The Highwire team is committed to supporting our clients to thrive and achieve their goals.
We are experienced, skilled, adaptable … and fun to work with!
Maree Davidson, Managing Director
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Maree is passionate about Closing the Gap. She has spent her entire career working with community service organisations to improve social, employment, housing and health outcomes. She has 30 years’ community sector experience and has developed strong skills in Leadership and Management, Quality Frameworks, Aboriginal Community Engagement, Project Management and Vocational Training.
Maree has had a long career in the Housing and Homelessness sector. Her first job out of Uni was as a youth homelessness support worker. She worked for 11 years as regional manager for one of Australia’s leading social and affordable housing providers and later as their Aboriginal Business Development Manager.
Maree loves designing and delivering engaging learning programs aimed at increasing sector capability. She is particularly passionate about supporting new and emerging managers to effectively lead their diverse teams.
Maree has been working as a quality auditor for 15 years and with the ASES framework since its inception. Proudly, she has assessed and supported more than 40 remote Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations towards successful accreditation.
Maree lives on Birpai Country in Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast of NSW and leads the Highwire Team in the delivery of impactful capacity building projects in Aboriginal and non Aboriginal organisations and communities across Australia.
Cheryl Johnstone, Quality Consultant
Cheryl has a deep commitment to supporting community services, and has a diverse background working in both the public and private sectors. She has experience in organisational governance, corporate planning, continuous improvement, risk management and service programming. Her qualifications and studies in these areas include not-for-profit board responsibilities, frontline management, fraud and identifying risks in an organisation, BSB51607 Diploma of Quality Auditing, and web development and visual communication.
More recently, Cheryl has specialised in supporting organisations to undertake quality accreditation, including the Australian Service Excellence Standards (ASES) and QIC Health and Community Services Standards. Her skills and experience ensure that clients can review and report successfully against national standards and organisational outcome requirements.
With a strong background in writing, editing and publication, Cheryl is skilled at structuring documents and shaping content so that information is both accurate and easy to understand. She has many years of experience working with organisations and individuals to enhance their written work, including reports, research, promotional materials, resumes and job applications.
Cheryl is committed to working collaboratively with clients and has a long history of successfully supporting organisations, groups and individuals to clarify requirements and achieve their goals.
Alice Bacon, Resilience Facilitator, Mentor and Coach
Alice has over twenty years of corporate and operational leadership experience. A skilled project manager with an emphasis on maximising human capital, she is a rare individual whose transferable skill set has led her to become highly adept at managing change; and creating environments where change is positively embraced through emotional and workplace resilience.
Her approach to emotional intelligence within the workplace, across all facets of organisations, gives revolutionary transformations to both individuals and teams.
Her results in relation to work place resilience are attributable to her ability to break down barriers of resistance and redundant thought patterns. In conjunction with this, her ability to ignite productive levels of core worth and belief drives influence and ultimately results. All this is possible via professionally planned and delivered workshops and sessions which are simple in their execution, yet powerful in results.
Alice has the ability to work with any organisation, group or individual who needs her strategic and deliverable methods to instigate simple but deep lasting changes, so that win win environments can emerge and flourish.
Gill McFadyen, Community Development Consultant
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Gill is passionate about people, organisations and communities having the skills and capacity to bring about positive, sustainable change. Her belief that everyone should have equal opportunity to fully participate in society, both socially and economically has driven much of her working life.
With a career in community development spanning over 30 years, Gill’s most recent role has been as CEO of Community Centres SA, the peak body for community and neighbourhood centres throughout South Australia. It was in this position over a ten-year period that she gained a wealth of experience in many areas including quality improvement systems, particularly in the Australian Service Excellence Standards, outcomes development, community-based governance, grass roots leadership development, social inclusion, collective impact, adult community education and advocacy.
Gill has learned firsthand of the benefits of building the capacity of organisations, particularly small organisations, and as a strategic thinker, can help people make tough decisions and work respectfully to bring others along. She is now keen to use the skills and experience she has gained over many years to work with organisations committed to getting the best outcomes possible for the people and communities they serve.
