Ruth Farrell - Board Member, Volunteer Coordinator

Bio

Ruth, with over 15 years of dedicated service in Queensland’s public sector, has honed her skills as a business analyst and team leader, leveraging her neurotypical ‘superpowers’ for continuous improvement and backend workflow optimisation. As a steadfast advocate for equity, diversity, respect, and inclusion, she has passionately promoted a workforce that mirrors the rich diversity of the community it serves, while fostering a culture of safety and inclusivity. Ruth is a parent to an AuDHD young adult, and her family’s personal encounters with the systemic challenges interacting with the education, employment, and healthcare systems motivated her to join Umbrella Alliance, bolstering her resolve to effect positive change.

Areas of Expertise

Team leadership and recruitment
Systems thinking
Data analysis and visual storytelling
Workflow solution design and delivery

Achievements

Queensland Health Executive Leadership Program graduate
Leader of a 10+ ND, gender, and culturally diverse data and technology team
A passionate fighter for First Nations Peoples recognition, reparation, and reconciliation
Co-parent of two spectacularly cool young people
Reigning Uno champion

Ruth's Story

Ruth is a die-hard public servant in one of Australia’s largest public healthcare systems and she is passionate about caring for people. This passion has manifested in her fervent drive for continuous improvement. Striving to make services better has seen her leave behind her frontline caregiving roles and move into backend operational roles, where she got a chance to mix that passion for caring with data and analytics. Now she gets to lead an army of Ruths, with her team of amazingly talented and diverse business analysts, data scientists, and data engineers, and has had to kick a new skill into gear – her work is now caring for the workers.

Ruth’s new passion is dragging the public service into 2023 and to start walking the talk on their stated values of equity, diversity, respect and inclusion in recruitment, supporting safe and inclusive cultures, and promoting a workforce that reflects the community we serve.

She is a loud voice amongst the growing chorus of voices in the technology industry who understand that recognising, acknowledging, and valuing our ND colleagues is our greatest strategy to attract and retain talent in this challenging environment.

Ruth also has a personal stake in the work to make a more ND-friendly world, with her adult daughter’s recent ADHD diagnosis. Ruth is committed to any effort that will help make sure the Millennial generation of female-appearing children will be the last to go through their schooling with undetected ADHD. Ultimately Ruth is working to help other NT’s be more fluent in ND, so they can forge deeper connections and work better together on solving the Big Problems for humanity.

When she’s not hanging with her team you can find Ruth at The Burrow, the in-earth dwelling she built with her hippy hubby, sipping wine in front of the fire with a happy puppy on her lap.

We acknowledge and pay respect to all historically marginalised communities, including First Nations Peoples, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We recognise the unique challenges and injustices that these communities have faced, and we commit ourselves to promoting diversity, liberation, and inclusion for all. We acknowledge the invaluable contributions that these communities have made and continue to make to our world, and we honour the rich cultural heritage and traditions that they bring. We stand in solidarity with historically marginalised communities and work towards creating a more just and equitable world for all.

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Ruth Farrell

Ruth Farrell - Board Member, Volunteer Coordinator

Bio

Areas of Expertise

Achievements

Ruth's Story

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