We are excited to announce the winners of the 2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year Awards. This event is held annually to recognise and celebrate volunteer managers in the Canberra Region and is held in connection with International Volunteer Managers Day, celebrated on 5 November.

VolunteeringACT extends a heartfelt thank you to everyone who participated in our 2025 Volunteer Leaders Seminar on Wednesday, 3 November 2025 at the Denman Village Community Centre.

It was an incredible event filled with insightful discussions, networking opportunities, and shared passions for making a difference. The positive feedback we’ve received is a testament to the dedication and enthusiasm of our local volunteer leaders.

During the seminar we also celebrated 2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year Awards. Congratulations to all the nominees, winners and highly commended! Your hard work, commitment, and innovative approaches to volunteer management are commendable, and we are proud to celebrate your achievements.

2025 Volunteer Management Team of the Year: Highly commended

Volunteer Management Team, Communities at Work

The Communities at Work volunteer management team supports over 135 active volunteers across community pantries, best-dressed stores, Christmas drives, and food rescue programs. Their team has built a robust volunteer framework that balances structure and flexibility. They have been selected as highly commended in this category due to their strong systems and scale of impact, and their fostering of a culture of collaboration, respect and empowerment.

2025 Volunteer Management Team of the Year: Winner

Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch

The Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch team leads an impactful environmental program supporting over 200 volunteers who monitor the health of waterways across the ACT and surrounding catchments. They monitor more than 300 sites, providing critical data for catchment management and policy decision-making. They have been selected as the team of the year due to their groundbreaking work, focus on volunteer training and development and their combination of best practices and cultural engagement.

2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year – Excellence in Inclusion

Highly Commended: Keda Southwell

Keda serves as the Coordinator of Education and Programs at Domestic Animal Services, where she leads a volunteer program that has grown to over 120 active volunteers. Keda has been selected as highly commended for her initiatives that remove barriers to volunteering and focus on expanding volunteer models to accommodate volunteers with disability, elderly volunteers and volunteers with additional needs. Keda’s approach to creating a safe and welcoming environment for all has had tangible effects on the physical and mental welfare of her volunteers.

2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year – Excellence in Inclusion

Winner: Farizma Shawkat

Farizma is the Student Experience Officer at UCX, managing the volunteer programs, X-Crew and UCX food pantry. Farizma has played a leading role in building the program from the ground up; building frameworks and online platforms. She has been selected as the winner in this category due to her dedication and commitment to ensuring volunteers from all backgrounds are celebrated. Her achievements include hosting events for volunteers to showcase their culture, mentoring international students and installing ramp accessibility for volunteers with disability.

2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year – Excellence in Best Practice

Highly Commended: Lily Harrison

Lily has been selected as a highly commended nominee for her pivotal role in leading the volunteer program of over 2000 volunteers for Senetor David Pocock’s 2025 re-election campaign. Lily’s leadership, and focus on grassroots engagement, inclusion and accountability are well worth celebrating. 

2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year – Excellence in Best Practice

Highly Commended: Michelle Chate

Michelle holds a senior leadership role as Volunteer Manager at Warrigal. She is a dedicated leader with over a decade of experience connecting compassionate volunteers with meaningful opportunities. Michelle has been selected as a highly commended nominee for her passion, care and focus on building connections forged through volunteering.  

2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year – Excellence in Best Practice

Winner: Alison McLeod

Alison is the Director of Strategy and Policy at the ACT Emergency Services Agency. Alison is a strategic and empathetic leader whose work has transformed volunteer management across emergency services and conservation sectors. Alison’s career spans over 15 years in volunteer leadership, her achievements include aligning policies with the national Standards, fostering collaboration across services, building accessible training models, developing digital onboarding systems and mentoring emerging volunteer leaders. Alison’s leadership is not only best practice, but also innovative and person-centred.

2025 Volunteer Manager of the Year – Excellence in Community Impact

Winner: Mary-Liondi Barlow

Mary’s leadership is grounded in a deep passion for inclusion. She is the founder and Executive Officer of Good Omen Goodeze, a grassroots Canberran charity with over 350 dedicated volunteers who craft comfort care items for patients across Canberra Health Services.  

Mary forges partnerships, celebrates diversity and takes a proactive and adaptive approach to leadership. Through trauma-informed practices, inclusive leadership and a clear vision of connection through creativity, Mary transforms volunteers into a dynamic force for good, one stitch at a time.

DISCLAIMER:

Award winners are nominated by the Canberra Region community. When we consider the ACT volunteering awards, we examine a nominee’s volunteering contribution and do our best to ensure the recipients are of a suitable character. We ask nominators and their nominating organisations to confirm there are no legal, reputational, or other issues that may bring themselves, their nominating organisation, or VolunteeringACT into disrepute should they win an award. We are not able to undertake police checks for all nominees or award recipients. We understand that not all members of the community have the same experience with nominees as those who nominated them for recognition.