The QELI team

CEO
Dr Stephen Brown has 30 years of education experience in Queensland and Victoria. He was the Regional Director of Hume Region in Victoria for four years and acted in the position of Deputy Secretary, Office of Government School Education (OGSE).  Dr Brown was Executive Director of the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat in the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and a member of the departmental leadership team.

Dr Brown has a Doctorate of Education from the University of Southern Queensland and a Master of Arts from the University of London. He was awarded the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL) Nganakarra Award in 2007 and a presidential citation from the same organisation in 2009. Dr Brown is also a National and State fellow of ACEL. In 2009 he was nominated for membership of the Global Education Leaders Program—a coalition of leading system thinkers. Stephen was identified as a participant in the Victorian Leadership Development Centre’s 2009 program for future Deputy Secretaries in the Victorian Public Sector.

As the author of research papers on public sector change, leadership and organisational redesign, Dr Brown is frequently invited to address national and international conferences on leadership, organisational change and school improvement.

Previously employed by Education Queensland in positions including teacher, principal and Executive Director Schools, Dr Stephen Brown brings to his new role an international and national reputation as an outstanding system leader, thinker and educator.

sbrown@qeli.qld.edu.au

Director of Programs
Jan Alen has worked in the area of educational leadership for over twenty years in two states, Victoria and Queensland. She brings a wealth of experience and insight to her work supporting the development of leaders, aspirants and school leadership teams in schools.

Jan is driven by a desire to increase the confidence of leaders through quality programs and strategies that blend theory and practice and enable leaders to apply their learning on the job. At a system level her roles have included the development and implementation of a number of leadership capability standards and frameworks, developing and directing leadership assessment centres and establishing mentoring and work shadowing programs. Jan has also coached individual principals and school leadership teams and is known for her excellent facilitation and people skills.

In 2010, Jan was a recipient of the prestigious Endeavour Award where she spent two months working with principals and system leaders in the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training system which covers 35,000 schools. A key focus of her work in Hanoi was on reshaping the curriculum and methodology for the National Institute for Education Management’s principal training program.

jalen@qeli.qld.edu.au

Business Manager
Steven McElhinney has significant experience in financial and management accounting. With a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Queensland gained in 2002, Steven has gone on to work in both Chartered and commercial environments over the past eight years. He has also satisfied the requirements of professional membership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia (ICAA) by completing his Graduate Diploma of Chartered Accounting in 2010.

smcelhinney@qeli.qld.edu.au

Manager Service Delivery
Karen Wright has considerable business administration and business management experience, particularly within the Queensland educational sector, where over a period of fourteen years she has held the positions of registrar, performance measurement executive officer and business analyst.

Karen’s most recent posting was as business manager of the first Australian International School established in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Karen's brief concentrated heavily on project management (construction and establishment), facility management, human resource management, finance management, information technology and public relations/marketing. After more than five and half years in the UAE, Karen has returned to continue in corporate service positions in Queensland and looks forward to continuing her business and project management studies.

kwright@qeli.qld.edu.au

Events Co-Ordinator 

Denise Hanley has almost 10 years extensive experience in corporate service units and customer service, particularly within an international environment.  Denise has held high level support positions both in Ireland and the UK to Senior Airline Executives, having commenced in the airlines as a flight attendant and then progressively personally promoted throughout the airline industry.  Denise’s passion is people and and her constant bubbly personality make her a valuable asset to this organisation.

Denise is enjoying the challenge of this exciting new role at QELi and multi skilling in the role of administration officer working alongside the Administration Manager across all areas QELi operations including, programs, marketing and finance in addition to assisting both the CEO and Director of programs with their diary entries and travel requirements.   

dhanley@qeli.qld.edu.au

Manager of Programs

Lea Gamble brings over 15 years experience in event management and training and development to QELi.  Her experience in the public, private and not for profit sectors has seen her deliver programs, conferences and events for organisations as diverse as the  Department of Education and Training, Local Government Association of Qld, Flightcentre and Australia’s CEO Challenge.  

In identifying and delivering world class program for QELi, she draws on experience working throughout Queensland and in Canberra and the UK. Most recently, Lea has  worked closely with schools across the three schooling sectors delivering behaviour change through Brisbane City Council’s sustainability programs.

lgamble@qeli.qld.edu.au

Assistant Accountant

Jessica Valentine joined the QELi team in February 2012. She is about to complete her Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Queensland. While undertaking her degree Jessica worked in a Boutique Accounting practice specialising in Tax. As part of the finance team Jessica assists the Business Manager in Accounts.  As a graduate accountant Jessica is delighted to be working with the friendly and supportive team at QELi and excited about the opportunity to expand her experience in Accounting.

jvalentine@qeli.qld.edu.au

Executive Assistant to the CEO

Karrissa Wright has very recently joined the QELi team and looks forward to assisting the CEO to provide high level executive support to his very busy professional role.  Karrissa has worked in administrative roles in the Education Sector both on the Gold Coast and Overseas.  Karrissa has high level people skills, strong administrative skills and a vivacious enthusiasm to incorporate into her new role.

wrightk@qeli.qld.edu.au