St Catherine’s School shines a light on past student success
From best-selling children’s authors and Olympians, to philanthropists and scientists, St Catherine’s School students have reached amazing heights. Here’s 10 of the school’s top graduates.
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The past students of St Catherine’s School are a talented and diverse bunch.
The school has produced graduates in who have become leaders in the fields of science, medicine, media, sport and more.
Here are just 10 of their remarkable former students.
Tamara Cannon, class of 1991
Tamara Cannon is the founder and chief executive of Lille Fro, an Australian charity which funds education for children, and skills training for adults living in extreme poverty in some of the remotest places on the planet.
Graduating from Monash University with a law/arts degree, Tamara practised as a corporate lawyer for one of Australia’s leading law firms, before becoming senior corporate counsel with a large multinational.
In 2008, Tamara packed up corporate life to work on her own project.
While in Asia and with time on her side, Tamara pulled out a map, closed her eyes, and pointed to a spot – her finger landed on Mt Everest, Nepal. Captivated by the Himalayas, Tamara was inspired to climb the perfect peak, a search which led her to Ladakh in the North of India.
On one climbing trip, Tamara met a little girl living in destitute circumstances. Like many children in her village, this child had never been to school.
Tamara decided to pay for her education. Seeing first-hand the difference she had made to this child’s life, Tamara realised she could not turn her back on other children in similar circumstances. The seed had been planted, and Lille Fro had begun.
Tamara is reputably the first foreigner to have visited many of the isolated communities living in sealed-off regions of Ladahk – home to some of the world’s poorest nomads. In between building glasshouses at high altitude, visiting villages difficult to find on any map and helping to change the lives of thousands through Lille Fro, Tamara is a full time mum to baby Florence.
Celia Burrell (nee Shelmerdine) class of 1983
Celia has been described as a serial entrepreneur, enjoying and successfully navigating the creation, funding, launch and growth of several innovative enterprises.
Her most well-known endeavour was to transform a million-acre, rundown cattle station into a world renowned wilderness park in Australia’s Kimberley Region, El Questro.
The concept and creation of this wilderness park changed the way people viewed and visited the Australian Outback. El Questro hosts over 50,000 domestic and international guests each year.
Celia has been the recipient of many design and tourism awards for her vision, lateral thinking and leadership flair.
In 2005, she entered the Hall of Fame for Tourism Excellence and in 2006 was appointed as a member of the Order of Australia for service to the tourism industry in the development and promotion of outback wilderness travel and raising awareness of the cultural significance of the Kimberley region.
Celia is a published author and illustrator. Her first book, Flora the Flower Girl, was published in 1995 followed by four more outdoor themed stories.
All her projects have been inspired by a love of community, creativity, design, good health and Australia’s great outdoors.
She enjoys a wide variety of sports, in particular skiing and yoga, spending time outside and being with her family and four children.
Flip Shelton, class of 1983
Flip (Lucile) Shelton is a self-confessed “Jill of all trades” having forged a successful career as a published author and writer, presenter, broadcaster and business woman.
Since beginning her career as a publicist, Flip has become a public figure, having written and presented segments about food, fitness and travel for radio, television and print media.
Over the past 20 years, Flip has appeared on Channel 7’s Sunrise, Channel 10’s Good Morning Australia and various other commercial television programs; presented radio segments on 3AW, Gold FM, MTR1377, 5AA, 4BC, 6PR and Triple M; and has written columns for The Herald Sun.
Flip has published six children’s books since 2007, and three cookbooks – a sellout cookbook GREEN – Modern Vegetarian Meals and a second cookbook Veg In, which was awarded the 2011 best Australian vegetarian cookbook by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Smart Snacks, which she co-authored with Michael Carr-Gregg, was published by Penguin in February 2019.
In 2003, Flip launched Flip Shelton’s Natural Muesli, and has grown her range to include three blends of premium muesli, a gluten free muesli and a five-grain porridge.
Aside from work, Flip balances her passion for health and fitness by spending time with her husband and son. She has completed four Ironman events and the Melbourne Marathon, and these days enjoys yoga and cross fit.
Yolanda Finette, class of 1990
Yolanda Finette, St Catherine’s ‘Old Girl’ and school captain, was the most deserved award recipient of the 2019 SCOGA Fellowship.
Yolanda, an indigenous (Yorta Yorta), Greek and African-American woman attended St Catherine’s on a scholarship organised by an Elder who was determined to do better for indigenous children, and alongside a family of strong social justice activists, Yolanda has been an active ambassador for her communities since.
