Women’s Mentoring Foundation (WMF) provides benevolent relief to women from all diverse cultures, suffering from distress and/or poverty, and helps women heal from hurt, distress, grief, and trauma. The foundation is designed for building women’s identity through increasing their confidence, focus, better mental, emotional, physical, and social wellbeing; and the prevention of suicide.

WMF welcomes women and youth from culturally and Linguistics communities to their new beginning, to the start of their transformation from hurting to healing (following any trauma), and to the life they’ve dreamt of living, but which seemed impossible! Something which they can only do once the recovery process starts – and that can only happen at a deeper inner level. We provide the counselling, mentoring, coaching, tools and resources needed to help women regain their confidence, develop better coping mechanisms, and create a positive impact on their life.

We welcome interest and support from the community in mentoring and skilled volunteer roles.  We work collaboratively with many partners in the health, social  and community services sector for referrals.

Mission & Core Focus

At the Women’s Mentoring Foundation (WMF), our mission revolves around fostering mental health and well-being while combatting harmful and abusive behavior in women from diverse backgrounds. We are dedicated to achieving this through the following core activities for individuals, communities, workspaces, businesses and corporate teams:

Crisis Support Services: We provide critical support services for WMF clients, with a primary focus on suicide prevention intervention. Our goal is to be a lifeline during moments of despair, offering immediate assistance and resources.

Peer Mentoring: WMF offers a peer mentoring service that aids WMF clients in crisis management and their journey towards recovery. Our mentors provide a compassionate and understanding presence to guide them through difficult times.

Suicide Prevention Education: We conduct classes and activities aimed at raising awareness and equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills to prevent suicide. Our educational initiatives are designed to empower individuals and communities.

Behavioral Pattern Prevention: WMF organises classes, programs, and speaking engagements that focus on preventing harmful behavioral patterns. Through education and awareness, we seek to break the cycle of emotional and physical abuse.

Bereavement Support Groups: We offer bereavement support groups tailored to the needs of WMF clients. These groups provide a safe space for individuals to grieve, heal, and find solace in shared experiences.

Information and Referral Services: WMF is committed to providing information to WMF clients, ensuring they have access to valuable resources and referrals to specialised services that can address their unique needs.

Adaptive Initiatives: Our dedication extends to exploring and implementing any additional activities that align with our mission and core focus, as agreed upon by the Company. These initiatives will always be in line with our commitment to the prevention of harmful behavior and the promotion of mental health and well-being.

At WMF, we strive to create a world where women from diverse backgrounds can thrive emotionally, free from harmful behaviors, and with access to the support they need for a brighter future.

Pushpa Vaghela<br><font style="color: #A6ADB4; font-size: 70%;">Founder & CEO

Pushpa Vaghela
Founder & CEO

Pushpa is on a mission for her calling and purpose in empowering women to move past trauma, painful challenges and distressful situations, to become stronger, and to attain their best selves.
 
Pushpa Vaghela is the Founder of The Women’s Mentoring Foundation (WMF). She is a professional Leadership Consultant and Mentor who has shaped thousands of leaders worldwide. She works with people from all walks of life and professions and brings world-class leadership and mentoring that ignites transformation, developing exceptional leaders, who build effective management, rewarding cultures, and productive teams with excellent, authentic leadership qualities.

Her driving force is to liberate human potential that is too often ignored. She knows that to attain mastery in anything, one must first gain deep knowledge of oneself, to unleash greater leadership qualities that lie within. Over her life span Pushpa has experienced stressful and painful challenges in life. She did research and found that she was not alone. She found many other women suffering from distress and depression. They were failed by the weak systems, faced many obstacles, and limited knowledge of any support services available around them. This caused further pain and confusion to women who already had limited coping mechanisms during their sensitive, abusive, and defenceless situations.

Having researched and studied ancient leadership wisdom, Pushpa knew her own healing and leadership, as demonstrated several times throughout her life, would come in handy to assist other women in their grief by mentoring them. Her Speaking ability inspires a passion for her audiences and creates empowering, and deeper inner fulfilling lives, regardless of their cultural background, upbringing, and personal situation.

4 years ago, Pushpa invested thousands of dollars to establish WMF as a Harm Prevention charity organisation with the aim of empowering women to move past trauma, painful challenges, and distressful situations, become stronger and attain their best selves. She trains facilitators to do the same and her passion comes from a deep heart level of understanding mental health issues, having travelled that excruciatingly painful journey herself. She conducts events and workshops across the state to help other women.

For support, please get in contact with Pushpa via email or the contact form on our website.

Board Members
Daryl Buckingham

Daryl Buckingham, Chairman

Daryl has over 30 years’ leadership experience within local government, community development and commercial business. A contemporary leader; he encourage local government and industry to challenge the way things have ‘always been done’, leading innovation and transformation.

His experiences includes developing and delivering: Gig Economy, Smart City & Connected Community Economic, Development Strategies, Agile Local Government Systems, Place Based Economic Development Plans, Digital Transition Strategies, Local Government as a Service Model, Smart Horticulture and Agribusiness Development, Cooperative Research Centres, Long term financial sustainability.

He also volunteers as welfare officer and peer councillor supporting Veterans with PTSD and depression and assist them with transitioning from the military to civilian life. He is also a lived experienced peer councillor with Roses in the Ocean an experience of suicide organisation saving lives and reducing emotional distress and pain.

