Clare Brennan
Snapshot:
Industry / Sector: Community Services, Health, Not-For-Profits
Career Type: Employed
Education Pathway: University
Mid Coast Connection: Moved to the Mid Coast
The Blurb:
Clare Brennan is the Centre Director at First Steps Count, a child and community hub in Taree supporting children aged 0 to 12 and their families. With a background in speech pathology, Clare has built a career on communication, compassion, and community impact.
Her journey has taken her from city-based clinical practice to regional leadership, and she now works at the heart of a vital support network. Clare shares how listening deeply, changing direction with confidence, and showing up authentically have defined her path.
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Current Role: Director of First Steps Count, leading an integrated hub supporting children and families.
Career Path: Started as a speech pathologist, transitioned into community leadership and program development.
Key Skills: Communication, authentic engagement, stakeholder management, adaptability.
Challenges Shared: Evolving from problem-solver to collaborative supporter, building a major community project, juggling work and family life.
What She Loves: Flexibility to be present with her family, working with diverse people, making a real impact in her community.
Advice to Younger Self: Don’t be afraid to change direction; life has different stages and risks are worth taking.
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“Communication has always been something that I have valued.”
“It’s actually more effective to work alongside people, to walk with them.”
“Don’t be frightened to change direction.”
“The next day is a new day… accept the challenge in front of you.”
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[0:10] Intro
Hi, my name is Hailey. Welcome to the Human Library video series. In this video series, we interview people from the local community and hear their stories.
Today we met with Clare Brennan. She’s the Centre Director for First Steps Count. She also used to work as a speech pathologist. Today, Clare tells us all about her skill of communication and how it has helped her throughout her career.
[0:39] What does your professional life look like at the moment?
So, my professional life has come a long way over the last 15 to 20 years. Starting out as a speech pathologist, working in a variety of settings, my career took a different direction. Now, having moved from the city to the country, I’ve taken on an amazingly challenging role in Taree, opening an integrated hub for our community that caters to children aged 0 to 12 and enhances access to health and social supports so that our children can have better outcomes. So, while I started in one place, I have moved through a series of different jobs and have arrived at this amazing leadership opportunity in this community.
[1:36] Could you please tell us about a skill that’s helped you get to where you are?
The skill that I think has helped me get to where I am would be communication—which sounds like a really broad word and could probably be unpacked a little bit. But communication has always been something that I have valued, which probably led to why I wanted to be a speech and language pathologist in the first place.
For me in this current role and where my professional life has arrived, it’s been about creating genuine and authentic relationships with people, and actively listening and being present to support a team or to support relationships or networks that need to be formed to build this project that we’ve been working on. So, communication would be that skill.
[2:30] Is there a specific time where communication has really helped you?
I would say that the last three years in holding this role—certainly as Director of First Steps Count Child and Community Centre—I’m in a position where I need to maintain and form ongoing relationships with multiple stakeholders.
So the ability to communicate clearly, but importantly to be really present in the moment and to actively engage with people and actively listen so that we can solve problems, work through issues, and overcome challenges. It’s taken a lot of learning for me—I’ve learned along the way—but I would suggest that just bringing this project to life has meant I’ve needed to use really strong communication skills.
[3:26] What do you love about the work you’re doing at the moment?
The thing that I love most about my work at the moment is working in a position that offers me the flexibility and the autonomy to be able to have a small family at the same time, but also to have the opportunity to work with such a diverse range of stakeholders.
Not only with service providers and professionals in our community, but importantly with families and with children who bring so much joy, despite living in situations or circumstances that might present challenges at times. And that is why I get out of bed in the morning—to be able to come and engage with people in our community and hopefully have a positive impact on their lives.
[4:13] Why is it important to you to have this positive impact on people’s lives?
In my journey through university and in my career, I’ve always been driven by wanting to help people. And when I say help people, I’ve learned that the meaning of helping people has changed and evolved for me. In my past, as a speech pathologist, I was very goal-driven and wanted to understand what someone’s problem was and then work towards fixing that problem.
Over time, through my experiences and learning from other people in my life, I’ve learned that it’s actually more effective to work alongside people, to walk with them and support them to overcome whatever it is that’s going on in their lives. I think that’s probably one of the main drivers for me—that I’ve always had it within me that I wanted to work in that kind of environment.
[5:23] What is one piece of advice you would give your younger self?
One piece of advice I would give my younger self is to not be frightened to change direction. If you get to a point in life where you think, “Oh no, I’m not doing what I said I was going to do when I finished school,” or you’re worried about trying something new—just know that life has different stages, and to have the courage to know that it’s going to be okay if you consider the situation. Just don’t be frightened to take a risk.
[6:04] What do you think it would have meant to your younger self if you had heard this advice?
If I’d heard this advice when I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have sweated the small stuff so much. I would have recognized that I didn’t need to put so much pressure on myself at an early age or a younger age. And that in life, we’re supposed to make mistakes—it’s a matter of having the strategies and the skills to be able to overcome that. The next day is a new day, and to move forward and accept the challenge in front of you.
Please note: All content is correct at the time of recording.
