UN Women

BOARD MEMBERS

Donelle Wheeler
President

Donelle has been a Board member since 2008 and became President in 2011. She was Senior Adviser to the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women and Adviser to the Minister for Development Cooperation and Pacific Island Affairs in the previous Labor Government. As the AusAID Indonesia Branch Head, she worked on the Indonesia country strategy in which she emphasized gender and development. She was a Director in the PNG Program, AusAID's representative in China for three years, the Australian delegate to the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD in Paris for two years and the Alternate Delegate to the Executive Board of the UN World Food Programme. She has worked as a development consultant and now contributes her government and international experience to UN Women Australia.

Fran Raymond
Board Member

Fran is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, an Associate Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management and an experienced director having served on several boards.  Fran is currently the Chief Finance Officer for the National Health and Medical Research Council, a member of the Defcredit Board and Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and a member of the Credit Union Foundation of Australia's International Development Working Group. Fran is also a member of the ACT Council for the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), a member of AICD's Public Sector Governance Committee and is very committed to AICD's work on increasing gender diversity in senior management and board positions. 

Fran has worked on development programs in the Pacific, especially in programs supporting improved financial literacy and governance for community based financial institutions. Fran is also involved as a CPA mentor, supporting young women in finance programs to promote greater participation of women in the finance sector.   

Fran is currently the UN Women Treasurer and Chairperson of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Canberra Chapter Committee.

Geraldine Chin Moody
Board Member

Geraldine is the Chief Operating Officer of global law firm Baker & McKenzie’s offices in Australia.  Prior to this, she was a member of the Executive Committee at the Australian Stock Exchange in her role of General Manager, People and Development, where she was one of only 12% of female Executive Managers in ASX200 companies in the 2006 EOWA Census of Women in Leadership. Her achievements as a young woman in senior roles in the corporate sector have been recognised by a number of awards, including the NSW Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year Award. 
 
Geraldine is an active member of the community and is passionate about issues of diversity, equity, justice and helping others to reach their full potential. In addition to her position on the Board of UN Women Australia, she is on the Management Committee of the Refugee Advice and Casework Service and President of the Australian Fulbright Alumni Association. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (University Medal) and Bachelor of Science from the Australian National University and a Masters of Law from Harvard University.

Virginia Haussegger
Board Member

Virginia is a journalist, author and television news presenter. In 2010 she was appointed Adjunct Professor in the ANZSOG Institute for Governance at the University of Canberra. With more than 20 years experience in broadcast media, her work has taken her around the globe - from the Middle East, Iraq, Europe, Washington, New York, and Afghanistan - reporting for Australia’s leading current affairs programs on Channel 9, the 7 Network and the ABC.

Virginia regularly addresses corporate and government forums on gender, power and leadership. As a columnist and social commentator her views on the place of women in contemporary society have been widely published. She has a passion for women’s empowerment and research interest in gender politics and the role of women in post-conflict nation building.

Elizabeth Shaw
Board Member

In 2008 Elizabeth Shaw was appointed Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations. In addition to an eight-week stint at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, Elizabeth conducted a National Consultation Tour. Elizabeth volunteered for over a year to establish Young UN Women Australia’s Perth Committee, which has developed into an active and powerful grass-roots network.

A qualified solicitor, Elizabeth worked at the State Solicitor’s office in Perth before commencing her Master’s degree in Public Policy at the ANU in 2010. She currently works as the Executive Officer of the United Nations Association of Australia.

Sherill Whittington
Board Member

Sherrill Whittington has over two decades of international experience, including the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Commonwealth of Learning, the United Nations Secretariat for the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women, and UNICEF Headquarters, New York.  More than three years were spent with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, two of which were in Timor Leste, where as Head of the UNTAET Gender Unit, she set up the Office for the Promotion of Equality in the Prime Minister’s Department. She has worked on gender equality issues in countries as diverse as Cambodia, Cote d'Ivoire, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Kosovo.  Ms Whittington is currently a gender consultant working in the Asia-Pacific region where she has undertaken various assignments for the United Nations, Commonwealth, World Bank and AusAID in areas of gender, governance and peace building in Timor Leste, Kiribati, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville.

Ms Whittington has a Master of Letters in Asian History,  a Master of Arts in International Relations, plus a Bachelor of Arts and a Diploma in Education. She was formerly a high school teacher, a policy officer in the Department of Defence and researcher in the Australian Parliamentary Library.

Anne Banks-McAllister
Board Member

Anne has worked in State and Local Government for over 30 years and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of a local government in Perth.

She has a Bachelor of Applied Science (Library Studies), a Master of Leadership and Management, is a qualified Company Director, and a Fellow of the AICD.

Anne is a past State President of the Australian Local Government Women’s Association and has sat on the National Board.  She was made a life member in 2009.  

Anne has sat on the WA Minister for Local Government’s Advisory Committee on Women in Local Government since 2004.  In 2010 she was made a Fellow of the Local Government Manager’s Association and was elected to its Board in 2011.

Anne established the Perth Chapter of UNIFEM (now UN Women Perth) in 2008 and has been its Chair since that time.  Between 2007 and 2009 she sat on the National Board of UNIFEM Australia and was its representative on the National Council of Women. In 2008 Anne represented UNIFEM Australia at a meeting of National Committees in Iceland.

In 2011 Anne chaired the State-wide celebrations for the WA Centenary of International Women’s Day and is currently the Chair of the IWD WA Collaboration for 2012.