Bronwyn Webster, Community Development & Management Consultant
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Bronwyn has more than thirty years’ experience in social planning, policy analysis and management across all levels of government, the non-government sector and the private sector. Her experience spans all socioeconomic groups including aged, women, youth, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disabilities and people from culturally diverse backgrounds. Bronwyn has demonstrated experience in the preparation of major reports and discussion papers for commonwealth, state, territory and local governments. She is a skilled facilitator in community and team environments and has excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Bronwyn is passionate about all things community – and is committed to supporting individuals and organisations to grow and achieve the best outcomes for their community. She has a practical, down to earth approach to working with teams and individuals and enjoys the privilege of sharing her experience and expertise. She believes that the best resources for community development are embedded within the communities themselves and is committed to helping communities unleash their full potential.
Kylee Bowring, Quality Consultant
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Kylee is a proactive and dedicated professional having worked in the private and not for profit sectors for over 25 years. She has managed services in youth homelessness, youth justice, alcohol and other drug and capacity building programs. Prior to that she led large marketing, communications and service design teams in the financial and healthcare sectors.
Kylee takes great pride in the ability to support organisations to achieve positive change and outcomes for the people and communities they serve, whilst having a strong focus on the development and wellbeing of their staff.
Kylee has been an integral part of large business transformation projects, demonstrating an ability to think and work creatively, strategically and practically to achieve excellence. She is trained in and passionate about co-design to elevate the voice of the client and deliver valuable and sustainable service innovation.
With a passion for social justice, Kylee is keenly aware of the importance of an organisations’ governance and culture and working alongside communities and clients to embed participation, choice and control. To do this, she aims to support organisations to implement robust quality management systems and frameworks. Kylee has implemented quality standards to obtain and maintain accreditation in the Financial, Out of Home Care, Homelessness, Disability and AOD sectors.
Kylee has an arts degree, and qualifications in Marketing, Community Services and Auditing and has a warm and engaging approach to collaborating with clients to ensure her work has impact.
Kaye Morehen, Quality Consultant
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Kaye loves working with people and their organizations to capitalize on their internal knowledge and skills to problem solve and achieve their potential.
Coming from a diverse background in health, marketing, communications and design, Kaye has experience in project management, strategic planning, quality improvement, process design, policy development and internal auditing.
She has more recently focused on ASES accreditation, both in auditing and supporting organizations to develop the internal frameworks that will allow them to meet and exceed the standards.
After 20 years in the commercial world, she moved to the not for profit sector, and has developed a deep appreciation and respect for values driven organisations and the dedicated people that work for them.
Brooke Maggs, Consultant
Brooke has 16 years experience in leadership, coaching and training, and organisational and workforce development in both Corporate and Not-for Profit sectors.
Brooke is passionate about influencing the culture of businesses by developing leadership capability, creating efficient and clear operational systems, and improving employee engagement through effective workforce development.
During her time in various leadership roles with a major national organisation, Brooke used her effective coaching skills, extensive business knowledge and HR experience to lead teams and improve performance.
Brooke is an engaging speaker who inspires her audience and affects change in individuals and organisations, leading to better outcomes for people, businesses and communities.
As a facilitator and coach, Brooke delivers violence prevention education programs to businesses, the education sector and community organisations, and leadership development programs to the Australian Public Service. She also leads the professional development of a team of domestic and family violence specialists.
A member of collaborative platforms such as Future Women, Brooke values collaboration and empowerment, and embraces opportunities to learn and grow.
Jennie Piaud, Quality Consultant
Jennie has over 30 years’ experience in senior executive roles specialising in People and Culture and industrial relations within a wide variety of industries. She has spent the last 10+ years working in the not-for-profit social welfare sector for both large multi-program organisations and smaller single-program organisations.
Having also successfully managed her own business specialising in workplace investigations into child protection and disability, coupled with mediation to assist problem solving and organisational communications, Jennie understands the importance of having strong values, policies and procedures in place to support workplace practice.
Throughout her career she has also been extensively involved in strategic and business planning, policy development, governance and change management. Jennie has a deep understanding that employee/volunteer engagement and participation is key to achieving success.
Jennie has provided project management to many successful accreditations with a wide variety of organisations over the last 30 years. Consequently, she understands the need for excellent time management, organisational skills, diligent workgroups, and detailed documentation to bring together all the components of meeting accreditation requirements.
According to Jennie – meeting accreditation requirements is only half of the equation; the other half is embedding these changes into an organisation’s practice on a day-to-day basis. When this happens, the benefits that ongoing quality improvement brings becomes evident, not only to those working in the organisation, but also to the clients and sector that the organisation serves.
