Our Inspiring
Alumnae
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are thrilled to recognise amazing Redlands Alumnae who are creating a world where all women are empowered, valued and included.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are honoured to recognise alumnae whose careers support and advance women. The following change makers represent just a few among our Redlander Community who inspire inclusion through their work in international and national law, mental health and wellbeing, and within the music industry.
International
Women's Day
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we recognise the valuable contributions our Redlanders have made in their chosen industry.
Helen Murrell SC - RL 1971
First female Chief Justice to the Supreme Court of the ACT
Today we celebrate the Honourable Helen Murrell SC, who broke new ground by becoming the first woman appointed Chief Justice to the Supreme Court of the ACT in 2013, where she served for eight years.
The Honourable Helen Murrell was enrolled as a Solicitor to the Supreme Court in 1977. In 1981 she was the 37th woman to be admitted to the NSW Bar, and when she was appointed silk in 1995 she was the only woman among the 15 senior counsel who were appointed that year. Her honour was appointed a NSW District Court judge in 1996 and went on to be President of the NSW Equal Opportunity Tribunal, and an Acting Judge in the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales.
Her Honour has been praised for establishing the first NSW Drug Court in 1998 and in 1999 she was a member of the United Nations Expert Working Group on Drug Courts, Vienna.
From 2005 to 2013 her Honour was Deputy Chairperson of the New South Wales Medical Tribunal.
Chief Justice Murrell has worked in criminal, administrative, environmental and equity law, and has an ongoing interest in the therapeutic jurisprudence and a strong involvement with judicial education, sitting on the Council of the National Judicial College of Australia.
Since August 2022, her Honour has served as a part-time commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Arabella Gibson - RL 1992
CEO of Gidget Foundation Australia
For over 7 years, Arabella Gibson has been the CEO of Gidget Foundation Australia, a national not-for-profit mental health organisation supporting the emotional wellbeing of expectant and new parents and their families.
Arabella has a passion for improving support systems for expectant and new parents by building emotionally resilient families. Since joining the Foundation, Arabella has expanded its Gidget House program offering face-to-face psychology support to cover 3 states with 28 physical sites. Under her leadership, the Foundation has introduced 3 new programs providing direct support: Start Talking, offering nationwide telehealth services for regional, rural and remote communities; Gidget Village, offering group therapy support to those in parents experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety and Gidget Virtual Village, a peer supported Facebook group for thousands of parents.
Arabella is a Non-Executive Director on the board of Future Women, an organisation supporting the advancement of women to connect, learn and lead which is part-owned by Nine Entertainment Co.
Arabella is also a Non-Executive Director of Motherland, an organisation that supports rural mothers by connecting them to a supportive online community and mothers group program that rural mums can access, regardless of location.
Arabella participated in the advisory group to devise the Australian Government’s Women’s Health Strategy for 2020 to 2030 in Canberra and contributed to the COVID-19 National Mental Health Strategy for Children, Young People and Parents.
Named as the Not For Profit Executive of the Year in 2022, Arabella was also a finalist in The CEO Magazines’ Awards in 2018, 2019 and 2021 and a Finalist in the Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards in 2019. Arabella was also a Finalist in the NSW Government’s 2023 overall NSW Women of the Year Awards.
Arabella joined Gidget Foundation Australia after a lengthy career in the media industry, working in management for small business as well as publicly listed entities in both Australia and the UK.
Arabella was formerly General Manager UK of iSUBSCRiBE, an online magazine subscription business, based in London.
Before moving to the UK, Arabella was the Director of Communications for Australian media entity PBL Media (now Nine Entertainment Co) as well as its subsidiary businesses Nine Network Australia and Bauer Media (formerly ACP Magazines). Arabella was promoted to this role having held the position of Group Public Relations & Media Manager for ACP Magazines, responsible for the PR and communication of over 80 titles.
Before joining ACP Magazines, Arabella was General Manager – Marketing & Sales for Australian icon brand, RM Williams, for 5 years, managing both the local and international marketing and retail business.
Prior to that, Arabella was General Manager of leading public relations firm, Colvin Communications International, which included clients such as Louis Vuitton, Krug Champagne, the Leading Hotels of the World, MAC cosmetics, the Cointreau Ball, ACP Magazines and RM Williams among many others.
Arabella holds a Masters Degree in Communication Management from the University of Technology, Sydney and is currently completing her Australian Company Directors Course.
Arabella is a mother to twins – a son and a daughter.
Rachel Davis - RL 1996
Vice President and Co-Founder at Shift, the leading centre of expertise on business and human rights
Rachel Davis is a passionate advocate for human rights who has played a critical role over the last two decades in shaping the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and their practical implementation. In 2011, the Guiding Principles were unanimously adopted by the UN. They set the global benchmark for how companies should operate with respect for the people they impact – workers in their own operations and value chains, local communities and the people who use their products and services. Today, as co-founder of New York based non-profit organisation Shift with a global team of 20 experts, Rachel continues to influence the way the Guiding Principles are implemented through binding standards and the practice of leading companies and investors.
