Profile
Kara Baxter, Deputy Principal - Learning and Teaching at Strathcona Girls Grammar, is a forward-thinking educational leader recognised for translating ambitious ideas into meaningful and sustainable change. Over the past 12 months, Kara has led initiatives advancing teaching, learning, professional growth and innovation within the school and across the broader education sector.
Kara’s leadership spans whole-school strategy, teaching and learning, leadership development and innovation. She has contributed to Strathcona’s Strategic Plan while strengthening professional growth through coaching, collaborative inquiry and the Unstoppable eXperts professional learning model.
As part of her vision for future-focused education, Kara has led interdisciplinary curriculum programs, enrichment opportunities and digital transformation. Through the CORAL and AI Lab, Innovation Collective, STEM programs and AI literacy framework, she has helped position Strathcona as a school where creativity, curiosity and emerging technologies are integrated with academic excellence and wellbeing.
Kara creates opportunities for students to have a voice in innovation and engage with authentic, real-world challenges, including through industry collaborations with HP and Intel and expanded experiences in STEM, robotics and emerging technologies.
“Innovation is most powerful when we create the conditions for students and educators to have a voice, think boldly, take risks and shape what comes next,” she says.
Beyond Strathcona, Kara contributes to educational leadership through ACEL Victoria, conferences, professional forums and writing, and is a contributing author to Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools: From Control to Curiosity. Her leadership combines strategic vision, relational trust and a commitment to developing people, positioning her as an influential whole-school and sector leader.
34 Scott Street, Canterbury, VIC 3126
8779 7500
kbaxter@strathcona.vic.edu.au
linkedin.com/in/kara-baxter-198a85108/
strathcona.vic.edu.au/
Kara Baxter
Deputy Principal - Learning and Teaching
Strathcona Girls Grammar
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Bio
Milestones
2014–2018
2018–2020
2021–2022
2023–2024
2024–Present
Head of Humanities and Commerce at Mentone Grammar
2014–2018
Head of Teaching and Learning 7-12 at Mentone Grammar
2018–2020
Deputy Principal - Teaching and Learning at John Paul College
2021–2022
Dean of Teaching and Learning P-12 at Strathcona Girls Grammar
Named in Hot List 2024
2023–2024
Deputy Principal - Learning and Teaching at Strathcona Girls Grammar
Named in Hot List 2025
2024–Present
Milestones
“I know this seems pretty simple, but [my philosophy] is always doing what’s right for clients and not what is best for me”
Collin Bruce,
Dominion Lending Centres
“I had to crawl my way out of debt and build up my mortgage business. I never forget that feeling, and I try to never take a new lead for granted. Every deal counts”
Collin Bruce,
Dominion Lending Centres
The professional philosophy that underpins all of it is strikingly basic – and Bruce knows it. “I know this seems pretty simple,” he says, “but always doing what’s right for clients and not what is best for me. I never have to worry about something coming back to me from a previous client.”
He has helped clients through years-long credit rehabilitation without earning a cent along the way. He has never placed a client in a product he wasn’t prepared to fully stand behind. The result is a practice built on trust generating its own momentum: repeat business and referrals that arrive without prompting, from clients who know the difference between a broker who serves them and one who services a transaction.
In Alberta, where Bruce has built a particularly strong market presence, his name is amplified by a heavy advertising campaign across television and radio – channels he values not simply for reach but for credibility. The ads, he notes, help legitimize him in a market where clients are choosing who to trust with some of the largest financial decisions of their lives. Alongside that visibility, he has cultivated deep relationships with builders and financial planners, creating a diversified pipeline of leads that insulates the business against the inevitable swings of the rate cycle.
The operational side of the business has evolved with equal deliberateness. The appointment of a dedicated ‘Director of Wow’ – a role conceived to ensure every client interaction exceeds expectation – and the adoption of Dominion Lending Centres’ Gold Rush CRM platform have together driven a meaningful uplift in repeat client business over the past year.
The present year of 2026 brings its own complexities. With clients emerging from a period of historically low rates and confronting sharply higher mortgage costs, Bruce has tilted his focus toward refinancing – helping existing borrowers navigate a transition that, for many, has been genuinely painful. He is also investing in AI tools to sharpen lead generation and streamline internal processes, a measured embrace of technology from someone who has never confused efficiency with the thing it is meant to serve.