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Today, we continue the conversation with the first ever female AFL Grand Final Umpire.\\xa0 Chelsea Roffey recounts the goosebump-worthy moment in 2012 when thousands of fans at Melbourne Cricket Ground cheered her on for her presence on the field as the historical female first in sport. \\xa0

She may always have been sporty yet she started out as an aspiring musician with a scholarship at the Queensland Conservatorium and transitioned into journalism due to her love of language and communication.\\xa0

As a Churchill Fellow exploring \\u201csocial change that enables girls to be authors of their own lives\\u201d, she\\u2019s gone on to be a Gender & Diversity Facilitator, a journalist, a speaker and an author. It\\u2019s her experiences as female in a non-traditional domain however that revealed the untapped potential for driving performance through diversity.

Creating an online program to help businesses climb out of Covid-19 on \\u201cHow to Attract and Retain Greater Diversity\\u201d, she seems to constantly be creating new and different ways to contribute to society.\\xa0

The Goods on Chelsea:

Gender and diversity facilitator | Churchill Fellow | First female AFL Grand Final umpire

Born in South Australia, raised in Queensland and cultured in Melbourne,\\xa0 an innate interest in uncharted territory lured me to the intrepid world of goal umpiring at age 17. In my youth, moustached middle-aged men in overcoats were as much a fixture of Australian football as meat pies and yelling "Ball!" for holding decisions.

No moustache ... no problem! Jumping head-first into waving the flags for gender equality, it became evident that playing to my strengths would enable me to thrive. Lived experience has since proved the nature of diversity of thinking to drive both individual and collective performance.

In 2012 I became the first woman to umpire an AFL Grand Final. But the true breakthrough was becoming the first umpire in history to be cheered (yes, cheered!) by the crowd ahead of that epic battle between Sydney and Hawthorn.

Before my weekend hobby became a profession, I was an aspiring musician, having received an academic scholarship to study a Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium. Following a stint studying biomedical science, I switched to journalism, combining a love of language and communication with the adrenaline-charged life of AFL football.

I have explored themes of culture, equality and performance in a range of forums; including as an invited guest of the APEC Women's Leadership Forum in Beijing, the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, and during a Winston Churchill Fellowship, visiting the US, Canada, UK, Sweden and India.

Pioneering the role of women in a non-traditional domain, my experiences have alerted me to the untapped potential in driving performance through diversity.

Contact Chelsea:

\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0LinkedIn: @chelsearoffey

\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0Website: www.chelsearoffey.com.au

\\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0 \\xa0Diversity Program: www.firstinfield.com.au

Go to http://www.bit.ly/InTheGamePodcast to become part of this growing community of DREAMERS!\\xa0