Bridget Staude joined the TLG team in May 2019 in the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Bridget is returning to TLG for the second time. Her first experience with TLG began in 2013, in the second year of her undergraduate degree at the University of Western Australia. A keen volunteer, Bridget had been looking for opportunities, and soon after seeing advertisements for the winter Rural Program in the library, she was on a bus to Bremer Bay for her first program.

Bridget says that the first Rural Program “changed my life. I made some amazing friends on that trip, signed up for the TLG Executive almost immediately afterwards, and then did three more programs in Morawa, Boulder and East Kalgoorlie.” Bridget took on multiple roles within the TLG Executive before graduating university in 2015, including as the volunteer Chief Operating Officer.

When asked why she joined the TLG Executive, Bridget replied “because I saw what great results the Rural Program had for both the students and the tutors, and I wanted to contribute more to the organisation and the cause of education inequity in Western Australia.”

Due to her experiences and involvement in TLG, Bridget deviated from her tertiary studies and was accepted into the Masters of Teaching with Teach For Australia in 2016. Bridget moved to Kalgoorlie and taught high school HASS at a lower-socioeconomic school for three years while completing her Masters of Teaching through Deakin University.

Recently moving back to Perth, Bridget says “it was a really tough decision to leave the classroom, but I really feel so strongly about TLG as an organisation that I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to return and continue the work we do in providing opportunities for rural students and university students. TLG had such a big impact on my life and I hope to lead and grow the organisation so that TLG can continue to make an even greater impact.”

Bridget’s experience both as a high school HASS teacher, and a previous TLG volunteer, have already proven her to be an innovative leader, ready to drive the TLG team to new heights.