our team

We are a proudly nimble and creative organisation led by a highly experienced and diverse team of board, staff and volunteers.  We are committed to remaining a lean organisation with a virtual office and our team is spread throughout Australia, with hubs in Sydney, Canberra and Woolongong.

Libby Lloyd AM – Patron

Libby has a strong presence in the international and development community and was awarded an Order of Australia for her contribution to international relations and refugees.  Libby has filled a number of management positions in Immigration and Community Services within the Australian Public Service; has been a senior staff member and consultant to the UNHCR, and a senior coordinator and executive director in several large community organisations in Canberra.  From 2002-2005, Libby was the President of UNIFEM Australia; Co-instigator and Board member of the White Ribbon Campaign/Foundation (2003-2013); Chair of the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children and its successor council Violence against Women Advisory Group (2008-11). As well as her role with indigo foundation, Libby is also the Patron of the Gold Coast Centre against Sexual Assault.

Sally Stevenson AM – Founder and Founding Chair

Sally was the initiator and founding Chair of indigo foundation, and served
as Chair for over 15 years. Over the past 30 years, Sally has worked in community development, humanitarian relief and public health, in Australia and internationally, with organisations such as Medecins sans Frontieres and the World Health Organisation. She was awarded an Order of Australia for services to the community in Australia and overseas. Sally is currently the General Manager of the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre.

Board

Lyla Rogan – Chair

Lyla has extensive consulting and management experience in the public and nonprofit sectors. She is a highly respected facilitator and organisation development consultant, known for her work in strategic planning and governance and assisting different sectors in program and policy development, evaluation and accountability.

She was a founding director and principal consultant with RPR Consulting, and Australian business that provided services to non-profit organisations and federal and state government agencies. From 2008-2013 she worked independently from Geneva and Boston, assisting nonprofit organisations in the humanitarian and development sectors strengthen their impact, effectiveness and accountability. Now back in Australia, she has resumed her consulting services to NGOs and government agencies, and retains international clients.

Formerly she was Deputy Director of ACOSS and a lecturer at two universities in Sydney in the areas of non-profit management, political processes and social policy.

Ron Switzer – Treasurer

Ron has extensive professional accounting and general business experience, including as a former partner in KPMG, CFO of multinational companies and General Manager –  CPA Australia (NSW). He is a Chartered Accountant, CPA and graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Currently, Ron teaches at The University of Sydney, consults in the Not-for-Profit sector and chairs a number of audit committees. This interest in the NFP sector, general community involvement and a strong commitment to good governance for the overall betterment of society has attracted Ron to the vision of indigo foundation.

Robin Brown

Robin is an expert in the field of consumer rights and competition policy and advocacy. He founded the Foundation for Effective Markets and Governance and in this capacity has advised government, business and civil society organisations in developing countries on consumer policy and government accountability, including working with Consumers International on the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection). He has previously worked with AusAID and served on the Code Committee of ACFID.

For 10 years Robin headed the Consumers’ Federation of Australia and was involved in significant consumer protection developments. He was instrumental in establishing the Consumers’ Health Forum and the Consumers’ Telecommunications Network (now ACCAN) and served on their boards.

Robin has been President of the ACT Council of Social Service and has served on numerous boards,  including Choice and the ACF. He has served as a ministerial appointee on statutory and non-statutory regulatory boards in telecommunications, insurance, banking, drugs,
chemicals, food standards and travel services and policy advisory boards in consumer protection, public health, manufacturing and social inclusion. Robin has ANU BA and Master Public Policy degrees.

Megan Chisholm

Megan has over 20 years experience in the international humanitarian and development sector, with expertise in strategic leadership, senior management, training and program quality roles and a passion for gender equity. Most recently she was CARE International’s Country Director in Vanuatu and Director Pacific Regional Team.

Megan draws on her deep experience in managing humanitarian preparedness and response operations with a particular focus on program quality and gender. She has led humanitarian preparedness and response operations in the Middle East, Asia, Pacific and Latin America. She has recently returned to Australia and is now the Regional Operations Director with the Australian Red Cross. 

