Meet Sudha Maridu who is continuing to blaze a trail – her way!

The Uniting AgeWell Hawthorn Community Residential Services Manager is the first woman in her family to have been educated past Year 10; the first to have gone to university and the first to live outside her homeland, India.

She’s also the first recipient of Uniting AgeWell’s inaugural Imas Thompson Scholarship for Clinical Leadership valued at $15,000. This special scholarship for an existing or emerging clinical leader and honours Imas as an exceptional clinician in her own right who was also the wife of Allan Thompson, previous Board Chair of Uniting AgeWell.

Sudha plans to study her Masters in Business Administration.

“From the very first day I entered Uniting AgeWell I felt supported, encouraged and believed in,” she says. “This organisation and my family have shaped me and helped me to grow into who I am today.”

She was awarded the scholarship at the prestigious AgeWell Awards honouring staff excellence at the end of last year. Sudha dedicated the award to her late father – the person who told her, “You can be anything you want to be in life” and championed her to break the mould when it came to choosing a life not defined by her gender.

It’s International Women’s Day on 8 March and an opportunity to recognise the impact that women, in our Uniting AgeWell family, like Sudha, are continuing to make.

Born in India, Sudha chose to do a degree in Computer Science Engineering, rather than following in her mother’s classical dance footsteps. She worked in expatriate relocation services and developed a hankering to visit Australia. So Sudha took the brave decision to leave her family, including her three siblings, and moved to Australia in 2009 to study her Masters in Accounting at Swinburne University. In order to support herself financially, Sudha started working as a Personal Care Worker at a Catholic aged care organisation in Camberwell.

“I loved it from day one – I developed a huge rapport with older people,” explains Sudha. “The Sisters of St Joseph, who ran the site, told me I was a natural carer and encouraged me to study nursing. I did—and I realised I had found the role, and the passion, I was meant for.

She returned to the Catholic aged care home as a Registered Nurse and was soon appointed in charge of nursing care for 110 residents. She later joined Uniting AgeWell Condare Court at Camberwell as a casual nurse and, within months, progressed to Acting Care Manager and then Care Manager—a role she held for five years. In 2021, she commenced her current position at Hawthorn Community. “I have been with Uniting AgeWell for 11 years and feel incredibly supported by senior management to be the best I can be. Completing my MBA will help me deliver stronger outcomes for the organisation and my site as a leader, while building my knowledge in governance and risk management.”

Sudha, is married and has two children aged 6 and 9, loves gardening, cooking and listening to classical music.

Find out more about careers at Uniting AgeWell.