Your Facilitators
Melanie Fleer
Melanie has worked in Victorian local government for over 20 years, including 15 years in leadership roles spanning the areas of communications, governance, legal, marketing, risk, property and customer service. She holds a Bachelors in Public Relations, and Graduate Diploma in Group Facilitation. Melanie has worked at Brimbank City Council Maribyrnong and Darebin councils. Melanie now works as a governance consultant to the government sector.
Janet Cribbes
Janet Cribbes has a career spanning three decades, working in State government, community services, the private sector, Local Government and more recently Not for Profit. Janet specialises in governance, ethical and authentic leadership coaching and mentoring in the non for profit and Local government agencies. Her community engagement saw her elected to Port Phillip Council in 2004 to 2008 with one term as mayor in 2008. Public life has many rewards and challenges, having a sense of humor is great life skill. Following Council, Janet went to establish and manage the Community Bushfire Recovery Service after the Black Saturday 2009 Bushfires, on behalf of the Archdiocese of Melbourne delivered through CatholicCare. Janet is currently a director and co-chair on a not-for-profit Board and Chairs 2 other not for profit Board.
Julie Reid
Julie has had 33 years’ experience working in Local Government both nationally and internationally and has had recent experience in State Government. She is a qualified Master of Planning and has a Graduate Diploma in Management and Bachelor of Arts (Urban Studies).
Julie’s recent career highlights include working as Executive Director of Local Government Victoria in the Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions and as the first female CEO at the City of Kingston. Julie also spent 10 years at an executive/director level leading city development and engineering/infrastructure portfolios at Whitehorse and Greater Dandenong City Councils.
Julie’s career in Local Government has included working in large Councils in the UK (including Westminster City Council, London), in rural Councils in New South Wales and a number of Victorian Councils. Julie’s diverse experience in local government has seen her contribute to governance, planning, urban design, sustainability, economic development, building, waste, capital works delivery, community engagement and more. Julie launched her own consultancy business in June 2022 to continue assisting Local Government into the future.