Isabelle Reinecke

Executive Director and Founder

Isabelle is a prominent leader successfully driving system change on the critical issues of our time, helping build a fairer, safer and more inclusive Australia. 

In 2017, Isabelle founded Grata Fund, a leading not-profit based at the University of NSW that acts as a campaigner, litigation incubator and funder for people and communities challenging systemic gridlocks across three key areas: human rights, climate injustice and democratic freedoms. 

As Executive Director of Grata, she leads the strategy and collaboration with some of the nation’s top legal minds, civil society organisations and community advocates to support and design cases to advance and protect rights and freedoms. Grata has incubated numerous landmark cases that have set significant precedents and shifted the dial on important subjects, from challenging climate change injustice, to exposing abuse in offshore refugee detention centres, and establishing new rights to humane housing in remote First Nations communities. She has helped facilitate over $2M in philanthropic case funding from passionate supporters. Prior, Isabelle had more than 10 years’ experience as a director and lawyer at organisations including Getup, Immigration Advice and Rights Centre, and as a solicitor at Clayton Utz, where she acted for First Nations clients seeking stolen wages reparations in remote East Kimberley.

Isabelle is the author of Courting Power: Law Democracy and the Public Interest in Australia and an expert in the intersection of the law, politics and power. As Australian communities evolve, Isabelle helps government, law makers and decision makers understand key societal shifts in values and expectations and speed up change to avoid the civil unrest and inequalities that impact other countries. She is known globally for influencing the way the law, civil society and social movements work together to create a fairer world. 

Isabelle was named the 2022 Emerging NFP Leader in Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, is a Churchill Fellow, and the 2021 Women's Leadership Institute of Australia Fellow, awarded to women "who are leaders in their respective fields, women who have innovative approaches and the courage, conviction and capacity to create real change". She also serves as a director of Project Planet, co-founded by Tegan Lerm and Lizzie Hedding, to help people turn climate concern into real world action.

A mum of one, she is also part of the big conversations about providing more support for working mothers and female leaders.

Dr Aunty McRose Elu 

First Nations Cultural Advisor

Rodney Dillon 

First Nations Cultural Advisor

Rodney is a proud Palawa Elder from Tasmania and the Indigenous Rights Advisor for Amnesty International. He is on the Voice Referendum Working Group, Chair of the TAS Heritage Council, Chair Pakana Services, Co-chair of Weetapoona and a former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commissioner (ATSIC) for Tasmania.

He has been a lifelong advocate for Indigenous People’s rights, particularly fishing and hunting rights, repatriation of Indigenous people's remains and the rights of people to live on their traditional homelands. Rodney was Tasmanian nominee for 2011 Australian of the Year, 2006 NAIDOC male Person of the Year and presented the 2013 Human Rights Individual Award at the Tasmanian Human Rights Awards.

Maria Nawaz

General Counsel

Maria is a human rights lawyer with expertise in human rights, discrimination law, women’s rights and strategic litigation.

Since joining Grata in 2019, Maria has led Grata’s legal work in incubating and supporting strategic litigation in the areas of human rights, climate justice and democracy. Maria also focuses on removing barriers to public interest litigation, and led work to reform the adverse cost system for federal discrimination claims so victim-survivors of sexual harassment and discrimination can have their day in court.

Maria was previously a Lecturer at UNSW Law and the Law Reform and Policy Solicitor at Kingsford Legal Centre. She has also worked at Legal Aid NSW and the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.

Maria is a member of the Law Society of NSW’s Human Rights Committee and is an Advisory Group member for the Australian Climate Accountability Project.

Belinda Lowe

Director of Campaigns and Communications

Belinda is a human rights specialist with over 10 years experience building and winning human rights campaigns. She has worked across a variety of human rights issues including Indigenous justice, LGBTQI rights, death penalty, people seeking asylum, freedom of association and assembly and workers rights.

Before joining the Grata Fund, Belinda worked at Amnesty International Australia as an Indigenous Rights Campaigner, Media Adviser and activism and mobilisation specialist. During this time she led a campaign to reduce the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in Australian prisons with a particular focus on alternatives to prison, conditions of detention raising the age of criminal responsibility. This work included human rights investigations that exposed abuses against children in the Western Australia Banksia Hill prison which garnered national attention and led to changes in prison and departmental practices.

Belinda has also worked on the campaign to prevent the executions of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia, the 2017 marriage equality postal vote and the campaign to prevent the lashing of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi.

Belinda initiated Amnesty International Australia’s Human Rights Observer program, built an online rapid response network, led the development of the global nonviolent direct action guide and pioneered direct networking between human rights activists in the Asia Pacific.

Prior to her work at Amnesty, Belinda worked in the union movement for the Community and Public Sector Union and a range of other human rights, environmental and public health campaigns.

Belinda holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies. She is currently studying for a Graduate Certificate in Political Economy.

Hannah Foster

Head of Philanthropy

Hannah is a former lawyer with over a decade of experience working in philanthropy. She has experience in leading teams, operations, and securing and stewarding multi-million dollar partnerships for for-purpose organisations in both Australia and the UK. In 2020, Hannah completed McKinsey & Co’s Executive Leadership Program thanks to a scholarship from ACOSS.

