Friends with Dignity
Meet the tean
Manuela Whitford
CEO / Founder
Manuela Whitford, married, mother of 3, is passionate and committed to helping others.
Born in Mozambique and grew up in South Africa. A Registered Nurse of over 25yrs, she has always made time to give back to her Community in one way or another.
Having immigrated to Australia in 2010, leaving family and lifelong friends, Manuela was determined to make Australia home for her and her immediate family. Securing a job with Queensland Health within the correctional services, Manuela soon realised she needed to StepUp and help people affected by Domestic Violence.
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It was evident that people needed help and all she needed to do was connect people and generate a pathway to make it happen. This resulted in her Founding her original organisation, Assist A Sista in 2012 that later evolved to become Friends with Dignity in 2015. Manuela is no stranger to violence, having experienced an horrific event whilst in South Africa, prompting her immigration. She is determined and committed to ensure everyone’s right to feeling safe.
“I recognise and understand that Domestic Violence does not discriminate and men too need to be recognised and assisted. Minority groups such as the LGBTQI community also need to be recognised and offered assistance. Everyone has the right of access to services that support and provide a place of safety.”
Working full-time as a Clinical Nurse in the Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health sector, Manuela proudly Stands Up and Speaks Out against Domestic Violence. Both saddened and infuriated at the sheer number of incidences and witnessing the debilitating effects not only to Victims but their families, friends and community, there was no doubt Manuela wanted to actively make a change.
To date, Manuela proudly leads, and jointly works with, equally passionate volunteers to make a difference to the lives of so many individuals. Manuela is inspired by people and in awe of their resilience, which drives her to continue making a difference.
Volunteering, for Manuela, has become a vocation that she is truly committed to. She has reflected on how what she has created has been life changing, not only for the people she assists, but also to the volunteers, her family and herself alike.
” I look forward to the day my Voluntary position becomes redundant. But, until then, I and the Friends with Dignity crew will continue to StepUp, SpeakOut and Support those affected by Domestic Violence”.
Darrell Whitford
CEO / Founder
Founding Board member and Chief Operations Officer.
Father of 3 and grandfather to 1. Darrell has worked in the mechanical gearbox industry for more than 20 years holding various positions from applications engineer to business development manager.
Having completed a Diploma in Mechanical engineering and a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and Master’s Degree Business administration, Darrell provides a practical outlook and a particular passion in continuous improvement, innovation and business sustainability and longevity.
His personal passions are cycling, exploring the outdoors and creative home improvements. He enjoys learning about the history of the earth and mankind.
Jay Botha
Finance Manager
Jay Botha is the founder at JB Business Consultants, an accounting & strategic partner firm. Married and father of 2 and a gorgeous furry friend. He is passionate about growing smaller organizations. His can-do attitude along with vast experience, has enabled all his, and his clients endeavors to prosper.
Jay joined the Friends with Dignity Leadership team in December 2019 and in April 2021 took on the position of Chief Financial Officer.
Botha is a member of CPA Australia and holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Stellenbosch. His accounting background, stretches over two decades across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. He has worked across several industries, including the Mineral Exploration, as well as Banking and Insurance sectors.
Jeri Childers
Non-Executive Director
Jeri Childers, PhD, is the founder of Advancing & Accelerating with Jeri Childers, a coaching, leadership, and business development company.
Jeri works with accelerators and organisations supporting leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want a coach or business catalyst that co-creates customized roadmaps for their careers, commercial or social enterprise startups or scaleups.
Jeri develops leaders and teams with a focus on mindsets and intentional change strategies that combine mindset research, brain science, and innovation strategies for leadership and venture development. Jeri uses Fingerprint for Success (F4S), a world-first people analytics tool, that enables mindsets and steps for success.
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Dr Childers’ doctoral training focused on how professionals learn in the workplace, and she has international certifications from MIT related innovation and design thinking, from F4S in Entrepreneur and Business Builder Success Factor Models and the F4S Assessment, which are invaluable to founders, founder teams, and boards. Jeri is certified by the International Institute of Complementary Therapies (IICT) in Life Coaching (Practitioner), Passion and Purpose Coaching (Practitioner), Masculine and Feminine Coaching (MF) (Practitioner), Matrix Therapies (Practitioner), Archetypal Coaching (Practitioner), and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) (Practitioner).