Alison Martin

Alison comes to us with a passion for human rights and social justice and extensive experience in policy, advocacy, media and campaigning. Most recently she was Policy and Campaigns Manager and Policy Lead with Oxfam, based in Jerusalem and working across the West Bank and Gaza advocating on issues relating to International Humanitarian Law and development. Previously she led Advocacy and Campaigns in South Sudan for Oxfam, based in Juba. She has led lobby trips to Europe, the UK and the US, targeting diplomatic representatives, Members of Parliament, European Union representatives and United Nations delegates. She was also a Communications Advisor with the European Climate Foundation, and an Advisor to Australian Members of Parliament.

Alison is also published writer and has written, edited and commissioned reports, articles, some of which were published in leading global outlets, as well as short fiction

Tamana Mirzada

Tamana Mirzada is an Afghan Australian youth advocate who is passionate about creating spaces that support newly arrived communities in their settlement journey. She arrived in Australia in 2007 from Germany making it her final settlement country. In the past Tamana has worked with Afghan Women Educational Center, the Lebanese Muslim Association, Community Migrant Resource Centre, The Refugee Council of Australia and Shakti NSW Refugee and Migrant Women Support Group on various initiatives including education, employment and health.

Tamana has extensive experience and expertise working on capacity building programs for refugee and migrant communities and supporting youth by developing innovative solutions to access employment and education opportunities in Australia. In 2019, she was awarded the Refugee Council of Australia and STARTTS Humanitarian Youth Award. In her recent role as Program Development Manager with the Afghan Women Education Center in Kabul, Tamana worked on gender responsive capacity building for communities across Afghanistan.

Elena Pak

Elena Pak is the Head of Australia at Development Pathways, a leading global development consultancy specialising in designing and developing social protection systems. Development Pathways implements The Australian Government initiative to develop formal social protection systems in Pacific Island Countries (PICs) and Timor-Leste.

Previously, Elena served as the inaugural head of North America of The Fred Hollows Foundation. Before that, she led fundraising departments at US-based nonprofits, including Girl Scouts of the USA and United Way of New York City. Prior to that, Elena worked at the Atlantic Council, a think tank in foreign affairs, where she was the Director of the Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum and the U.S. Director of the British-North American Committee. Educated in the US and Kazakhstan, Elena holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in communication. She completed the American Express Leadership Academy and the American Express Aspen Institute Leadership Program. She is a Young Leader of the French-American Foundation.

Fyfe Strachan

Fyfe is an advocate and researcher who is passionate about community-led change. She has 15 years’ experience in policy, advocacy and research and has previously worked for the Human Rights Advocacy Centre, Ghana, Oxfam Australia and Australian state and federal government agencies. Over a diverse career, Fyfe has led strategic litigation on the rights of remand prisoners in Ghana, conducted research on land grabbing in Papua New Guinea, and presented recommendations on better monitoring of food security to the Asian Development Bank in Manila. From 2017-19, Fyfe was advocacy advisor in ActionAid Vietnam, playing a key role in the organisation’s research and advocacy on gender and economic justice.

Fyfe holds a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Development Studies (Social Research). She is currently Research Director with Jubilee Australia Research Centre, an organisation focused on economic justice in the Asia Pacific region.

Staff

Stav Zotalis – Executive Director

Stav joined indigo as Executive Director in November 2022 and brings a wealth of experience in the international development sector having
held leadership positions with ActionAid and CARE in the Asia region and having worked for AusAID in the past.

Stav was drawn to indigo and this leadership position because she shares our guiding principles and believes in our approach to respectful partnerships and community-led development. We feel incredibly excited about Stav being the right person to lead the next stage of indigo’s development as an innovative, effective and increasingly sustainable international community development organisation.

Alice Martin – Financial Administrator

After qualifying and working as an accountant in Scotland, Alice moved to Australia after marrying a man from Wollongong. She worked in the food industry for several years before starting a family. Alice combined work and children until her twins arrived bringing the total number of children to four. She and the family spent several years in Townsville before returning to Wollongong. The family enjoy bushwalking, skiing and kayaking. Alice became involved with indigo foundation as she wanted to use her accounting skills in a socially responsible way whilst on a permanent maternity leave.

Partnership Coordinators