Summary
A proud Wakka Wakka woman, Rica Lacey believes the discipline and resilience she has acquired throughout her life and career have placed her in good stead to reach a new set of goals for First Nations people.
The long winding drive down the Great Dividing Range can be daunting at night, but for Rica Lacey it offered her the chance to reflect and focus on her goals.
Every Thursday after work at Darling Downs Health, Ms Lacey would make the journey from Toowoomba to Brisbane to further her studies – all while working full-time at Queensland Health and raising five children.
Goal setting and success have been key themes throughout Ms Lacey’s career – from her days as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker, until now as the first ever Chief Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Officer.
“Every time I was driving down the range, while studying an Executive Master in Business at QUT, I would just think: 15-year-old me would never imagine this is my life,” she said.
“At no time while I was younger, did I see my life going in this direction. I still pinch myself now doing that drive. I never imagined I would be chief anything, working in Charlotte Street (Brisbane).
“When things got tough working, studying and being a parent, I questioned if one day it would all be worth it.
Today, I know the sacrifice and hard work was worth it.
In her new role, Ms Lacey will provide professional leadership across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce, which includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health practitioners, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health workers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Liaison Officers.
A proud Wakka Wakka woman, Ms Lacey believes the discipline and resilience she has acquired throughout her life and career have placed her in good stead to reach a new set of goals for First Nations people.
“I haven’t always had an easy life – there’s been some pretty rough patches,” she said.
“But I think I’m resilient. I think it’s something from childhood that I developed that I think really helped me now.
“We live in a world where it’s not always yes. People have very different views and opinions on a lot of different things. You need to be able to be resilient in the fact that you don’t stop and give up, but you find another way to do it.”
Ms Lacey’s goals include creating further understanding around the First Nations workforce within Queensland Health and the different services it offers.
She wants others at Queensland Health to have the opportunities she has had and to show her colleagues that they can achieve their goals too – even while studying and raising children.
“One of the things I tell my kids all the time is that the best feeling in the world is setting a goal and reaching it,” she said.
“The opportunity for me to progress my career as an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker was limited. When I started at Queensland Health in 2012, there were no career pathways. The job you were employed to do was your job for life, and it was very hard to progress anywhere.
So, it’s a really exciting opportunity to establish our workforce for the future.
When asked how she balances so much while also achieving her goals, Ms Lacey said the secret is to be kind to yourself.
“It's OK to do things for yourself,” she said.
“You’re a person too. It took me a long time to learn how to say no to people who wanted me to do things for them.
“You have to put yourself first. Not all the time of course, but to find work/life balance you have to put yourself first sometimes.”
She plans to bring that mentality with her in her new role in Brisbane.