Meet new board member Rachel Carling who looks forward to sharing with Gellibrand her decades of experience in the disability sector.
You could say new Gellibrand board member Rachel Carling has written the book on disability. You wouldn’t be exactly correct, but you’d be close – her PhD thesis on Australia’s Disability Rights Movement was re-written into a book, Disability and Social Movements: Learning from Australian Experiences (2014).
Her PhD long ago achieved, Rachel currently runs a consultancy business in the NDIS sector, while lecturing in disability and aged care as part of an MBA program.
“I see being on Gellibrand’s board as an opportunity to give back to the sector in which I have worked for decades,” she said.
Rachel, who identifies as a woman with a disability and has a son and stepson with autism, said she has held various senior leadership positions in the disability sector.
“I also worked in academia as a Research Fellow. My main areas of research were Person-Centred Active Support and Dementia Care and Support for People with Down Syndrome,” she said, adding that she had also spent a term as a Senator in the Victorian Parliament.
Rachel is clearly someone who likes to keep busy, but she still has enough time to care for her adopted greyhound called ‘Star’.
“She’s a great companion,” Rachel said, “and is currently living her best life in retirement.”
Rachel said that during her time on Gellibrand’s board she is looking forward to “bringing a wealth of lived and professional experience in disability” to the organisation.
“I hope I can assist in carrying out the Gellibrand vision of, in my words, creating and sustaining a community where all people with disability are respected, opportunities are explored, and choice is promoted.”
