ARACY welcomes new CEO: Melodie Potts Rosevear OAM

The Australian Research Alliance for Children & Youth (ARACY) has announced the appointment of  Melodie Potts Rosevear OAM as its new Chief Executive Officer, commencing 9 February 2026.

Melodie brings over 25 years of experience across government, philanthropy, community and the not-for-profit sector. Her career has been defined by a deep commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people, particularly those facing disadvantage. Most recently, she served as Founder and CEO of Teach For Australia, preparing nearly 2,000 educators and leaders and championing equity in education policy.

ARACY Board Chair Shamal Dass said the appointment comes at a critical time for national collaboration and systems change. “Melodie brings strategic clarity and sector expertise that will help ARACY strengthen partnerships and deliver greater impact for children across Australia.”

In conversation with The Sector, Ms Potts Rosevear shared her vision for ARACY and reflected on the leadership values that guide her work.

Fiona: What excites you most about stepping into the CEO role at ARACY at this moment in time?

Melodie: What excites me most is achieving measurable improvements in children’s and young people’s wellbeing through genuine, cross-systems collaborations. ARACY is at an exciting transition point, with a proud history of translating research into insights and more recently in convening cross-sector action in the early years through the Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children and the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership. We can now learn from these efforts as we write the next chapter. My early focus will be listening widely and then bringing clarity and delivery discipline: finalising strategy, supporting IDAC’s progress, and sharing lessons of TQKP. Above all, I look forward to making connections old and new as we seek to tangibly improve outcomes for children and young people.

Fiona: Looking back on your career, what experiences have most influenced your leadership values and priorities?

Melodie: My core values are authenticity, service and excellence. In practice that means I seek to prioritise relationships, collective effort and tangible impact. Two experiences have shaped those priorities most. The first was working with communities in Cape York, where I learned that lasting reform only happens when policy is grounded in what families and communities actually need and want. I was fortunate to see lived experience and voice have real influence over design, not just consultation. The second experience was leading Teach For Australia through a particularly tricky period of national growth. That taught me the importance of ensuring a big vision/mission translated into operational rigour: building strong teams, using evidence to guide decisions, and sustaining partnerships across institutions and political cycles. Together, those experiences shaped how I lead today — with humility, a drive for clarity, and a sustained focus on outcomes.

Fiona: Where do you see the greatest opportunities for collaboration across sectors to improve outcomes for Australia’s children?

Melodie: I’m buoyed by the incredible progress we have seen in the early years. Tangible action and momentum here is strong across the sector, and we know there is much work still ahead: creating responsive, integrated pathways and single front doors for families; ensuring strong supports for parents and caregivers for in the child’s first three years; and growing First Nations led and controlled community early learning and parenting support centres.

I’m buoyed by the progress and momentum underway in the early years, and I think the next collaborative opportunities are building truly responsive, integrated pathways and ‘single front doors’ so families can access the right support early; strengthening supports for parents and caregivers in the first three years, where development is most sensitive; and accelerating First Nations-led and controlled early learning and parenting support centres.

Another major opportunity is the middle years and early adolescence, the window where we can catch issues early and shift trajectories, but where we’re seeing declines in mental health, school attendance, relationships and learning outcomes. I’d love to see researchers, policymakers, educators, psychologists and sociologists, parents, and technology companies come together to discuss the challenge and identify opportunities for meaningful action. Importantly, this work must be done with young people, not to them! As a parent of a 13 year old myself, I know how important their voice is to their own sense of agency as well as to making any practice stick.

And third, cross cutting all of this is the digital environment. We need coordinated action across research, policy, technology platforms, regulators, and practice to create and promote guidelines informed by the evidence on cognitive and social impacts, reducing harm while preserving benefit.

For those who haven’t yet, I would strongly recommend reading ARACY’s recently released State of Australia’s Children report, in partnership with UNICEF and supported by the Minderoo Foundation. The report canvassed key metrics for children and youth across The Nest wellbeing framework’s six domains: being valued, loved and safe, having material basics, being healthy, learning, participating, and having a positive sense of identity and culture.

Melodie’s appointment follows a comprehensive recruitment process and comes as ARACY leads key national initiatives, including the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership and the Investment Dialogue for Australia’s Children. She steps into the role with a strong focus on building capacity, refining strategy and ensuring that children’s wellbeing remains central to system reform.