ALUMNI
Celebrating Achievements leader in childhood infectious diseases, particularly emerging infectious diseases of the brain in children and infections in the developing fetus and newborn, passed from mother to child. Her current role also includes leading and inspiring the next generation of young paediatricians, child health educators and researchers. Cheryl gets much joy and satisfaction from this. In her new role, Professor Jones’ first address was at the Royal Children’s Hospital Grand Rounds on International Women’s Day this year where she focused on how fortunate she was to have been born in a country where she had the opportunity to receive the education required in order to pursue her career path.
Professor Cheryl Jones (CLC 1981) Congratulations to alumna Professor Cheryl Jones on her appointment as Stevenson Chair of Paediatrics and Head of Department at the University of Melbourne - the first woman to fill this role since its inception in 1962. Cheryl is an Infectious Diseases specialist paediatrician at the Royal Children’s Hospital and an internationally recognised research
Jessie Herbert (CLC 2005) After finishing CLC Jessie was not sure what her career path would be; however, she had always had a strong interest in fashion and decided to start with retail and work her way through the ranks. Eventually, with a business partner, she created Nakedvice after discovering the huge niche in the Australian market for good quality leather bags that were affordable, yet on trend. This business has since come a long way since being a casual idea, discussed over dinner, back in 2013. Once the idea of Nakedvice was hatched, it hit the ground running and has not stopped. Since launching online in April 2014, Nakedvice has caught the eye of many bloggers and influencers
Cheryl loved school and felt lucky that she just knew early on at high school that medicine and paediatrics was what she wanted to pursue …….and that this meant hard work.
the US where she worked at Boston Children’s Hospital as Infectious Diseases Fellow and did work for her PhD at Harvard Medical School and the University of Sydney. She returned to Australia with her young family to take up roles as a Specialist Paediatrician in infectious diseases and Academic Professor at Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. Cheryl attended CLC from 1976 1981 and remembers being part of an amazing year group who did not, at the time, realise how lucky they were to be part of such a great community. She credits her academic interests and excellence to very inspiring, wonderful and supportive teachers including Morag Fraser, Chris Blake, Jill Francesconi, Kate Gillespie, Raimonne McCutcheon and Mrs Jach…..just to name a few.
After leaving CLC, she completed a six year medical degree at the Universities of Melbourne and Tasmania, followed by an intern year at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide and then six years on the job training in paediatrics at the old Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children (RAHC) in Camperdown, Sydney. Cheryl then travelled to
The College was relatively new when Cheryl began secondary school in the mid 70s. Eltham was still a semi-rural area and the College was situated with a beautiful outlook. Initially there were just netball courts and a big paddock. There was not a lot of development within sport and the oval, where House Sports were eventually conducted, plus the tennis courts came later. Drama was strong but the music programme limited.
across the globe. In just three short years it has expanded from an online platform into over 60 boutiques across Australia, with international growth into America and Japan in 2015 and Canada in 2016.
each stage of the design process. Her attention is also on production schedules and adhering to delivery timelines, in order to deliver the highest standard to Nakedvice customers.
Jessie’s previous roles working for other companies allowed her to gain extensive knowledge in sales, operations, management, production and design. Having overseen multiple sides to a business was the perfect steppingstone for her to launch Nakedvice.
Nakedvice also employs two CLC alumnae on its staff – Ebony Arter (CLC 2008), who is the National Sales Manager and Emily Short (CLC 2014) who is a Production/Design Assistant.
The business focuses on being skilled in trend forecasting which enables it to create commercial, stylish, quality products that everyone can enjoy without breaking the bank.
Cheryl’s reaction to the brown school uniform of the 70s and 80s was that it was ‘not very attractive at all’ and she and her friends were convinced that the yellow terry towelling ‘Chicken Suit’ that they had to wear for sport and PE was deliberately designed by the nuns to make them as unattractive as possible to the opposite sex! Her school day memories include the tradition when senior students became teachers for the day and ran the school; going to school socials and meeting boys with her cohort of friends; crying over her hairdo for the debutante ball and being rather brazen and drinking champagne on the lawn on the final day of school! To this day, Cheryl feels very lucky to have been part of a lovely cohort of girls. There were no friendship pressures, no expectations and she felt very happy at school. There are a couple of school friends who have remained life-long friends (Karen Magree (nee Woolfe) and Julie Norris (nee Harman) and she refers to them as ‘pearls’ of people who define true friendship. Cheryl’s role as Stevenson Chair is a demanding and challenging one but, as she says, she is ‘not happy if I am not busy.’
The pace is frantic and challenging but Jessie would not have it any other way.
From developing mood boards to constructing sample packs and selecting materials, Jessie oversees Above: L-R Emily Short (CLC 2014) and Jessie Herbert (CLC 2005)
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THE COLLEGIAN - VOLUME 23 NUMBER 2