As we come to the end of the financial year, we say goodbye to our 2021/2022 board trainees, Claire Bertholli and Laura Burfitt. We would like to thank you both for your contribution, time and dedication to the YWCA Board, and wish you all the best with your board director careers.
We would also like to introduce our two newest board trainees, Margherita and Aditi, commencing in July. Meet them below!
Margherita Dall’Occo-Vaccaro
Margherita is a migrant, queer, young woman with a disability who currently lives on Ngunnawal Ngambri country.
Margherita is a young disability and intersectionality advocate who is committed to work that supports and fights for the rights of young people with disabilities and other intersecting backgrounds. She advocates from her own lived experience and the communities she is immersed in.
She currently works at Women With Disabilities Australia as a youth development officer, where she works on a wide range of projects which advocate for young women and non-binary people with disability, as well as representing young people in policy, government and international spaces. She has been chosen as a 2022 Youth Delegate to the United Nations Conference of State Parties on the CRPD, where she will represent Australian Civil Society in New York.
Margherita is also involved in various other advocacy networks including Children and Young People with Disabilities Youth Council and Commonwealth Children and Youth Disability Network Executive, where she passionately engages in community and loves to interact with others who are working towards intersectional justice.
Aditi Malhotra
Aditi is an occupational therapist, volunteer and policy adviser.
Aditi is passionate about meaningful, equitable and dignified access to healthcare and social services and began advocating for her patients as an occupational therapist in Melbourne where she worked across the healthcare system in acute, community and NDIS and aged care settings.
This passion for equity drove Aditi to work with the Women’s Information Referral Exchange, Thorne Harbour Health, women’s shelters and Money Girl to better support those experiencing and the prevention of gender-based violence. Most recently, Aditi championed the need for working collaboratively using an intersectional lens through her role as Chair of the Women’s Network at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Aditi has held a variety of roles at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet including the Office for Women, the Office of the G20 Sherpa and the team working on the Review of Parliamentary Complaints. Aditi currently works in the National Cabinet branch which worked to coordinate the National Plan to Australia’s National COVID-19 Response. In this role, Aditi led the coordination of the Health National Cabinet Reform Committee and policy issues focusing on women.