Yolanda worked for over 25 years in the child, youth and family services both in the Melbourne Aboriginal community and in the United States, before beginning her Holistic Life Coaching and consultancy practice.
Yolanda work’s predominantly with black, indigenous and women of colour to support change, healing, self-determination and empowerment.
Yolanda also facilitates healing groups for family violence victims and survivors and has created a platform to be of service to her Aboriginal community through delivering wellbeing, self-development workshops, webinars and presentations through an Aboriginal cultural lens.
As a woman who has suffered from the impacts of both direct and indirect racism, Yolanda will use her SCOGA Fellowship to conduct research and attend training to create an anti-racism educational package for use in Australian schools, organisations, and government departments.
Yolanda plans to travel to the United States to attend both the Leadership for Diversity Institute and the Anti-Racist Alliance to expand her knowledge and leadership in the area of Anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Yolanda’s vision is to create safe spaces that allow for difficult but necessary, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion conversations with truth and compassion, supporting participants to find tangible tools and resources to create personal and collective solutions for community-wide transformation.
Yolanda returns to St Catherine’s on occasion to speak for NAIDOC week assembly, as well as to provide indigenous cultural support and advice.
Lady Southey AC, class of 1945
Marigold Merlyn Baillieu Southey is the younger daughter and fourth child of the late Sidney Myer and Dame Merlyn Myer DBE.
She was educated at St Catherine’s School and the University of Melbourne.
Marigold married Ross Shelmerdine, and they had four children, two sons and two daughters. They were restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, and built and owned the Mitchelton Winery complex at Nagambie in 1973. Ross died in 1979.
In 1982 Marigold married Sir Robert Southey, a company director and chairman of the Australian Ballet. Sir Robert died in 1998.
Lady Southey was a director of the Myer Family Companies from the mid-1950s until she retired in December 1999.
She was vice president of the National Stroke Foundation, and was a former president of Philanthropy Australia and President of the St Catherine’s School Foundation in the 1980s and 1990s.
Lady Southey also served eight years on the board of Orchestra Victoria, and is on several committees of the Myer Foundation.
She is an active chairman of her two sons’ companies, engaged in farming and viticulture.
Lady Southey was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1999 for her service to the community in support of health care, medical research and the arts, and received the Centenary Medal in 2000.
On January 1, 2001 Lady Southey was appointed as the 12th Lieutenant Governor of Victoria.
In 2006 she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).
She retired as Lieutenant Governor in April 2006.
Lady Southey is Patron of the Australian Ballet School, The Lort Smith Animal Hospital, the National Council of Jewish Women Australia (Vic) and Monash Health.
Lady Southey is a devoted mother and grandmother and enjoys spending time with her extended family.
Jane Halliday class of 1966
Jane Halliday, BSc (Hons), PhD, is an honorary professor, University of Melbourne, Department of Paediatrics, principal fellow and group leader of Reproductive Epidemiology at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI).
She has had continuous personal support from National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for 21 years.
She is an epidemiologist with over 200 publications, designing and undertaking research that measures the impact of potentially harmful prenatal exposures on health and wellbeing of infants, children and young adults, integrating knowledge of genetics, epigenetics, environmental and psychosocial risk factors.
She also has a longstanding role in evaluating many aspects of the use of prenatal genetic testing technologies, having a particular interest in communication of genomic information.
Some of her key professional achievements include being president of the Australasian Epidemiological Association from 2004-8, giving the 2010 Human Genetics Society of Australasia Conference Oration – “in recognition of her outstanding contribution to human genetics in Australia”, and sitting on the Australian Health Ethics Committee and the NHMRC Human Genetics Advisory Committee for many years.
Most recently, she was selected as one of the “Brilliant Minds” of the MCRI for the 30th anniversary celebrations in 2017.
Kim Kane class of 1990
Kim Kane is an award-winning author who writes for children and teens in Australia and overseas.
Kim’s picture books include Family Forest which was short-listed for the 2011 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards and was one of the picture books selected to celebrate Play School’s 50th birthday.
Kim’s novels for younger readers include Pip: the story of Olive, which won the 2008 Barbara Ramsden Award, Cry Blue Murder (co-written with Marion Roberts) which was highly commended in the West Australian Premier’s Book Awards and When the Lyrebird Calls which won the Aurealis Award.
