-

Our Executive

Teach For Australia’s executive team collectively lead the organisation’s strategy, culture, and impact. They bring a range of expertise across education, strategy, operations and governance.

Meet the Executive Leadership Team

Melodie Potts Rosevear

Chief Executive Officer & Founder

Melodie Potts Rosevear is founder and CEO of Teach For Australia. She is a disruptor and a problem-solver, driven by a vision for Australia where education gives every child, regardless of background, greater choice for their future.

Melodie has made it her mission to champion better educational outcomes for our most vulnerable children in Australia. In the past 12 years, the work of TFA has helped more than 350,000 students in 220 schools, while building a community of 1200-plus teachers and leaders who are bringing about change inside and out of the classroom.

Melodie was awarded an Order of Australia for her service to education and teacher development in 2021. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard where she received a Kennedy Fellowship, and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a Morehead Scholar.

Originally from rural Appalachia in the USA, Melodie lives in Melbourne with her husband Sam and young son Harrison, affectionately dubbed ‘Harry the Hurricane’, and their dog, Jack ‘The Ripper’ Russell.

Jane Phipps

Chief Operating Officer

Jane is a natural leader and change agent, who is passionate about all levels of education. Before joining TFA, Jane’s passion took the form of management consultant across VET and higher education. As an innate problem solver, strategist, people person and deep thinker, she has achieved success transforming challenges into solutions across corporations and state government.

Jane is now focused on the internal workings of TFA, supporting people through change and achieving operational excellence, so that as we grow as an organisation we can increase our impact on educational inequality.

Jane prides herself on being authentic and kind. She lives in Melbourne and is frequently heard talking about her cat ‘Duchess by name, Duchess by nature.’

Lynda Cavalera

General Manager – Growth

Lynda joined the TFA team as General Manager, Growth in 2022 and leads the execution of an integrated marketing and recruitment strategy. This includes planning and direction of recruitment and marketing (including promotion, branding and end-to-end communications). Lynda has a strategic and creative mindset with a passion for building purpose-led brands, great customer experiences and delivering commercial results. She has worked for a number of brands including RMIT University, Make-A-Wish, ANZ and more recently SGS Australia.

Lynda holds a Bachelor of Applied Science, Post Graduate International Business (Marketing), a Master of Business Administration and is a graduate and member of the Institute of Company Directors (AICD). She is also a lifetime member of the Australian Marketing Institute.

Lynda lives in Melbourne with her husband Lou, has two adult children currently both living overseas.

Eleanor Donovan - General Manager - Program Impact and Transformation

Eleanor Donovan

General Manager – Program Impact and Transformation

Eleanor stepped into the role of General Manager, Program Impact and Transformation in April 2023. She is an accomplished executive with experience in senior operational and strategic roles. Eleanor’s background spans management consulting, program delivery and government. Past experiences include General Manager roles at Beyond Blue and Goodstart Early Learning, management consulting with McKinsey, and most recently as an executive with the Victorian Department of Education. She is also a warmly welcomed return staff member having been a part of the TFA team in two previous roles during her career.

Eleanor possesses a deep passion for addressing educational inequity. She is now focussed on ensuring Teach For Australia’s Associates are well equipped as teachers and leaders through the Leadership Development Program.

Eleanor lives in Melbourne, but enjoys travelling whenever she gets the chance, with carry-on luggage only. Next on the list is Morocco.

Heath Ducker

Executive Director, Government, Philanthropy and Media

Heath is a strategic thinker and inspiring leader with significant experience as CEO of a national youth organisation which relied heavily on local, state and federal support. His professional background spans law, government, advocacy and executive roles.

Heath started his career as a lawyer at national law firm Gadens (now Dentons). During this time, he acted on secondment as a lawyer at the United Nations Special Consultative Body, the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre in India. After his time at Gadens, Heath was appointed an Advisor to the NSW Attorney General, the Honourable John Hatzistergos AM. At the end of their term in government, Heath took up the role of CEO of the national youth charity, an organisation he was a participant in as a teenager, overseeing a period of rapid growth for the organisation.

Heath has been a lived experience advocate for the underprivileged in Australia. His own Dickensian story of disadvantage and abuse was profiled on Australian Story, introduced by then Prime Minister John Howard. Subsequently, Heath wrote his autobiography, which was published by Penguin Random House Australia, with a foreword from then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Heath has appeared as a panel member on the ABC’s Q&A program, is a recipient of the Davos Australian Leadership Award, and a finalist in the BOSS Magazine/Sydney University, Emerging Leaders Award.

Heath’s focus in this role will be on further strengthening TFA’s comprehensive government affairs program and stakeholder support, sustaining revenue and creating positive authorising environments for Teach For Australia’s programs.

Heath lives in Sydney with his partner and baby boy Ryker, and enjoys surfing on the Northern Beaches, and hiking in the mountains.

Briannon McLoughlin

Director – Community & Internal Communications

Briannon is a Teach For Australia Alumna. She is a mission-driven, nonprofit leader passionate about harnessing the people-power of communities and impact networks to address system-level problems limiting the potential of young people.

Her current role is Director of Community and Internal Communications. She leads TFA’s work to cultivate leadership capabilities and networks among our Alumni with the aim of making sure that more teachers, leaders and schools in the most under-served parts of Australia flourish because of the support of strong allies. Briannon also helps drive Teach For All’s Global Alumni Strategy Community.

Across four continents, Briannon has previously worked as an award-winning classroom teacher, an instructional leader and school leadership team member (in a US charter school), a successful small business owner, and a program delivery manager in several educational charities.

Briannon lives in Sydney – right near the beach – where she spends a lot of time reading in her hammock and never takes the sunrise for granted.