Following an early-life career change (from patents translator to not-for profit), Hazel has worked for a number of Not for Profit organisations in the past three decades, including the Australian Red Cross, Amnesty International and The Cancer Council Victoria. She has managed large and small volunteer programs.
Hazel is a trainer for Volunteering Victoria and runs public and in-house training sessions for the not-for-profit sector. She is passionate about encouraging people who are socially isolated or marginalised to volunteer, and upholding the rights of volunteers.
Hazel has volunteered for much of her life, joining St John Ambulance Brigade as a volunteer first-aider when she was eleven because she liked the uniform – this relationship was short-lived as she fainted at the sight of blood on her first assignment.
Hazel became a board member of Volunteering Victoria in 2006 and was the President of the Board of Management from 2008 to 2010. She was awarded honorary life membership of the national peak body, Volunteering Australia, in 2006 and has had a number of articles published in professional journals, mainly on topics relating to volunteer management. In October 2017, Hazel was given a Volunteering Victoria Lifetime Achievement Award which is awarded for long-standing, distinguished and meritorious services to the volunteering sector in a leadership role.
Hazel holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in modern languages and is a keen cyclist, skier and self-confessed gym-junkie.
