Paula Perkins is a Chartered Accountant with over 30 years industry experience including Telecommunications, Professional Services, Not for Profits and the Arts. As an experienced Finance leader, she has a history of working with and leading large culturally diverse teams both domestically and internationally. In her current role as Director of Finance at Queensland Ballet Paula brings her strategic financial expertise to support the organisation’s artistic vision and operational sustainability. Passionate about community engagement and the arts, Paula is committed to using her professional qualifications and experience to make a meaningful impact.
Dr Tricia Clark-Fookes is a trained actor, dancer, and teaching artist with a diverse career spanning the arts and education sectors. She currently serves as a senior lecturer in the Drama study area within Queensland University of Technology’s School of Creative Arts, and teaches across multiple arts curriculum areas in the faculty’s Initial Teacher Education programs. She is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of educators and creatives, fostering their growth through innovative pedagogy and collaborative practice. With teaching experience from Prep to Year 12 and in the tertiary sector, Tricia has held various leadership roles in arts education, including the design and delivery of state-wide curriculum and training programs. Her work with theatre companies and arts organisations as a teaching artist continues both locally and nationally, bridging the gap between arts practice and pedagogy. Tricia has played a pivotal role in shaping arts curriculum in Queensland schools through her contributions to the QCAA as a curriculum writer, state panellist, chief examiner, and in other key capacities. She has also contributed to executive education through QUT’s Creative Industries team, applying arts-based learning to leadership development for organisations such as the Queensland Ambulance Service. Tricia is especially passionate about the role of the teaching artist as a dynamic bridge between artform and learning, advocating for inclusive, imaginative, and transformative arts education.
Chelsea Jorss is a communications coordinator, working in Advancement and Community Engagement at The University of Queensland. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism (Honours) and a Bachelor of Communication from UQ. With more than five years’ experience in publicity, media relations and digital storytelling, Chelsea has worked across the arts, state government and tertiary education. She is deeply passionate about the performing arts and does her best to soak up the amazing plays, musical performances, and ballet productions that Queensland has to offer.
Suzanne Marlow is a passionate supporter of the arts, and enthusiastic amateur performer if anyone gives her a stage. Her skills and talents demonstrably lie elsewhere, in law and governance. Suzanne currently serves as Group Executive Governance at UnitingCare, and was formerly UnitingCare’s General Counsel. Suzanne’s legal and governance experience spans a career with global financial services entities, private practice in top tier law firms, and not-for-profit board membership. She is an experienced corporate and commercial leader and advisor across the financial services, health, aged care and social services sectors. Suzanne holds a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Under her leadership UnitingCare’s Legal team was recognised nationally in 2022, 2023 and 2024 as Australia’s Not-for-profit in-house legal team of the year.
Dr Georgia Seffrin is a creative leadership consultant, specialising in developing dynamic facilitation services for individual clients across a diversity of professional sectors, including Education, Health, Corporate and Arts organisations. Georgia researches, designs, facilitates, and evaluates a breadth of work around Leadership, Strategic Planning, Coaching and Team Development. Her teaching style fuses her background in the arts and academia with the latest thinking in management theory, learning and neuroscience. Previously she was the coordinator for the Masters’ Degree in Creative Industries, Arts Administration at QUT. Georgia has had a longstanding relationship with the University as tutor, lecturer, program coordinator and facilitator for over 25 years. As well as an academic profile, Georgia has significant experience in other areas: research, speech writing, arts administration at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, policy, and strategy writing across the tertiary, corporate and government sectors, including Arts Queensland and the Brisbane City Council. Her key areas of interest include developing leaders who fuse connectivity with creativity, effective communication and managing cultural change within organisations. Georgia is committed to profiling the arts as key to a healthy, tolerant, and imaginative society, and she was a Board member and subsequent Chair of the Southern Cross Soloists chamber orchestra from 2013 – 2017 and is currently a board member of Playlab.
Debbie Wilks’ dedication to Performing Arts has seen her working for over 20 years in the Arts Sector, and she is known as a driving force in Australian Circus. She has worked with many emerging and established artists and has a passion for improving the business skills of Artists and building the value of the Arts to non-artists. This passion is the impetus behind Cluster Arts.“I am a quick-thinking Arts professional who enjoys thinking outside the box. I understand the importance of strong governance. I have enjoyed a solid career in business and the Arts and believe you cannot have one without the other.”Deb’s career has included CEO of Flipside Circus (2009-2015) and CEO of the Aboriginal Centre for Performance Arts (ACPA) (2015). Deb holds a Graduate Diploma in Management (Arts & Culture) and is completing her Masters’s In Management (Arts & Culture). “The Circus and Performing Arts community is one big global family, and I love travelling and finding the Artists wherever I go. I look forward to seeing what the next generation of emerging Artists has to show the world!”