Jeri is the Director of Education for iAccelerate at the University of Wollongong and is the chief evangelist for innovation and entrepreneurial education and services for students, staff, and the community. iAccelerate is a unique business accelerator and incubator program, where startups, scaleups, social enterprises and intrapreneurs thrive. The companies are supported by a robust model of education, mentoring, and seed funding.
Jeri has recently been working with Canva as a part of their advancing talent program with First Innovators, a rising Indigenous startup, powered by Investible and Indigenous Capital Limited, to deliver accelerator and business development services across Australia to enable Indigenous people startup and scaleup their careers and ventures. Jeri is partnering with Investible to offer business coaching to founders and business builders locally and globally.
Previously Dr. Childers was the founding Director of the UTS Techcelerator, at the University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Engineering & IT, which enables early-stage tech founders to prototype and validate their commercial deep tech solutions. Jeri also founded the UTS Female Founder Mentoring Program and the Advancing Women in Tech leadership development series.
Jeri is a non-executive director on the board of Friends with Dignity, a non-profit organisation advocating and providing services to the victims of domestic violence. Jeri has been a mentor and brand ambassador for Inspiring Rare Birds for many years. Inspiring Rare Birds provides professional and business development services to female leaders and founders. In these roles Jeri is a champion of gender equality, diversity, and inclusion, and empowers leaders and organisation to advance and accelerate lives, careers, a business.
Andrew Bacon
Non-Executive Director
I am a highly experienced Governance, Risk and Compliance Specialist with expertise in second line of defence compliance and risk related functions.
The focus of my career has been to:
• Unlock tangible value for stakeholders from strategy to through to execution.
• Business Development and Strategic Management of Projects, Program and Initiatives
• Providing advice ranging from strategy development and execution
With each of these focal areas being rewarding over the last 10 years, I am now at a pivotal stage of my career and am now looking to bring my extensive level of transferable skills to the forefront.
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What has recently captured my interest is building my skills and capabilities in the Indigenous Affairs Sector. I am also looking to give back to the community at a higher level through my role with Murawin and expand my experience gained through ensuring that value brought by Indigenous Knowledge is honoured with clear, long-term outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
What’s important to me in this space, is to bring my exceptional understanding of issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities to drive positive outcomes, solve complex challenges, and empower change.
My aim is to make a difference for individuals, organisations, and the wider community. To expand on my professional background, I have over 30 years of professional work experience across government, investment banking, commercial insurance, and the education sector.
With strong networks and connections across Indigenous communities and businesses and with an in depth understanding of the intersection between Indigenous Australia and the Corporate Sectors, I can unlock tangible value for stakeholders from strategy through to execution to build successful organisations.
In terms of the way I operate professionally, I’m respectfully collaborative, proficiently responsible, and innovatively inquisitive. I’m able to identify issues and take a pragmatic approach to problem solving. I work with authenticity and inclusivity and have an enabling collaborative style to not only get myself but others to perform at their best. Curious by nature, resolute, accountable, and able to overcome any challenges.
Nicole Madigan
Non-Executive Director
Nicole Madigan is a widely published journalist, editor, and content specialist, with more than 20 years’ experience in the media and communications industries. Her work is frequently published in high-profile print and online publications, including The Australian, The Age, The Courier Mail, Sunday Life, The Sydney Morning Herald, news.com.au, afr.com.au, The CEO Magazine, The CFO Magazine, and many others. She is a former on-air reporter with Channel Nine, and has managed communication and content projects for numerous organisations of various sizes, including EML Group, The Real Estate Institute of Queensland, and Charles Darwin University.
She is the author of two children’s books, and is an ambassador for Australia Reads, The Miracle Babies Foundation and domestic violence advocacy group, My Red Flags.