From 2006-2011, Rachel was senior legal advisor to the former Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Business and Human Rights, the late Harvard Professor John Ruggie. In that role, she helped develop the UN Guiding Principles, advising on all aspects of the relationship between the Guiding Principles and national and international law.
In 2011, Rachel co-founded Shift – the leading non-profit centre of expertise on the Guiding Principles. Shift works with policy-makers, multinational companies, public and private sector financial institutions and civil society partners to advance practical implementation of the principles. Rachel has led work over the last decade on the development of new rules on corporate accountability at EU level, on improved responses to conflict with local communities in the extractive sector, and on more robust evaluation of the ‘S’ in ESG by major financial institutions.
Rachel also has unique experience on integrating respect for human rights into the operations of global sports governing bodies. She was the Chair of FIFA’s independent Human Rights Advisory Board from 2017-2020. She has advised the International Olympic Committee on human rights since 2018, including co-authoring recommendations for the IOC on a comprehensive human rights strategy with former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, which the IOC is now working to implement.
Rachel was a Senior Program Fellow with the Corporate Responsibility Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School for many years. She has experience at the highest levels of the Australian legal system and internationally, having clerked at the High Court of Australia and at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague. She has a particular interest in Indigenous peoples’ rights, having advised the Australian Federal Attorney-General’s Department on Indigenous affairs and acted as Ruggie’s liaison with the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues during his UN mandate.
Rachel has a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School and Bachelors degrees in Law and Politics from the University of New South Wales, where she also lectured and published in law.
From her time at Redlands, Rachel particularly recalls the incredible opportunities to study abroad and host exchange students in return. She participated in exchanges to Thailand, Japan and Germany – experiences which shaped her interest in, and respect for, diverse peoples and cultures. Rachel was also an active participant in school drama and debating, helping to set early foundations for the work she does today to persuade powerful organisations about the importance of respect for human rights.
Mikaela Lancaster - RL 1995
Spotify Managing Director AUNZ
Mikaela Lancaster has been a driven powerhouse in the field of business and technology for nearly three decades. Her most recent venture started when she took on the role as the head of Spotify in Australia in 2020. She has extended the subscription service to beyond the traditional music platform to other audio, including podcasts and the launch of audio books in Australia in November last year.
Mikaela is one of the penultimate advocates for artists in Australia and around the region not only through the Spotify music platform, but support via events including Australian Music T-Shirt Day and new technology such as the Green Screen series, a live platform that creators can use to host their own rooms which Lancaster compares to the app Clubhouse, and Your Daily Drive, which is a mix of music and talk similar to traditional radio.
Adopting new opportunities that AI presents she helped launch Spotify’s personalization technology labelled “DJ” a platform that “knows you and your music taste so well that it will scan the latest releases we know you’ll like, or take you back to that nostalgic playlist you had on repeat last year” Spotify Newsroom February 2023
“Lancaster started her career at Universal Music and says she’s always been interested in “the intersection of content and tech” having worked at Microsoft, Ninemsn, The Daily Mail and most recently as global marketing director at freemium video streaming service iFlix in Malaysia.” SMH 26 July 2021
Alexandra Shehadie - RL 1980
Expert adviser on diversity and inclusion and creating positive and safe workplace cultures
Chairperson Guthrie House
It is not surprising that Alex Shehadie has a passion for social justice. The daughter of two extraordinary community leaders, Dame Maria Bashir AD CVO FTSE and a long serving Governor of New South Wales, and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE, Lord Mayor of Sydney and Wallaby captain, she saw the impact strong community leadership and governance could have to improve the lives of marginalised people and those whose voices need to be heard.
Alex practiced as a solicitor before holding senior roles in the NSW Government including as the inaugural Manager of the Violence Prevention Coordination Unit and subsequently as the Executive Director of the Office for Women’s Policy. She also held a senior role at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Alex was an expert adviser to NATO in relation to women, peace and security.
Alex is an expert adviser to many and varied organisations on the importance of gender equality, diversity and inclusion to creating positive and safe and respectful workplace cultures. She has extensive experience in leading large-scale cultural reviews of national significance and designing high impact recommendations. She has led numerous reviews into organisational culture, focusing on sexual harassment, everyday sexism, bullying, racism and other forms of discrimination. She has worked with the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Federal Police, Rio Tinto, Qantas, EY Oceania, the Victorian Courts, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Australian Contemporary Music Industry. Alex is currently an Advisory Panel Member for the Review into ABC Processes and Systems in Support of Staff Who Experience Racism.
In her volunteering capacity, Alex is the Chair of the Board of Guthrie House – a residential support service for women exiting prison.
