The ACECQA Executive

Gabrielle Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer

Gabrielle Sinclair commenced as Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) in January 2017.

Reporting to a board, Gabrielle leads ACECQA to guide the implementation and administration of the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care across all states and territories, and to meet its own statutory obligations under the Education and Care Services National Law.

Gabrielle brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in children’s education and care, including through her previous role of Deputy Director-General, Early Childhood and Community Engagement in the Queensland Department of Education and Training.

Gabrielle commenced her career as a teacher and also held senior executive positions in a number of Queensland Government portfolios, including school education, infrastructure, planning, local government, and corrective services.

Angela Buchanan, Chief Operating Officer

Angela Buchanan, Chief Operating Officer, manages ACECQA's Business Services Group. This group supports the organisation in essential areas of operation, including human resources, finance, information management and technology, and facilities. Business Services is also responsible for the National Quality Agenda IT System (NQA ITS), an online tool that provides educators and providers with business applications to work with state and territory regulatory authorities.

Angela has experience in a broad range of government service delivery and policy roles related to improving outcomes for children and young people. Her background includes social work in statutory child protection and youth justice case management roles with the Queensland and ACT Governments.

Angela also has extensive experience reviewing legislation and managed a whole-of-government response to improve policies and practices aimed at diverting young people from the criminal justice system.

Rhonda Livingstone, National Education Leader and General Manager, Leadership, Quality and Regulatory Support

Rhonda Livingstone is ACECQA's National Education Leader. She also leads the teams responsible for promoting and recognising quality educational programs, practices and policies and supporting the sector and authorised officers to build a shared understanding of and commitment to implementing and administering the National Quality Framework (NQF); and continuous quality improvement.

Rhonda has a wealth of experience in the early education and care sector, having worked in preschools and long day care centres, and as an assessor of programs and services for both the Queensland Government and the Crèche and Kindergarten Association of Queensland. Rhonda's extensive involvement in the National Quality Agenda reforms saw her contribute to the development of the National Quality Standard and its guide, assessment and rating tools and processes, and the training and testing program for authorised officers.

Rhonda also worked as a Senior Advisor, Excellent Rating with ACECQA and as a sessional education academic with the Queensland University of Technology. 

Lisa McCoy, General Manager, National Projects

Lisa McCoy is the General Manager, National Projects and is based in Brisbane. Lisa leads and provides executive direction for national projects focused on improving quality outcomes for children, such as the Community Child Care Fund Restricted services (CCCFR) project and for services in multi-storey buildings. Lisa brings diverse experience to this role, having worked in early childhood settings in Australia and London,  and in senior executive regulatory, policy, legislation, and program management roles in the Queensland government and at ACECQA.

She has had extensive involvement in the development and implementation of the National Quality Agenda reforms, particularly reviews and ensuring systemic quality improvement, and effective and efficient regulation. Lisa has chaired a range of national working groups, such as workforce, multi-storey buildings, and family day care and also led jurisdictional workforce-related quality improvement programs. 

Michael Petrie, General Manager, Workforce, Engagement and Research

Michael Petrie is General Manager, Workforce, Engagement and Research. He leads ACECQA’s teams responsible for national policy, research and evaluation, communication, stakeholder engagement and qualification assessment activities. He is also responsible for ACECQA’s enquiries team.

Prior to commencing with ACECQA, Michael had extensive experience working at an executive level in key agencies in the NSW public sector, including Transport, Commerce, Premier and Cabinet, and Roads, where his expertise was in leading whole-of-organisation strategic functions, including corporate and public affairs, policy, governance and organisational reform. Michael also has significant experience working with government and senior leaders from the public sector, industry and peak representative groups.

Craig Bennett, General Manager, Policy and Regulatory Systems

Craig Bennett is the General Manager, Policy and Regulatory Systems. Craig leads the group responsible for ACECQA’s national policy and regulatory systems support to governments, regulatory authorities, and the sector to enable the effective implementation of the National Quality Framework (NQF). 

Craig also oversees ACECQA’s role as a provider of regulatory technology systems to the sector and governments, through our management of the National Quality Agenda IT System. 

Craig has been with ACECQA since 2012, where he has led a range of national priority projects and reform initiatives in the early childhood and school age education and care space. 

Craig has a background in education, public policy and regulatory strategy. He has held senior leadership roles in human services policy and regulatory environments, including early childhood education, disability services and community aged care.