Nicole has a passionate interest in domestic violence and family law, writing frequently on these and related topics, in the hope of raising awareness and evoking change.
Peter Hills-Jones
Non-Executive Director
Peter is an experienced leader within the charity and community sector, with over a decade leading both the UK and Australian Public Fundraising Regulatory Associations, representing the interest of over 50 major charities.
He joined the NFP sector from the public service, having served for almost 15 years in a variety of policy and communications roles across the UK Parliament, as well as central and local government.
He has been in Australia since 2017, and volunteers with a number of local soccer and baseball clubs in his adopted home of Melbourne
Adele Laughton
Non-Executive Director
Adele is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history working in the Not-for-profit, Agriculture and Social Enterprise sectors. Having spent three years as the lead facilitator for a National Market Accelerator Program, working with start-up and scale-up businesses to commercialise their product offering, Adele has diverse business experience at all stages of scale and growth.
Most recently, Adele has led a national not-for-profit organisation that supports the retention of 18-35-year-olds in Australian agriculture, and also led strategy and impact development for a national social enterprise that supports mental health initiatives that help increase awareness and better access to mental health support in Australia.
Vicki Kersey
National Programs Manager
Vicki has been a volunteer with Friends with Dignity since 2017 and took on the National Programs Manager role in February 2020.
The role manages three of our programs – Sanctuary, Urgent Request and Little Friends Requests. Vicki oversees state programs managers, who ensure the programs run smoothly, and policy and procedures are followed to provide the best outcome for clients. She has also implemented an online request system and set up a database to store and collate information about our programs.
Vicki has had a varied work history, from retail and hospitality to management and business ownership. She is currently a property renovator.
Tracey Wickham
National Fundraiser and Community Engagements Manager
Tracey is an experienced community and corporate relations manager and communications and marketing manager with over 25 years’ experience in not for profit, corporate and charity workplaces.
Tracey is passionate about working with communities, clubs and businesses to assist members of our communities that are doing it tough. Tracey brings to Friends of Dignity her enthusiasm, creativity and experience that will help our charity grow and expand its presence through fundraising and creating awareness of our programs and how they can be supported. Tracey creates authentic and meaningful partnerships with our business stakeholders that provided employee engagement opportunities through volunteering and fundraising activities as well as fundraising collaborations with businesses.
Renee Henville
National HR Manager
Since February 2021 Renee Henville has been engaged as the National Human Resources Manager for Friends With Dignity.
In this position, Renee overseas the HR and Volunteer Coordinator team to implement policies, procedures and continually develop the internal culture of Friends With Dignity.
Renee has over 20 years of experience as a Human Resources Professional. In 2011 Renee founded Integrated Human Resourcing, an outsourced HR and Recruitment firm based on the Gold Coast.
Renee holds a Bachelor of Business : Organisational Psychology and Human Resources majors and DISC Advanced Accreditation. She loves supporting business to improve workplace culture and engagement.
In 2018 Renee was an Awardee of Merit in the Gold Coast Women in Business Awards, 2019 became a Small Business Mentor with the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training; and in 2021 Integrated Human Resourcing was a monthly winner of Gold Coast Business Excellence Awards.
Jaqui Brosnan
National Scholarships Manager
As one of the original volunteers Jaqui joined Friends with Dignity in 2015. A mother of two with a 30 year career in the Commonwealth Public Service and now a part-time Medical receptionist, Jaqui felt a strong desire to be more active in the community. When the Little Friends Scholarship program commenced in 2017 it was the perfect fit for Jaqui to take on the role of Little Friends Scholarship Program manager.
Jaqui is passionate about ensuring that children impacted by Domestic and family violence are given the same opportunities as their peers and are able to further their education and/or be able to participate in extra-curricular activities that they may not be able to peruse due to the financial impact of Domestic and Family Violence.
“Children are innocent victims of domestic violence sometimes and they go through enough pain & trauma without also having to face social inequality as they grow up”.
