Where Are They Now?

Catherine has many flash backs to her school days, sitting on the tennis courts with friends eating lunch, being chosen to carry the cross and lead the Archbishop through the ‘new’ library on opening day, listening to fellow students playing music in the Oak Parlour. She was inspired in Biology by Val Stewart and her Physics classes with Sr Elizabeth. She was proud to be elected a Student Councillor and Sports Captain (volleyball); roles that helped set her up for future leadership roles.

After studies at Melbourne and La Trobe Universities, Catherine went on to complete Honours in Biological Anthropology. Whilst completing a PhD, she discovered how epidemiology combined detective work and analytics to open up our understanding of disease causation, risk factors, outbreak control and prevention. It is at the core of evidence-based medical practice and public health policy.

She progressed to postdoctoral work, followed by a Masters of Epidemiology, eventually taking up a lectureship in epidemiology at the University of Melbourne. She became Associate Professor and was Postgraduate Programs Director in the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. After much hard research work, her group won a million-dollar NHMRC grant to establish a world first longitudinal cohort study of staph transmission in Melbourne, winning several awards for her teaching.

In 2009, Catherine took up the inaugural Chair in Epidemiology at Deakin University and soon after was appointed Head of School of Health and Social Development. This year, to her surprise, she has become a public commentator on the COVID-19 pandemic after early approaches from the media for insight and translation of “pandemic speak” turned into regular media engagements and a 24/7 fulltime role. She has a number of research projects that she is a coinvestigator on, many PhD students, and is about to reconfigure the advanced epi teaching at Deakin to include more infectious disease epidemiology.

Catherine credits her Loreto education with providing her with the vision, rigour, maturity and confidence to grasp opportunities and to never look back. “Once I commit to something, I always give it my all. An appetite for learning and drive for excellence instilled through my parents and reinforced by Mandeville has given me a wonderfully rich and fulfilling professional and personal life.”

MARISSA PIAZZA - CLASS OF 2010

School highlights for Marissa were Literature with Mrs Thompson and Art with Mrs Beck, who encouraged her to pursue her passion of oil painting. She also has very fond memories of the PAF – in Year 12 she was a Design Leader for Mornane and remembers being thrilled to design and create the outfits for them to wear in the performance, featuring lots of leopard print, she remembers.

While studying Commerce/Law at Monash University, majoring in Economics and Finance, Marissa was also able to travel to Europe. Her Loreto education instilled in her a strong sense of social justice, so she also volunteered at the St Kilda Legal Service for several years, helping disadvantaged locals solve their legal issues.

Marissa got her first ‘real’ job at Mecca Brands, managing their compliance/regulatory work. She is now a Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions Lawyer at Minter Ellison. This enables her to think analytically and be ready to communicate with a wide range of founders, senior management, advisers and legal counsel.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marissa and alumna Meg Stacey (2010) co-founded Literati Book Club, a book subscription service and ‘book club’ community as a response to the struggle with Melbourne’s lockdown monotony and the reports of increasing loneliness. Together they liaise with publishers to secure the most thoughtprovoking, entertaining reads for their subscribers, interview authors at monthly live Q&A book club sessions and review books on their blog. They also run an Instagram account to keep their subscribers engaged @literatibookclub__.

Marissa’s career highlights include the relationships she has formed working in M&A and starting her own business, which gives her the opportunity to flex her creative skills and apply the business acumen she has developed as a lawyer.

As a reader Marissa enjoys a mix of intriguing, relevant contemporary fiction, non-fiction and the odd ‘classic’.

Marissa’s Loreto education taught her to pursue her passions. No career was out of the question. The art, literature, performing arts, music offerings were really extraordinary. She understands now how fortunate she was to attend a school like Loreto, where her curiosity was encouraged, and she could fully explore her interests.

Emily’s Loreto journey started in Year 7 in 2009, when she came from a small primary school knowing absolutely nobody, but this wasn’t the case for very long! She has fond memories of a wonderful schooling experience filled with community and togetherness. Her fondest memories are from Year 12, where she loved the challenges of VCE, the close relationships she formed with friends and teachers alike and balancing this all with the role of School Captain, which she was so fortunate and grateful to receive.

After leaving school Emily studied a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery at Monash University. Throughout her time in university she was also fortunate enough to have many wonderful experiences beyond her studies, including travelling to Timor Leste to volunteer with Mary Ward International, and undertaking a placement in Paediatric Medicine at St Mary’s Hospital in London. She completed her medical degree at the end of last year, and since then has been working as an Intern (first year junior doctor).

This year Emily has worked in General Medicine, General Surgery, Emergency Medicine and Psychiatry as part of her Internship. At present she is working with Eastern Health where she will continue next year; this has been a career highlight. Working as an Intern in a global pandemic has definitely been a unique challenge that she can definitely say she didn’t see coming! Having to constantly adapt to the many changes made to healthcare in the face of COVID-19 has been very challenging, but also very rewarding. Ultimately, she would like to become a General Practitioner with a special interest in Paediatrics and Women’s Health.

After her, at times, stressful days at work Emily enjoys reading and exercising. Some of her other interests such as dancing and spending time with family and friends have unfortunately been put on hold due to the pandemic, but she is looking forward to getting back to these soon.

It is incredibly difficult for Emily to put the significance of her Loreto education into just a few words, because she values it enormously. She says that the values that Loreto taught her are an integral part of who she is and how she lives life each day and she is grateful for her Loreto education which she credits with providing her with the tools to achieve what she has, now and into the future.

AILIE ROJAS (JENKINS) - CLASS OF 2002

Although Ailie came to Loreto later in her schooling, starting in Year 10, the friends she made in those three years are still very close and will last a lifetime. She has fond memories; some of her favourites include the PAF performances and all the hilarious rehearsals leading up to them. Mrs Kay’s Theatre Studies classes, exploring the old mansion and of course, the infamous Year 10 dancing classes, all still make her smile. She loved being able to participate in the Equestrian Team and was thrilled to be Captain in Year 12, especially as she was not interested in other more traditional sports.

After school Ailie graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Arts, followed by a Masters in Applied Commerce. From there she worked in Human Resources at RealEstate.com.au before moving to New York City in 2008.

She has largely worked in HR since being in New York. In 2015 she started working for Mansion Records, her family owned and run record label, as VP of Marketing and Artist Management. While Ailie once enjoyed touring with bands – an East Coast US tour with Australian-based band Friendships is a career highlight – she considers herself lucky to be able to work from home now she has a twoand-a-half-year-old and an 18-month-old. The family moved out of New York at the beginning of March, right before the intense COVID related lockdowns and are enjoying a lovely change of scenery in Newport, Rhode Island.

Ailie loves to take the kids to the beach when time allows and spends as much time as possible at the barn training horses. Her husband and father play polo and their horses live at a farm close by. As a family they spend most weekends working with the horses which they all love, and they are grateful to be able to do so since moving out of the city.