About Sandra

Sandra Surace (DipT, B(Ed), MAPP) is an award-winning teacher and leader with 20+ years’ experience from Kindergarten to Year 8. Sandra has held Year Level, SRC, Sustainability and Wellbeing Leadership roles and most recently was in a role as ‘Capabilities, Student and Community Wellbeing Leader’ as well as a classroom teacher. Sandra is currently an Education Consultant for a National Youth Mental Health Foundation.

An exceptional educator, Sandra was awarded the ‘School Coordinator of the Year’ award by the City of Kingston (2014 & 2015), the’ Outstanding Contribution’ Award by City of Kingston (2016) and was a Finalist in the ‘Resource Smart Teacher of the Year’ awards by the Victorian Government (2016).

Sandra holds a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from Melbourne University with first class honours. Her love of learning, coupled with her ability to view different perspectives, led to her being invited back to the University of Melbourne as a mentor for students in the Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree program as well as a professional assessor in the undergraduate Positive Psychology stream.

In order to share her work and support others further, Sandra developed a snapshot of classroom applications which she presented at the PESA National (Victoria) and State Conferences. She has specialised on how to apply the principles of Positive Psychology for classroom management and engagement. She has further translated her work into the broader workspace and led presentations for team leaders and managers on the applications of Positive Psychology for the development of team cohesion and maintaining wellbeing in their fast-paced world for companies such as PMI (Project Management Institute) Melbourne.

Sandra has many years of experience in the corporate world and ran her own business, whilst raising her four children. As a mother of four, she understands the demands of parenting, teaching and juggling life’s priorities.

Sandra’s passion is in empowering others with the skills to know themselves and others better in support of their own life challenges and positive personal journey.