Diletta Lanciana – Executive Manager, Children’s Services
Driven by her passion to help support and empower individuals to be the best they can be, Diletta Lanciana spent the earlier part of her career as a social worker in various roles supporting community health, aged care and young mums in the Yarra Valley.
Dilettta then turned her focus to early childhood, gaining extensive experience in leadership roles at Kids on Collins and Little Flyers. Diletta is a strong advocate for the importance of the early years in children’s development and believes that all children should have equal opportunities for learning. She feels privileged to be part of Cire, ‘an innovative and inspiring organisation, committed to providing flexible learning environments for the community across all ages and abilities’.
“It is hugely rewarding to be part of Cire and see children and individuals develop lifelong skills.”
Amanda Quilty – Director, Outside School Hours Care (OSHC)
With a career spanning more than 26 years in the early childhood sector, Amanda Quilty has gained much experience across a broad range of age groups and as a co-ordinator of outside of school hours care (OSHC). Amanda is passionate about her role as Director of the Children’s Centre at Mt Evelyn and recently completed her Bachelor of Education in Early Childhood. She finds it extremely rewarding to see the growth and development of all the individual children that she has helped educate.
“Working for Cire allows me to give back to the community in which I live and work.”
Melissa Saaghy Walsh – Director, Cire Children’s Centre Yarra Junction and Cire Children’s Services Compliance
Drawing on a diverse career spanning more than 20 years in the children’s services sector, Melissa Saaghy-Walsh is the Director of Compliance at Cire Children’s Services.
Melissa’s core responsibility is to oversee and ensure compliance throughout Cire’s OSHC, occasional care and long day care services.
Her previous roles have included working her way up from untrained assistant to leadership positions, and human resources officer and area manager for ABC Learning Centres.
What Melissa finds most rewarding is seeing ‘our local children grow and develop from babies in our nursery room to wonderful, productive members of the community’. Just recently one of those ‘babies’ was a very competent relief teacher for her daughter’s physical education class at primary school!
“I love seeing our local children grow and develop from babies in our nursery room to wonderful, productive members of the community.”
Monica Rafiq – Director of Children’s Services Centre Mount Evelyn
A “love of working with little’ people has steered Monica Rafiq on a rewarding career pathway to become Director of Cire Children’s Services at Mount Evelyn.
“I love working with little people. I am passionate about helping them flourish and mature to eventually become positive members of society, active leaders within their communities, and be complete and content people within themselves,” Monica explains.
To help children reach their maximum potential and be the best they can be, Monica strongly believes that families and educators need to work as a team.
An Early Childhood and Primary School teacher with two sons of her own, Monica has worked in the sector for more than 11 years. She holds an undergraduate degree in Psychology and a postgraduate qualifications in Primary and Early Childhood Teaching.
“My goal at Cire is to create a strong bond and relationship between our early childhood educators, families and the community.”
