Rushda Halith Email & Phone Number

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Melbourne, Australia

• I was initially appointed as Acting Director, Community Programs to provide clear and strategic leadership to support the merger of two domestic service directorates to create Australian Programs. Today, I lead.
• Developed a national framework for Justice, leading strategy, structure and new ways of working, informed by data and evidence, context and unique value add of Red Cross;
• Led the Community Programs’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring continuity for 200+ services via new systems spanning performance, reporting, workforce planning, PPE and WHS;
• Reshaped two key external shared value partnerships (Constellation project with PWC - shifted to focus on justice for their next phase and Connected futures with CUA & Infoxchange - shifted to respond to Covid) to.
• Supported the CEO to secure board approval of a refined future focus for the Red Cross, effectively managing

Melbourne, Australia

• Holding responsibility for planning, implementation, review and reporting across Red Cross’ strategic projects and programs, I led an agenda of standardisation to align state/territory operations with national.
• Delivered a +3-fold improvement in alignment of state/territory annual plans with national strategy, driving better outcomes across child protection, justice and community programs;
• Engineered $5M in savings by leading strategic review resulting in streamlined/ standardised structures and reduced overheads;
• Secured a multimillion-dollar funding commitment from the Federal Government for continuity of support for people ineligible for NDIS, leading advocacy strategy in partnership with key partner organisations;
• Increased child protection compliance against legislation to 99%, ensuring robust training and completion of regulatory checks and code of conduct for 2000 staff and 18,000 volunteers.

Melbourne, Australia

• A newly created role, I was tasked with reviewing programming within the Community Program directorate, and crucially, defined a robust framework to categorise services by strength of alignment with the revised 2020.
• Developed a board approved decision tree to effectively review services, a tool adapted by the organisation to assess alignment of future funding opportunities;
• Reallocated ~$1M of resources via divestment of non-aligned services, creating a central repository of tools and resources to support strategic planning, execution and change management;
• Secured a multimillion-dollar 5-year contract, co-leading a tender application for the expansion of disability employment services;
• Improved engagement, visibility and adoption of the 3rd reconciliation action plan for the Red Cross, applying an adapted co-design process.

Melbourne, Australia

• In 2015, I was engaged to coordinate a consistent national response to Federal reforms in aged care and disability, specifically NDIS, that necessitated a block move to fee for service models. An initiative that.
• As A/National Coordinator, Operations, established a baseline to track performance across 52 Government contracts, leading an audit of Community Programs;
• Amalgamated 8 state and territory held Home and Community Care (HACC) contracts into one national contract, developing and piloting the new reporting framework;
• Achieved six-figure cost savings by supporting several system deployments and improvements, including the organisation’s first client case management system;
• As Project Lead, delivered Fees policy and supporting process documents within the Government’s 3-month deadline;
• Developed a prototype for a billing solution charging fees for 11K clients, informed by an internal unit costing exercise and an external scan of similar programs.

Melbourne, Australia

• Joining the Red Cross as Community Programs Officer, I was promoted in May 2011 to lead the divestment of a 20-year-old community program in NSW. In 2013, I progressed to Program Manager, and over a period of two.
• As Program Manager, fostered positive relationships with regional managers, finance, Red Cross members and volunteers, to adjust services in line with funding constraints;
• Reduced NSW operations costs for a flagship program to approximately half of the national ‘$ per client’ average, shifting to a call centre model;
• Secured additional funding to expand programs and support an additional 700 clients, ensuring compliance with external community care standards;
• Mobilised a 3-year stalled project to redesign and implement a new service delivery model for a flagship program, improving the experience of 1500 volunteers and 900 clients across 6 regions;
• As Project Lead, positioned NSW as the only State to deliver the program divestment on time, minimising the impact to clients, aged care facilities and volunteers.

Sri Lanka

Master Of Science (Msc), Environmental Management

Bachelor Of Engineering (Beng), Electronic And Computer Engineering, First Class Honours

Activities and Societies: Student Association Vice President