Senior Vice President
Associate Principal
Churchlands Senior High School
Karena brings to the WASSEA Management Committee 20 years of experience in education, with expertise in the areas of Gifted & Talented education, family and community engagement, and leadership development, among others. She is passionate about equity, respectful relationships and the success of all students, and actively seeks, develops and promotes opportunities that elevate student voice and engage with family and community.
It is Karena’s belief that WASSEA provides a network for collegiality between school leaders connecting them across the state on shared issues and topics, professional learning and for consultancy. The Association provides a shared voice, empowerment and opportunity to make a difference for the education system. With her position on the WASSEA Management Committee Karena aims to represent school leader voices in ideas raising exercises and in decision making. She will identify and act on opportunities where student voice can enhance the WASSEA Board’s work. As a previous recipient of the annual WASSEA/Woods Aspirant Award, Karena also intends to focus on and advocate for the Aspirant Leader membership.
Karena is currently completing her PhD with the topic of “Future Proofing Large Schools: An Australian Case Study” at the University of Southern Queensland. She has two daughters and is excited by and invested in the future of schooling for our current and future generations of young people.