Hannah is a member of the Advisory Board of The EastWeb Fund, a grant-making sub-fund of Australian Communities Foundation. Hannah has previously volunteered with Reprieve, supporting indigent defendants on death row in the USA. While working as a solicitor at King & Wood Mallesons, Hannah also volunteered with the National Children's and Youth Law Centre and the Homeless Persons’ Legal Clinic (now Justice Connect). Hannah is a passionate writer with her non fiction being published in a range of publications including Delicious, Australian Traveller and Gippsland Country Life magazine and her fiction being longlisted for The Richell Prize in 2020. Hannah lives with her partner and daughter in Melbourne’s inner north.

Ayesha Slater

Head of Operations

Ayesha is a proud Yirrigandji, saltwater woman and an operations leader dedicated to transforming how organisations operate in the impact space. For over a decade, she has built resilient operating models that enable organisations to scale, achieve operational excellence, and embed cultural integrity into their structures. Her expertise lies in strategic operations, business operations, and large-scale business transformations for not-for-profits and social enterprises.

What motivates Ayesha is the belief that organisations can walk the talk when working with Indigenous peoples if their organisational design genuinely embodies the values of the people they serve. Ayesha’s work has shaped organisations tackling critical issues such as Indigenous youth employment equity, cultural fire and land management enterprise development, Indigenous entrepreneurship, and BIPOC Queer inclusion. She is honoured to have worked with First Nations people from across the world, supporting communities to be leaders in their self-autonomy.

Courtney Law

Senior Solicitor (Strategic Litigation) 

Ruby Mitchell

Senior Campaigner

Ruby Mitchell is a filmmaker, graphic designer and communications professional.

Ruby grew up in Moruya, on Brinja-Yuin and Walbunja Country on the far south coast of NSW and first picked up a camera at the age of 8 to secretly film her Mother’s tupperware party. Since then Ruby has always been fascinated by people and helping them tell their stories. She has now grown her services and specialises in documentary filmmaking, digital content creation and communications strategy. After completing a Bachelor of Communications at UTS and Cert IV in Graphic Design, Ruby went onto work as a Journalist at the ABC creating content for radio, television and print.

In 2020, Ruby established a small business dedicated to providing affordable and ethical videography, training and media services to community organisations and NGOs. She has also worked as a Communications Manager for a First Nations non-for-profit and has ample experience working alongside young people and vulnerable communities. Her most recent project include a feature-length documentary following young people in a bushfire recovery program in regional NSW.

Madeleine Burkitt

Senior Campaigner

Madeleine Burkitt is a campaigner and digital communications specialist with more than six years' experience across economic justice, climate and environmental justice, democracy, and human rights issue areas.

She has worked at GetUp, where she led campaigns to reform Australia’s punitive welfare system, advocating to raise the rate of income support and abolish privatised employment services, and during the 2022 Federal Election. Prior to this, Madeleine worked at Greenpeace, where she worked across climate justice, renewables, and ocean protection campaigns. Madeleine began her career at SCARF Refugee Support as a Communications Officer, a community organisation that still has her heart. She has recently joined Equity Evolution — a collaborative network aimed at reducing systemic inequities within workplaces and in the wider community — as a founding co-creator. 

Madeleine lives and works on Gadigal land in Sydney, where she enjoys illustrating and dreaming about one day having a veggie patch.

Karli Smith

Philanthropy Coordinator

Karli is a human rights advocate, climate activist and status-quo-challenger. She brings over 15 years experience in human rights spaces including international humanitarian aid and local level systems change advocacy. She spent 10 years within the International Non-Government sector in roles spanning philanthropy, resource development, policy and advocacy, and support to innovative social accountability frameworks that held governments answerable for human rights violations.

After the birth of her two children, she cultivated a lived understanding of human rights issues within Australia's health system and consulted as a childbirth advocate for many years, particularly addressing the impacts on citizens' rights throughout public health crises. Having worked across international borders and with individuals at her local community level, Karli is deeply passionate about creating structural changes that address systemic injustices. She believes this is best done when we all work together toward collective change, and is thrilled to bring this sense of collectivism to support and grow Grata's philanthropic partners and individual givers.

Karli holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies, and a Masters Degree in Human Rights Law. She lives and plays on Bunurong/Boon Wurrung Country on the beautiful Mornington Peninsula and enjoys bushwalks, surfing and engaging deeply in her local community.

Elena McNiece

Junior Campaigner

Elena is a gardener, campaigner and Canva enthusiast.

Before joining Grata Fund, Elena worked at Marrickville Legal Centre and at the Community Empowerment Fund. She was also an intern to the executive vice president of Duke University to design policies to help achieve carbon neutrality by 2024. She had her start as a vocal youth advocate in instituting recycling processes for the Alachua County school system. Outside of her work at Grata, Elena spends her time working in NSW public schools and at the Addi Road Food Pantry.

Elena lives and works on Gadigal land where she enjoys birdwatching, going for long walks and swimming in the sea.

Inge Bache

Executive Assistant

Inge is a human rights, politics, and language enthusiast with a particular interest in the Asia-Pacific region and Australia’s place within it. After university, she was the external relations intern at the UN Refugee Agency’s Regional Representation in Canberra and later spent two years working for the office in external relations, communications, and public information.

She holds a Bachelor in International Relations (Honours Class I) from the University of New England in Global Politics & Peace and Japanese language. Following experience with Cambodian non-profits, her honours thesis used role theory to analyse the political tactics China adopts to justify its foreign aid, investment, and influence in Cambodia.

In her spare time, she is a student at the Jeju Korean Language Centre and a pastry fanatic.

Also:

Our Patron and Board

Our Advisory Council

Contact us