She teaches leadership to GP's and is trained in 'Dare To Lead' a courage-building program based on the research of Dr. Brené Brown. The curriculum teaches the skills, practices, and tools that underpin the four skill sets of courage: Rumbling with Vulnerability, Living into Our Values, Braving Trust, and Learning to Rise.
Vicky is a leadership development specialist with over 15 years of human resource management and industrial relations experience.
At CXBank$ Vicky joins a panel discussion and tells her story of financial abuse, a story from her childhood perspective. She shows us it's ok to be vulnerable and most of all she tells her story to be a voice for children growing up in abusive homes.
An Irish-Australian, Vicky grew up between two cultures and two countries, one with an 800 year history of brutality towards the other. In the midst of the 1980s recession in Ireland, her family moved abruptly to the UK. Bullying and discrimination against Irish people was the norm then. Thankfully, times have changed, but what she experienced and witnessed fed Vicky’s innate sense of social justice and a desire to create positive social change.
A tumultuous end to Vicky’s high school years, when her family moved 6 or 7 times in close succession, resulted in a peak period of stress at the age of 16. Despite two years of turmoil, and dropping out of her dream pursuit of becoming an artist, she landed interesting work and challenging roles with a string of supportive bosses throughout her twenties.
She uses her experience of working in organisations of all sizes from startups to multinationals in Australia, UK, France and Switzerland to inform discussions about leadership, change and people management.
Since coming to Australia, she has worked in management or consulting roles for healthcare and community services. Vicky designed and implemented the first national leadership program for general practice in Australia, now in its third year, and loves her work.
As part of her university studies, Vicky spent six months living in Paris, and upon returning to London in 2004, took on a role as an employment advisor in South East London. Vicky witnessed the impact of severe socioeconomic disadvantage and began to understand how reality unfolds for different populations with limited access to healthcare, education and employment resources.
Whilst working in this role, Vicky met her husband, a Perth boy, working his way around Europe. They moved to Australia together in 2006, but at the age of 29, two weeks after applying for permanent residency in Australia, Vicky was diagnosed with cancer. She is grateful for the excellent care and support she received from the teams of medical professions, her husband, family and friends whilst undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy in Perth. Despite the grief of a miscarriage two years later, and the belief that they were unable to have children, Vicky and her husband were staggered to discover they were expecting a baby in 2016, and they now have a rambunctious three year old son.
Vicky’s experiences and education have given her the knowledge that significant systemic change is required in so many aspects of life, and that moving forward requires facing our past. She found her time as a Board Director of a women’s refuge for victims of family and domestic violence deeply confronting, as she grew to understand more about that two years of turmoil in the context of psychological and financial abuse.
Currently studying a postgraduate in social impact at the University of Western Australia, Vicky actively supports social change initiatives in Australia and globally and believes that the first step to be had is always in having the conversation.
CXBank$ is an online webinar style gathering being held on World Mental Health Day, October 10. It's free to attend. Hear Vicky speak and other extraordinary survivors and experts in the Domestic and Family Violence sector talk as we work to end Financial Abuse and improve mental health outcomes for victims/survivors. Get your free ticket here and watch online on October 10
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