Our Governance

Interim Chairperson

Donnella Mills is a proud Torres Strait Islander woman with ancestral and family links to Masig and Nagir. She was elected Deputy Chair of NACCHO in 2017 and then served as Chair since 2018. In those eight years, the sector’s caseload has grown by 40 per cent, and funding has increased substantially. She has been the driving force of improved governance arrangements within NACCHO and the delivery of 19 governance workshops for the sector and its 148 boards as well as an intensive developmental program for new and emerging CEOs.

In 2025 Donnella Mills was heavily involved with the establishment of the Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence new peak body Our Ways Strong Together and was elected Interim Chair. In 2026 Donnella Mills was appointed Lead Convenor of the Coalition of Peaks and Co-Chair of the Joint Council on Closing the Gap.

She serves on the Council of James Cook University, her alma mater. From 2014 to 2021, she managed an innovative Health Justice Partnership in Cairns with LawRight and, in 2020-21, she served as the Partnerships Director at Health Justice Australia. In August 2021, as a lawyer she was appointed Senior Associate, First Nations Lead at international law firm, King & Wood Mallesons. In 2025 she was appointed a member of the Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee.
From when it was established in June 2021, she was on the Advisory Group on the development of the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children and was also the Deputy Chair of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence.
She has a long history supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled health services in Cairns and is currently a Director of the Board of Kambu Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporation for Health.

She signed the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and also has a deep personal commitment to the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. She has been involved in the work of the Coalition of Peaks since its inception, attending the Joint Council, the Justice Policy Partnership, the Early Childhood Care and Development Policy Partnership, the Data Policy Partnership and the Priority Reform 3 Advisory Group and was a member of the Steering Committee tasked with designing the inaugural First Nations Assembly. She has worked with stakeholders in all jurisdictions and regularly presents to senior leaders of the Public Service at ANZSOG and NIAA/PM&C events, focusing on the implementation of the National Agreement.

Interim Director

Muriel Bamblett is a Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Taungurung, Boon Wurrung Elder and has led VACCA as CEO since 1999. Muriel is also Chairperson of SNAICC, the peak body
representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander child and family services nationally.

Muriel is currently active in over 30 advisory groups concerning the Aboriginal community, including the Treaty Elders’ Voice Group; Victorian Children’s Council; Aboriginal Justice Forum and the Aboriginal Community Elders Service, to name just a few. Muriel was heavily involved in the Northern Territory Child Protection Inquiry from 2009-11.

Muriel’s work has been recognised with many awards, including the Order of Australia; NAIDOC Person of the Year; Centenary of Federation Medal; Robin Clark Memorial Award for Inspirational Leadership in the Field of Child and Family Welfare; Women’s Electoral Lobby Inaugural Vida Goldstein Award; and Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

In 2009, Muriel was made an Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Work and Social Policy La Trobe University. In 2017, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in Social Work by the University of Sydney in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Aboriginal child and family welfare.