Principal News – 15 November 2018

As you will recall, the current Head of Officer Campus, Rebecca Cetrola, is moving to Beaconsfield Campus in 2019.

Accordingly, the College, in consultation with Diocese of Sale Catholic Education Limited, began its process of finding a replacement by advertising in The Age newspaper a few weeks ago.

We attracted applications from many experienced senior leaders and interviewed just four. Some Deputy Principals from other schools were not able to be shortlisted for an interview such was the quality of the field of applicants.

After ratification from the Deputy Director, Debra Punton, we have been approved to appoint Lisa Harkin to the role.

Lisa comes to us after a significant education career which has seen her serve as Deputy Principal ­– Students at De La Salle College in Malvern, and as Director of Learning and Wellbeing at MacKillop College in Werribee. Prior to that she was a Senior Project Officer at the State Government’s Bastow Institute, training senior leaders as coaches of their teams. She has a Masters of Education in Student Wellbeing, a Master of Business Administration in Educational Management, a Graduate Certificate of Religious Education and is a Harvard University trained coach and instructional designer. She is also qualified to teach English as an additional language.

She comes to the Officer Campus well prepared by her five years at MacKillop College, which is also in a growth area with a similar population mix as us.

She will take up her role from the start of the 2019 school year. I trust that she will be made very welcome by us all and I know that she has much to offer the College and the campus.

Lisa will attend a number of events between now and the end of the year so that she can get a better sense of who we are as a faith and learning community.