Senior Leadership Team

Sandra PolettoCEO

Biography

Sandra has over 25 years experience working in leadership and management positions in the private tertiary education sector.  She has spent the majority of this time as the CEO at Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors (AIPC) where she has played an instrumental role in the leadership and direction of the Institute in both vocational and higher education. 

With AIPC and Endeavour College both joining the UP Education Group in recent times, Sandra’s role has expanded to include the Chief Executive responsibilities at Endeavour College, and membership of the College Board as a Director.  Sandra holds post graduate qualifications in business management, and her professional interests include organisational sustainability, leadership development, and student experience and satisfaction. 

Sandra continues to enjoy working in the tertiary education sector due to the positive impact of education on personal growth, life circumstances and professional accomplishments experienced by mature-age learners.

Christy CollisProvost

Biography

Professor Christy Collis brings over 30 years of higher education experience to the role of Endeavour’s Provost. Christy’s career focus is “making learning work”: ensuring that higher education works for all students, and that higher education learning connects to employment outcomes.

Christy has a strong track record in higher education leadership. Roles she has held include: acting Director of the USQ Central Learning and Teaching Unit, Associate Director of Academic Development for USQ, Founding Head of Department of Entertainment Industries at QUT, founding Head of QUT’s Creative Industries work-integrated learning program, Director of Research Quality for QUT’s Creative Industries faculty, Provost of ICHM and Provost of the Australian Institute of Professional Counsellors. She is a TEQSA Expert.

Christy is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a three-time elected executive member of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA), the peak body representing higher education research in Australia. She convened the 2023 HERDSA conference of over 700 delegates. She is a member of the Independent Tertiary Educational Council Australia (ITECA) National Policy Committee and its Regulatory Affairs Recognition Task Group.

Deirdre MathiasDirector of Student Operations

Biography

Deirdre has a diverse background across Asia and Australia in operational management, with a focus on strategically building, managing and innovating service structures that add value to the customer and the business through operational integrity.

Deirdre has worked with Endeavour for eight years in a variety of roles, and now sits in a strategic role leading all the service support departments. Across her time at the college she has been particularly focused on re engineering and improving the student experience and student engagement, with a focus on system improvement and delivering a service experience that engages, inspires, and supports the student body.

Elissa HolswichNational Quality, Governance & Compliance Manager

Biography

Elissa is an experienced policy and compliance specialist, having worked in the field for over 12 years. With a degree in Behavioural Science, she started out in Human Resources roles but found she had an eye for detail and soon gained a role with the Queensland Office of Higher Education, the State higher education regulator where she worked as a Senior Policy Officer (case manager for higher education providers) for over 5 years.

With the centralisation of higher education regulation in Melbourne through TEQSA, Elissa wanted to stay in Queensland and found herself working for one of her previous providers as the ‘internal regulator’, the National Compliance Manager for Endeavour College of Natural Health.

After a year back in the government working with the international schooling regulation team and on a finance policy project, Elissa returned ‘home’ to Endeavour in early 2019 and has continued her earlier work liaising closely with TEQSA, ASQA, the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia and other professional bodies to ensure that the College not only meets but exceeds industry and educational standards. Elissa’s daily goal in her work is to make a real difference to the life of students and staff by offering accurate and timely compliance, governance and policy advice, and building a team of experts to support the business and see it thrive.

Katrina ArchDirector of Sales, Admissions and Retention

Biography

Katrina is an education admissions leader with executive experience in the Higher Education and Vocational Education Training sector.  Katrina has experience in leading multiple admissions teams across both sectors which is supported by her ability to manage complex tasks, competing deadlines and interacting with a broad range of organisational stakeholders.

Katrina holds tertiary qualifications in Creative Arts and Complementary Medicine.  It is this personal insight into studying Complementary Medicine at Endeavour that gives Katrina the unique ability to understand the journey Endeavour students embark on that authentically put the student first.

Prior to joining Endeavour Katrina working at the Australian Institute of Management – QLD and NT for 12 years in management roles encompassing marketing, sales and events services.

Dr. Lorraine MarshalseyDean – Higher Education, Endeavour College

Biography

Lorraine has been an academic, educator and researcher at university level for 15 years. She is Scottish (from Edinburgh), and emigrated to Australia on January 1st, 2015. Lorraine studied for her PhD at Glasgow School of Art in Education (Design), moving from being a visual communication designer in industry to teaching design education in the UK. She then went on to take up a position with Griffith University as the Honours Programme Director and Lecturer overseeing 4th year programs such as Design, Creative & Interactive Media, Fine Art, Photography, Digital Media, and Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art. During a period in Adelaide, Lorraine moved fully into an education-based role at the University of South Australia. As a Senior Lecturer and Curriculum Lead, she taught Pre-Service Teacher Education for Early Years, Primary and Secondary Education, in Design/Food/Textiles/Digital and Technologies for Education. In March 2023, Lorraine launched a start-up campus for Victoria University in Brisbane. As Associate Director of VU, she established eight undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Business, IT and Early Childhood Education.

Lorraine was an Editorial Board Member of the Q1 journal, the International Journal of Art and Design Education (iJade) and one of the Founding Convenors and Member of the Studio Matters design education research community, which hosts members from USA, Sweden, UK, Australia, and Netherlands, among others. In March 2023, Lorraine published her first book on Sensory Affect, Learning Spaces, and Design Education: Strategies for Reflective Teaching and Student Engagement in Higher Education. She is passionate about the physical, social, mental, and cognitive well-being of students and staff in higher education.

Dr. May KocatepeHead of Teaching & Learning

Biography

May Kocatepe has been involved in higher education as an educator and curriculum designer for over 20 years in Australia and overseas. She has designed and delivered teacher training programs and undergraduate academic literacies courses, driving high quality teaching and learning in 21st century higher education. May holds a PhD in TESOL from James Cook University, specialising in international student education, critical literacies and critical discourse analysis.

Prior to joining Endeavor, May held various teaching and managerial roles, including being Academic Language and Learning Coordinator and Program Supervisor. May’s research interests relate to how learning occurs in and out-of-class with particular focus on autonomous learning, information literacy and generative artificial intelligence.