Jodie Feeney, Quality Consultant
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Jodie is passionate about long-term thinking and strategic planning that aims to achieve sustainable outcomes for all people and the planet. She has 15 years’ experience in the not for profit and corporate sectors using a collaborative approach to strengthen organisational capacity to achieve optimal social impact.
Her breadth of experience includes organisational management, strategic planning, project management, relationship management, community development, community engagement, and philanthropic fundraising. She is also a passionate facilitator who values the voice of all people through co-design and systems thinking.
Jodie has experience founding community organisations, including The Nature School Inc, a ground-breaking organisation that is paving the way for a new approach to education in Australia.
She loves helping innovative community organisations to flourish by developing their strategic and operational capacity and implementation of continuous improvement. This enthusiasm is also reflected in Jodie’s experience working with other passionate change-makers, supporting them to realise their vision and reach their full potential.
Jenny Smith, Career Coach & Workforce Development Specialist
Jennifer (known as Jenny) is of Aboriginal Decent and proudly identifies with the Wiradjuri people of Trangie, NSW. She has over 30 years of experience in recruitment, workforce development, and cultural consultancy across government and community sectors. Holding a Bachelor of Business in Human Resource Management, Jenny is passionate about empowering individuals to achieve their career aspirations, particularly within community-focused and public service roles.
Her extensive background includes end-to-end recruitment services, cultural competency and support for bulk and graduate recruitment rounds. Jenny is know for her calm, strengths-based approach, and is committed to building the capacity of both individuals and organisations through inclusive and respectful practices.
At Highwire, Jenny specialises in career coaching, guiding clients through job applications, interviews and promotion opportunities with confidence. Her collaborative and culturally informed methods have made her a trusted adviser in creating inclusive hiring practices and fostering sustainable outcomes for individuals and communities alike.
Lee Shearer, Quality Consultant
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Lee brings over 25 years of senior leadership experience across government, legal, and not-for-profit sectors, with a deep commitment to strengthening communities and driving meaningful reform.
Lee began her career in retail before joining the NSW Police, where she rose through the ranks to become Assistant Commissioner and was awarded the Australian Police Medal for Distinguished Service. She later served as Principal Solicitor for NSW Police, leading a legal team of approximately 300 staff.
Her leadership has spanned a range of impactful roles, including Deputy Secretary and Resources Regulator at the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, Chief Compliance Officer at the NSW Department of Industry, and Administrator of Crown Cemeteries. She has also held CEO-level roles, delivering system-wide reform and embedding strong governance and compliance frameworks.
While serving as Chief Operating Officer at the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council, Lee played a key role in advancing Aboriginal land planning and development on the Central Coast. She led the development of the Darkinjung Development Delivery Plan—an innovative strategy aligning with the NSW Government’s Aboriginal Land Planning Framework and unlocking opportunities across 31 sites.
Lee lives on Awabakal Country in Newcastle and continues to channel her expertise into work that promotes social justice, cultural recognition, and resilient communities.
Rachel Williams, Quality Consultant and Facilitator
Approved External Assessor, Australian Service Excellence Standards
Rachel brings over 30 years of experience in the community services sector, shaped by both professional and lived expertise. A passionate advocate and natural connector, she has worked across youth street outreach, alcohol and other drugs (AOD), homelessness, and education, always championing inclusion and dignity for all.
Her career began in a grassroots youth centre, igniting a lifelong commitment to empowering young people and marginalised communities through a strength-based lens. Since then, she has led innovative programs, delivered sector-wide training in Community Services at NMIT (Northern Melbourne Institute of Technology) and pioneered accessible, online education in AOD and disability services.
Rachel’s strength lies in her ability to see both the systemic and human sides of complex challenges. Her work is deeply informed by her lived experience as a parent advocate, particularly in neurological inclusion, where she collaborates with education systems to drive reform and create meaningful change. With a broad understanding of community service operations and compliance, Rachel also supports organisations to meet accreditation standards and thrive in their missions.
Based in Bayside Melbourne on the land of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, here Rachel is active in local environmental restoration through a female-led Citizen Science group using the Miyawaki Tiny Forest method—reflecting her belief in community, connection, environmental respect and stewardship.
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