Our community engagement team

Maureen Liddy has spent 20 years as a leader in education, heading up schools and working in health and wellbeing. Maureen was instrumental in setting up the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy in her community of Coen.

In her role as Community Partnership Engagement Manager at Good to Great Schools Australia, Maureen leads Good to Great Schools Australia’s engagement with Cape York communities to design their plans for what they would like education in their community to look like and deliver those plans to key government decision makers.

Maureen has many years’ experience as an educator in Cape York, having taught at a number of schools including Bloomfield River State School where she became the acting principal. She was principal of the Coen Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy (CYAAA) for some five years, and also served as principal at Hope Vale CYAAA.

For four years in Hope Vale she was seconded to the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (DATSIP) Cape York Strategy Unit as part of the Government Champions program where she coordinated negotiation tables throughout Cape York between the communities and their Government Champions. Maureen was awarded the DATSIP Ministers Award for her performance throughout this time. Following this appointment, Maureen took on the role of transition officer for the Department of Education, assisting in moving children from primary schools to secondary schooling, and even further education.

Interesting fact: Maureen is passionate about wellbeing and mental health advocacy and has a degree in guidance counselling. She was instrumental in setting up the annual Conquer the Corrugations Mental Health Awareness Walk in which participants walk or ride 42 kilometres from Coen to Archer River to raise awareness of issues surrounding mental health in Cape York.

Maureen loved playing hockey while she attended St Peter’s Lutheran College for the school and she loves watching gymnastic and ballet on TV.

Tracy Ludwick has worked in many fields, from education to business development and native title, over her career. She has a long history of consulting with communities and helped set the Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy up in her community in Hope Vale.

As Community Engagement Project Officer at Good to Great Schools Australia, Tracey engages with Cape York communities to design their plans for what they would like education in their community to look like and deliver those plans to key government decision makers. Tracey also provides supports to GGSA’s culture curriculum program, facilitating co-design of culture curriculum and engaging with the Guugu Yimithirr community to support development of language tutorial videos.

Tracey has worked across Cape York in a number of community development and cultural initiatives, including as coordinator of the Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival, director of Western Cape Communities Coexistence Agreement Trust and director of the Quinkan Reginal Cultural Centre.

Tracey holds university degrees in Education, Indigenous Community Development and Business. She prides herself in being an activist for Indigenous rights and contributing to the reform of government policies.

Interesting fact: In Grade 3 Tracey won a literary senior award and her book still takes pride of place in the Mossman Primary School Library.

Leigh Schelks has worked in the education sector for more than 40 years, as a teacher, principal and in other leadership roles. He spent three years as the executive director of 131 schools across Queensland participating in the national partnership program for low socio-economic school communities.

Leigh was responsible for leading significant reforms within those schools, including differential staffing models and school-based initiatives based on international research and evidence that addressed issues such as school attendance and student participation in quality learning programs.

For over twelve years Leigh served as principal and teacher in Queensland Aboriginal communities of Woorabinda and Aurukun where he learnt the key to success was working collaboratively with the community especially the parents and caregivers and developing the capacity of school staff.

In his long career with Education Queensland Leigh also spent seven years as the Director of the Indigenous Schooling Support Unit based in Cairns, which was accountable for supporting key strategies for the remote Indigenous school communities. These strategies including implementing comprehensive human resources reforms to ensure quality teachers and school leaders were recruited, inducted and provided the relevant training to deliver high quality programs and outcomes.

More recently Leigh has been Executive Principal of Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy and has continued to promote and implement the high-quality systems and programs that deliver enhanced student outcomes and community engagement.

Leigh has undertaken work with Good to Great Schools Australia for the last four years, supporting key projects, specifically implementing programs and reforms to enable schools to deliver quality educational outcomes for all students.