detour from teaching when she was diagnosed with her own cancer to pursue a different career pathway. She is an advocate for women’s cancer health and wellbeing and she has landed the perfect job.