Emily Caska, Chief Executive Officer

With over 20 years of executive experience across the disability, child protection, and aged care sectors in Australia and abroad, Emily is poised to lead Playgroup NSW into its next chapter of growth and transformation.

Having served in a variety of high impact roles, including CEO of Down Syndrome NSW, Founder of the Down Syndrome Institute, Policy Director at National Disability Services, and Deputy CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Hong Kong, Emily’s background reflects strategic acumen, deep sector expertise and a passion for supporting inclusive, person centred approaches. Emily also holds significant advisory positions, including Co-Chair of the NSW Child and Family Supports Alliance.

Emily’s journey is rooted in her values and brings a deeply grounded approach to leadership focused on inclusion and genuine community connection.  Underpinning Emily’s passion is her lived experience as sibling to her sister Lucy, who has severe intellectual disability, as well as her own playgroup engagement with her son Otis.

Across the breadth of community, first nations, intergenerational, disability and regional and remote offerings at Playgroup NSW, Emily’s vision is to foster connection, inclusion, and play based learning as essential foundations to improve child outcomes, enhance peer to peer and community networks, and increase parenting capacity.

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Kellie Murray, Executive Lead, First Nations

Kellie Murray is a Wiradjuri woman from Wagga Wagga and a mother to three boys. She has been in Wagga since she was born, and loves working in the community. Kellie has always been in Aboriginal community services and education roles and it is a great passion of hers. At Playgroup NSW we run Aboriginal Supported Playgroups in the Wagga community. We provide not only early education but a full holistic approach to social and emotional wellbeing for our families. We work with a range of services who come out to our playgroups and provide not only outreach services but build connections with our families. We also work with our local schools to provide support and connections for our families with children who are getting ready to transition into kindergarten. 

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