Lynne Cawley

Lynne Cawley, Secretary

Lynne Cawley is a successful, solution-focused HR and Operations professional and the Chief Operations Officer at Canstar.

Lynne is responsible for fostering the company’s culture, as well as developing and leading the implementation of Canstar’s operational strategy to drive business goals through quality research and technological advancements.

With a degree in psychology at QUT and having specialised in Organisational psychology, Lynne established the human resources function at Canstar. Lynne has expanded this role in recent years to now head up the entire operations function, leading the People & Culture, Research, Product Data, Data Platform Services and Infrastructure teams.

Lynne’s leadership role sees her managing the back-end technology platforms that power many of Canstar’s data initiatives including the company’s Star Ratings research, product database and data feeds to the website. Her teams are also responsible for building resilience into the Canstar technology infrastructure and applications.

Kyle Gimpl

Kyle Gimpl, Treasurer

Born in Tasmania has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Chemistry and a Diploma in remedial Pilates.

Held senior executive roles in global resource sector organisations. Passionate about creating high performance organisations (published “Building Winning Organisations”). Now assists organisations identify and close performance gaps. Previous Director with Queensland Health Services.

Believes values driven leadership can create organisations where everyone willing gives their best every day. Supports core values (care, trust, respect, honesty, fairness and courage) in society.

Married to Tamara and father to Xavier, Logan and Sabrina.

Published “2101: Spark of Hope” 2021. For anyone wondering where the world is heading.

Sandra Cipriotti

Sandra Cipriotti, Director

Having grown up starting businesses in the garage and consistently excelling in my academic and creative studies, thinking strategically is something that comes naturally to Sandra. She always aim at performing to her highest ability and that drive is what she wants to instill in others throughout her career, across various roles.

She worked in Education, Art, Media, Fashion and SME’s as CFO, Finance Director, Business Consultant/Operations, Project/Change Manage and Entrepreneur meant that she had a very diverse range of responsibilities and priorities while working with a diverse set of stakeholders across multiple corporations simultaneously.

She is very passionate about the constant improvement, growth and best practices of organisations she’s represented and the continuous learning of those around her. The fulfillment of strategic objectives coupled with growing the self-confidence of her teams and impact on the business brings her a great sense of accomplishment.

Michelle Teis

Michelle Teis, Director

Michelle is the Managing Partner of a National Management Consultancy firm specialising in the core fields of digital transformation and information and data. In November 2021, she was awarded as the National Data Leader of the Year by Women in Digital, a global community dedicated to connecting, educating and empowering women.

Based on a 30-year career, Michelle is a trusted advisor to clients (government, commercial and not-for-profit) seeking to leverage the potential value of information and data to simply solve complex business challenges.

Ally Kelly

Ally Kelly, Former Company Secretary

Ally Kelly is the former Company Secretary at the Women’s Mentoring Foundation. She is known in the community for being the Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Mind Blank Ltd.

Mind Blank is a charity set up to reduce the risk of suicide through interactive workshops in schools, workplaces, and communities. Ally’s charitable efforts have been recognised nationally and internationally for supporting multi-award winning services.

Our Team
Stef Miladinova

Stef Miladinova, Digital Manager

Stef has joined WMF as a Programs Manager. She has formal qualifications in systems engineering, with nineteen plus years experience in IT. Stef also has business experience gained from running her own businesses over the years. She is currently looking forward to giving back to women in the Brisbane community by supporting them through the Women’s Mentoring Foundation. Stef is a keen reader with a particular passion for mystery, fantasy and SiFi. She loves cooking, trying different foods and cuisines, watching movies, travelling and going for long walks in the country-side.

Ambassadors & Patrons
Rod George

Rod George, Ambassador & Patron

Rod has joined WMF as the Web Host Manager. He is a talented artist, with mandala art as his main genre, his other interests are web design, graphic design, and photography.
He is also a skilled NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer. He is passionate about empowering people to become greater than they are. Rod also works full time a multi skilled tradesman in the building industry.

Amber Jane Powson

Amber Jane Powson, Ambassador & Patron

Amber is Miss Voluptuous Australia 2021. She is a professional Actress, Runway/Print Model, and Voice Actor. As a Curve Model she has worked for award winning Australian designers including Sonia Straddiotto and Capriosca Swimwear. She has also worked as a featured extra on various films. Amber holds a Bachelor of Media and Communications from QUT. Her platform is body positivity and mental health; after being diagnosed with depression and severe GAD (generalised anxiety disorder) that almost took her life in 2017. She advocates the importance of having realistic and diverse body images in the media. As a keynote speaker for The Australian Care Expo (2020) and the MHFA Annual Fundraising Gala (2021), Amber has shared her story and strength tactics about having ‘Compassion for Yourself and Your Body’.

Himanshu headshot

Himanshu Bisht, Ambassador

Himanshu, is a Business Consultant and HR Services Expert with an impressive consulting career spanning over 18 years. With a proven track record, Himanshu has consistently demonstrated his ability to create innovative strategies, processes, and approaches that drive growth and profitability for the companies he collaborates with. Not only has Himanshu helped numerous startups navigate through the complexities of the business world and achieve their goals, but he also believes in using his expertise and resources to make a positive impact on society

We are delighted to have Himanshu join forces with the Women’s Mentoring Foundation as an Ambassador.

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