Kim’s junior fiction series Ginger Green, Playdate Queen has been published in the UK, the US and parts of Europe.
Before she wrote for children, Kim practised as a lawyer.
Kim has used her legal skills in advocacy for the arts over the last decade and she currently sits on the board of the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation.
Melinda Truesdale class of 1981
After graduating from St Catherine’s, Melinda Truesdale began her medical degree at Monash University, graduating in 1988.
She began training at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (RMH), with the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine, and became an emergency physician.
Her work as a consultant specialist began at Southern (now Monash) Health and she has also worked in Alberta, Canada.
She returned to RMH in 2003 and soon completed postgraduate studies in health service management.
During the next few years, while maintaining her clinical work at RMH, Melinda was seconded as acting director to North East Health Wangaratta Hospital and became the director of emergency department Royal Women’s Hospital (RWH).
Melinda became deputy director of emergency services at RMH in 2007 and director in 2008. She chose to step down as director RMH during 2014 to pursue other academic studies and research, and to return to being primarily a RMH emergency physician with direct patient care. She still maintains the directorship of the RWH emergency department.
She has organised conferences and short courses and presented at national and international conferences as both a researcher and invited speaker.
Melinda has been involved with the accreditation of both emergency departments and trauma services in Australasia and she is a surveyor with the Australasian Council of Healthcare Standards.
Melinda is an associate professor with the University of Melbourne and has completed post graduate studies in health and medical law; is a member of the Australasian College of Legal Medicine and World Association of Medical Law. Melinda is also an associate fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.
Melinda currently is one of the two SCOGA representative on St Catherine’s School Council and a board member of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.
Anna Segal, class of 2004
Anna Segal created her share of history at her debut at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games. She was Australia’s sole female representative in ski slopestyle which was on the Olympic program for the first time in 2014.
Anna then went on to finish fourth and record Australia’s first fourth place finish in Winter Olympic history.
She began competing at an international level in 2003, and at this point her discipline and focus was directed towards mogul skiing.
In 2005 she decided to switch her focus to the new and quickly growing area of free-skiing – the disciplines of half-pipe, slopestyle and big air skiing. None of these were Olympic sports, until the announcement they would be included as official events at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Anna won the gold medal in slopestyle at the 2011 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships and also won the gold medal for the inaugural Women’s Ski Slopestyle at Winter X Games 13 Aspen, Colorado.
Her first major win in slopestyle was in 2007 at the Women’s US Free-Skiing Open at Copper Mountain, USA.
Since 2009, Anna has been a passionate athlete ambassador for Protect Our Winters (POW) and throughout her career has enjoyed coaching up and coming female skiers through Chicks with Sticks (Australia) and Momentum Camps (Canada).
She also returned to study and graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Commerce/ Bachelor of Arts from Monash University.
Other than skiing the world, Anna enjoys surfing, hiking, yoga, cooking and finding ways to reduce her impact on the environment.
Edwina Thompson, class of 1991
Dr Edwina Thompson has been motivated throughout her career to help decision-makers think differently and act decisively in the face of distressing situations from gun violence in Papua New Guinea and refugee protection in Australia, to state-building in Afghanistan and experimentation with new technologies in some of the most extreme humanitarian disasters. Edwina’s work in many different countries has introduced her to inspiring people who fuel her drive to keep challenging the way western countries support the world’s poorest people.
Since 2016, she has channelled her expertise and passion into creating a financial technology and service (Amanacard) that is trusted by governments and international charities to move millions of dollars to those inside unbanked crisis zones, where the provision of healthcare and humanitarian assistance otherwise represents a major challenge.
In Syria alone, the service has kept the lifeline open to hospital staff and small business supplying services to them, reaching over 800,000 people in the past three years.
Edwina’s school journey began at St Catherine’s kindergarten, and finished in the United Kingdom due to her parents’ relocation.
She has since completed an undergraduate degree with first class honours in English from University College London, a masters degree in government and rural sociology at the University of Sydney and Cornell University, New York, and a doctorate in law at the Australian National University, with a doctoral fellowship in 2005–2007 at St Cross College, University of Oxford.
While in academia, Edwina led cutting edge research projects into how money flows during conflicts and natural disasters.
Recognised as a world expert on Middle East finance, her book Trust is the Coin of the Realm: Lessons from the Money Men in Afghanistan (Oxford University Press, 2011), and subsequent work in Somalia, Iraq and Syria has made a significant contribution to the attempts of Western governments to fight terrorism.