Eliane Nasr has enjoyed the journey from working at the UN to becoming Gellibrand’s Quality and Compliance Specialist.
Some might say it’s a long way from working at the UN to working at Gellibrand Support Services. But, for Eliane Nasr, both have had their unique challenges and rewards. Eliane, Gellibrand’s Quality and Compliance Specialist, moved to Australia from Lebanon at the end of 2019 after working for three years at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a senior administrative role.
“Before the UN, I was used to working in mostly Lebanese-managed companies. Even if they were international, they were mainly run by Lebanese people,” Eliane said. “When I worked in the UN, I was able to get to know different cultures and their point of view, all feeding into the same purpose of doing our best for the UNHCR.”
In terms of multiculturalism, the UN was great preparation for working at Gellibrand, an organisation known for the diverse cultural backgrounds from which team members and clients hail. And, as at the UN, Eliane’s learning curve has been steep at Gellibrand.
“I’m a chemistry graduate, but after my degree I did a diploma in Quality Management (Food Safety). Then I took a lot of courses in the International Standard Organisation (ISO). So, I worked in the ISO field as a consultant before working at the UN and had experience of different kinds of standards, but none in the disability sector.”
When she started at Gellibrand six years ago, Eliane had to do substantial research to understand the quality standards against which an organisation like Gellibrand is audited. Now as the organisation’s Quality and Compliance Specialist she works with a team to develop and maintain the quality management system, which means keeping policies, procedures and practice guides up to date with compliance standards and Gellibrand’s direction.
“It has definitely been a significant professional and personal journey for me. There is also the challenge of continuous updates we get from the NDIS and all the regulations. So, it is a continuous learning curve professionally.”
Her professional and personal learning curve has included hands-on – and off – learning at Gellibrand. Eliane remembered that the first client event she attended, she met a female client and, wanting to support her, found herself holding the client’s hand for a while. A senior Gellibrand manager brought over another manager and said, “Eliane would like to hold your hand for the rest of the night.”
“I said, ‘No, I wouldn’t!” Eliane remembered with a smile, adding that the senior manager then asked her why then she was holding the client’s hand. “It was mind-blowing for me. I thought that holding hands was supportive, but the manager explained that we need to empower clients. The advice was, She is independent. She’s an adult. You don’t hold hands with other adult people at an event.”
Eliane wasn’t surprised to find in Gellibrand’s approach to quality and compliance the same attention to clients’ support needs, which focus on promoting independence.
“Every part of the work we do is driven by the people we support. So even something as technical as quality management and policies are still feeding into how we provide the best support we can to clients,” Eliane said. “It’s not only about meeting standards; we are writing the policy thinking about the rights of the clients. That is different to other work I have done in the corporate sector.”
When Eliane is finished work for the day, she said her kitchen is her “happy place.” She loves experimenting with new recipes and, with Quality Management (Food Safety) qualifications, it’s no doubt a clean and efficient kitchen.
“With my family, we love to go exploring places in Australia,” she said, adding that Victoria’s Grampians/Gariwerd mountain range had been a favourite. “We were there in December and the nature is just amazing. It is wonderful to be able to go on all those hikes.”
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