Jessica Smit

Jessica Smit has been a classroom teacher within the Townsville Catholic Education Office Diocese for eight years. She began her teaching career at St Michael’s Catholic School, Palm Island before becoming a founding staff member of St Benedict’s Catholic School, Townsville where she held a number of additional roles including School Board Member, Classroom Profiler, Beginning-Teacher Mentor, and Indigenous Committee Secretary.

Jess also worked alongside the diocese's Indigenous Education Services Team to renew the Pedagogy of Difference project, by transforming key strategies into high-impact support materials for teachers of First Nations students. She successfully graduated from the Stronger Smarter Institute Leadership Program and is passionate about facilitating engaging learning experiences and opportunities within the local community that support Indigenous knowledge. In addition to her role as Project Officer with ATSIMS, Jess recently returned to St Michael's Catholic School, Palm Island in a part-time capacity as the Learning and Teaching Advisor.

In this new position, she will be using a community of practice model to assist in developing, enacting and reviewing processes that improve student learning outcomes. Jess is also currently enrolled in a Master's degree in Educational Leadership; Indigenous Educational Leadership through Australian Catholic University.