Rotary Club of Melbourne
2020 Royce Abbey Award
MIKAELA STAFRACE
The Royce Abbey Award was established by the Rotary Club of Essendon to recognise their Member and our Past Honorary Member, Past Rotary International President, Royce Abbey and adopted by the Rotary Club of Melbourne Board to be conferred on a Member who is relatively new to the Club, has not been awarded a Paul Harris Fellow recognition, is well accepted by Members, has a good attendance record, who has demonstrated strong commitment and complies with the Object of Rotary.
Each Rotary Club in adopting the Award program contributes $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation in the Royce and Jean Abbey Endowment Fund used for humanitarian projects to enhance capabilities of food processors, foresters and other agricultural environment research and University teachers from developing countries.
The 2020 Royce Abbey Awardee is Mikaela Stafrace, was inducted on 22 May 2019 with the classification Employment – Skills Training and is a member of the Toorak 1 Group. Her sponsor was Steph Woollard. She is actively involved with the Think Tank Committee, the Evening Meetings program, the Horizon Committee and for 2020 – 21 will be the Director of Club Events & Fundraising.
Mikaela is a graduate of Melbourne & Monash Universities in Law, Commerce and Risk Management As qualified lawyer she was admitted to the High Court of Australia, held senior roles in corporate settings providing insurance, risk, governance and regulatory compliance. She taught insurance law at Monash & Melbourne Universities, has competed the Williamson Community Leadership program at Leadership Victoria and was a finalist for Telstra Businesswoman of the Year Award (2000).
Five years ago, Mikaela transitioned to the not-for-profit sector with Legacy Melbourne, Kidney Health Australia and was Deputy Chair of CERES before founding her own NGO - "Women Can", a social-benefit company that seeks to connect women with training and employment opportunities and to facilitate peer-led networks that support women to thrive in workplaces that treat them with dignity as Respect Matters.
Mikaela has told me that she had an early introduction to Rotary when at the age of 14 she won a Public Speaking Competition sponsored by Rotary. Now having demonstrated great commitment to Rotary Melbourne, Mikaela contributes vast experience to the implementation of our community service projects. Members, please join in congratulating our 2020 Royce Abbey Awardee, Mikaela Stafrace.
Conferred this 17th Day of June 2020 by Kevin F Sheehan, President of Rotary Melbourne
