Michele Carnegie’s experience of the early childhood sector is one of great strength, shaped by the education needs of children and care requirements of parents.

Michele is the CEO of Community Early Learning Australia (CELA), where her leadership and management decisions since commencing her role as CEO, have depended on applying a systems lens. Michele believes that working with a systems lens view enabled CELA to become the highly influential and financially successful organisation it is today.

Michele’s vision for the ECEC sector is of integrated education, health, and family service where children are at the centre of all decisions, where all families feel culturally safe and genuinely belong, and where educators are professionally supported, valued, and suitably remunerated and leaders are resourced to build the type of positive culture that inspires teachers and educators to enrich the lives of every child they work with.

“Acting collaboratively amplifies the collective voice, which can have an influential and powerful impact, particularly when individuals that make up the collective voice are recognized for their integrity, experience, expertise, and knowledge.”