Mariane Alcazar is an experienced aged care leader with a 19-year career spanning nursing, quality, and senior management roles across residential care, home care packages, CHSP and carer support. As Quality and Compliance Lead at Spectrum, Mariane drives service excellence through co-designed, person-centred models that promote safety, independence, and cultural responsiveness. She brings a rare blend of clinical insight and business acumen, underpinned by a degree in business and management, enabling her to lead high-performing teams and embed continuous improvement practices. Mariane is passionate about building workforce capability and fostering a positive, values-based culture. She actively mentors emerging leaders and champions sustainable care models that meet the needs of Australia’s ageing and multicultural population. Through ongoing support and leadership training at Spectrum, Mariane has further refined her strategic and collaborative approach, ensuring quality outcomes and compliance across diverse care environments while maintaining a deep commitment to client and carer wellbeing.
Lifting voices: Mentoring and leadership tools for empowering diverse women in aged care
Precis
Lifting Voices: Mentoring and Leadership Tools for Empowering Diverse Women in Aged Care
Women from Culturally and Racially Marginalised (CARM) backgrounds face significant barriers to leadership roles in aged care. Spectrum, an organisation dedicated to multicultural communities, is addressing these disparities by embedding inclusive, progressive strategies that begin with workplace safety and culminate in leadership development for women across all levels of the workforce.
Spectrum employs over 250 staff members from more than 50 cultural backgrounds, many in frontline roles.
These roles, while critical, are often under-recognised and occupied by women who experience compounding layers of marginalisation.
Recognising this, Spectrum is actively developing initiatives that ensure the most underrepresented team members, particularly CARM women in direct care roles, feel safe, valued, and heard at work.
These efforts begin with a focus on psychological and cultural safety: supporting inclusive team environments, encouraging culturally responsive supervision, and improving mechanisms to report and respond to workplace challenges. By building trust and laying this foundation, Spectrum is enabling the first step in a longer journey, one that supports women to move from survival in the workplace toward growth and opportunity.
This progression continues through informal and formal mentoring, peer support models, and leadership development activities. Staff are encouraged to explore their strengths and interests, gain confidence, and pursue training and development opportunities. Leadership potential is nurtured through coaching, reflective practice, and increased visibility of diverse role models, creating a pathway for staff not only to participate but also to lead.
The impact is already visible. Women who began in frontline care roles are stepping into leadership positions, shaping services and mentoring others. Organisational culture is shifting to centre inclusion, and teams are more cohesive, collaborative, and representative of the communities they serve.
This presentation will explore Spectrum’s leadership journey from ensuring safety for the most vulnerable staff to creating conditions for self-actualisation and leadership at higher levels. Delegates will hear about practical strategies that can be adapted to any aged care setting and gain insight into how inclusive leadership development strengthens the sector and improves care outcomes.
Conclusion
By investing in inclusive leadership and starting with the foundational needs of the most marginalised, Spectrum is building a workplace where women from diverse backgrounds can grow, lead, and thrive. This journey, rooted in equity, safety, and empowerment, not only uplifts individuals but enhances the capacity of the entire aged care workforce.