Alumni stories: G-I

Elizabeth has excelled in her professional life since graduating from USQ.  Currently, she is busy working in her multi-branded franchised business which includes Boost Juice, Healthy Habits and Bucking Bull. 

Anjula utilised the many modes of learning offered at USQ.  When he was about to commence his final subject of his MBA, he was offered a permanent role as an Integration Project Manager at Telstra in Melbourne. As a result, he studied his MBA in three different modes: first at an overseas partner institution (ICASL - Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka), then on-campus (at USQ Springfield) and lastly via Distance Learning.

Since graduating in 2004, Shelley worked briefly as a Marketing Associate with St Vincent's Hospital in Toowoomba. Soon after, she was encouraged to work for another large reputable organisation, Heritage Building Society.  At Heritage, Shelley was intially employed as the Sponsorship Coordinator.  Her primary role was to assess, make recommendations and negotiate sponsorships as well as plan and execute corporate events.

Shelley has since been promoted to Senior Sponsorship Coordinator. She is also a qualified JP and has obtained a Certificate III in Financial Services. Shelley especially enjoys working with sponsorships and hosting corporate events. 

After graduation, Trent moved from Asia to the Middle East to begin a career as a teacher of reading and writing at a university in the north of Saudi Arabia. In August 2011, he began a new job teaching the Saudi Royal Air Force pilots ESP for interaction with international grounds crews and airport personnel. 

Since graduating from USQ with first Class Honours in Visual Arts, Ann-Maree Hanna has received widespread acclaim and strong demand for her artwork. She has received rave reviews in Vogue Living and The Australian. Monument: architecture and design magazine ranked her in the top ten Australian design graduates for 2005. Despite this, Ann-Maree's feet remain firmly on the ground. For her, art is simply a form of self expression.

Ann-Maree's artwork, Phoenician Prayer, was included in the touring exhibition, Pattern Recognition. Phoenician Prayer is an embroidery installation work, that explores aspects of hybrid identity, personal position and interrelationships within her personal, Australian/Lebanese, socio-cultural environment. The text piece reflected her husband's Lebanese Maronite Catholic traditions and her own Anglo-Australian Roman Catholic background. The construction took over 1200 hours to complete. The embroidery installation work started its national tour at the prestigious Object Gallery in Sydney and traveled to Queensland where it was exhibited at the Craft Queensland Gallery.

Tiffany has been very busy for the past decade improving her work experience and knowledge of various industries.  While studying at USQ, Tiffany held several jobs, mainly in the hospitality and wedding industry.

Throughout these experiences, Tiffany developed a passion for sponsorship and fundraising, eventually working for the Queensland Cancer Council’s Relay for Life. While working for the Cancer Council, Tiffany also tutored students studying Marketing at USQ.

Her experience led to a full-time job at USQ as an Advancement Officer (Fundraising). Since then, Tiffany has been promoted to the role of Alumni & Advancement Manger, and is excited about the challenges this new role brings. She plans to bring a fresh approach to Alumni & Advancement activities at the university.

Tiffany continues to have a passion to learn and is also currently undertaking post graduate studies at USQ, Masters of Public Relations.

Deborah Hartman has been an educator for over thirty years.  She has taught primary aged children in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory of Australia, where she worked as a teacher, teacher educator and curriculum developer with Aboriginal communities.  Deborah is the mother of two boys and has an interest in the care and education of boys both as a teacher and parent. 

Deborah was in the first cohort when the Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education began taking education students.  Her first posting was with Education Queensland to Kingsthorpe State School, which was a two teacher school at the time.  Deborah taught the infants section which had twelve students, eight of them boys.

She is currently the Manager of Research and Dissemination at the Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle, where she specialises in boys' education issues. She developed and has been the coordinator of and lecturer in the Graduate Certificate and Masters programs in Educating Boys.  She now supervises post graduate students with an interest in educating boys and is completing her doctoral study.

She is the author of I can Hardly wait till Monday - female teachers speak about what works for them and for boys.  She is also co-editor of Leadership in Boys Education, with Richard Fletcher and Rollo Browne.  She is the editor and contributing author for Educating Boys, the Good News and convenor of the editorial committee of the Boys in Schools Bulletin, a practical journal for teachers.  Her most recent resource for teachers is the 2nd edition of the Being a Man Photopac, developed with Victoria Clay and Lindee Hahn.

Magda began her education in Spain.  She graduated from her Industrial Engineering degree in 2002 which focused on Organisational Management and Quality Assurance at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia.

In 2004, Magda made a big decision, to leave her work and family in Spain behind for an experience in Australia.  She began her Master of Business Administration (International Business) on campus at USQ in Toowoomba, and graduated in April 2007.  Since then, Magda has been working with the International Office at USQ, dealing with the accreditation and registration of USQ programs offshore and onshore. 

Following his graduation in 1979, Andreas worked as a Professional Engineer in Queensland Rail for 23 years. Since 1996, he has been a private Engineering Consultant for rail and mining machines and drives, and related business development and research. Andreas is also the voluntary Chief Operational Officer for Project Madagascar Aid and Development while completing his PhD. 

Since completing her education studies at USQ, Lorrie taught at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School for 16 years.  For the next 10 years after that, she was an itinerant English language teacher at the Sunshine Coast.  After spending decades educating the next generation, Lorrie is happily enjoying her retirement. Her love of learning continues as Lorrie is now the Secretary of the Australian Motorcycle Council. She has completed 6,000 solo motorcycle rides following the Murray River from Goolwa South Australia to Jindabyne New South Wales.

Eric loves to educate.  After graduating, he was employed as the Coordinator of Learning and Teaching, as well as a Lecturer in Law, at the University of Ballarat.