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The stories of these families and children is what drives Jaqui. Knowing that these scholarships will be helping a child settle into their new school in a the right school uniform, or enabling a child to attend the school camp with their peers, funding equine therapy for a child with PTSD or ensuring that a child can continue their interest in extra-curricular activities can make such an incredible difference to these children.
In 2022 we celebrated our 10th Round of Scholarships and are we are so incredibly proud that we have been able to have helped hundreds of children pursue their interests in sport, music, and art and their education and have awarded in excess of $250,000 supporting these children.
Melissa
van der Burgt
National FriendSafe Program Manager
Melissa joined Friends with Dignity in September 2020 after being a supporter of the programs for some time in the background.
Taking on the role of National FriendSafe Program Manager, Melissa’s first task was to complete the design and development of the FriendSafe Program and manage the launch which took place in October 2020. This program is an absolute passion of Melissa’s and countless hours are spent ensuring the smooth running and tight governance of FriendSafe.
Melissa has over 15 years’ experience in large scale program management and delivery across a number of industries, including Local and State Government, Global Outsourcing, Global Healthcare and Insurance. This experience ensures the FriendSafe program runs with sound governance, refined processes and a high level of client and agency satisfaction.
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Having personally grown up in a less than privileged environment, Melissa has spent countless hours volunteering throughout her life in an effort to give people back the basics that have been taken from them. With a secret passion for technology, the FriendSafe program perfectly links her desire to help people while leveraging the latest technology to achieve this goal.
Working with this program Melissa is acutely aware of the daily risks men, women and children are facing as a result of Domestic & Family Violence and sincerely hopes that by providing personal safety devices to those in need we can keep people safer and give them back their basic rights.
Decinda MacDonald
National Events Manager
“I love to create beauty in the world, to elevate ordinary moments, to facilitate connection between people and their brands, and enrich lives through engaging event experiences.”
Decinda’s journey as a business owner began in 2010 whilst sitting at a kitchen table, disillusioned by the thought that her talents lay dormant. She was struck with an idea, and thus, a passion to see that idea come to fruition. It was in that same year her first events company Sugar and Spice Events was born. In later years her second events company Event Society made head waves in the events industry with her meticulous attention to detail and creative flare.
Twelve years later and not only have her businesses survived each trial and tribulation, they’ve thrived due to careful planning and astute business instincts. These highly decorated, award-winning company’s boast an impressive cachet of high-end clientele including Queensland government, Lexus, BMW, QBE, Loreal, Jetstar, Dexus and Mirvac, among many others.
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Decinda is the Friends with Dignity National Event Manager, and as such is tasked with producing all events throughout the country of our event calendar. Events play a major role in the fundraising efforts of our organisation and help to spread the word about the vital work we do in the community.
Decinda originally got her start in the events industry with her background being founded in high-end corporate entertainment and theatre both locally and internationally, which, in total has given her over 19 years of experience within the events and entertainment industry. With a rap score of almost 2000 events, planned, managed and designed, Decinda prides herself on her consistency to evolve with modern styles and to innovate and contribute to setting trends.
Decinda’s role in the business as creative director, is to harness her creative imagination to fulfil client briefs and achieve their objectives. Decinda also oversees all aspects of running Event Society and Sugar and Spice Events, ensuring their quality, and delivering a constitution of excellence to each and every event produced.
Rosemary Macchiavelli
National Community Engagements Manager
Rosemary is responsible for the management of the Community Engagement Team. The community engagement portfolio comprises of:
Independent Fundraising – pecuniary and non-pecuniary.
Community engagement coordinating – actively engaging with the community by attending fundraisers, events, public speaking and any other creative method to engage with members of the community and promote FWD brand.
Drives programming – comprises of individual, workplaces/organisations collecting items to furnish the sanctuaries (homes), the drives can be known as the laundry, bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen drive. Items are donated for a specific room ready for a family to move into. CE team often coordinates these drives with the logistics/donations team to help store in the warehouse ready for our volunteers to get together and furnish one of the sanctuaries.
There is also the major annual drives known as the Christmas gifting for friends drive and the back to school drive whereby individuals and organisations participate in gifting for adults and children.
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towards building a nation free from domestic violence.