Victoria Police Leadership Mentoring Program

The Victoria Police Leadership Mentoring Program was established in 2007 by Rotary Central Melbourne in partnership with Victoria Police.

Over the 15 years, the program has been restructured to include senior officers (stream 1) and senior sergeants (stream 2) and it is regarded by Victoria Police as a highly valued leadership development program.

Acting Inspector Melissa Blair is a participant in stream 2 of the program and she will talk of her work in the Victoria Police Centre of Family Violence Foundation team at the Police Academy.

Melissa’s passion in supporting women commenced very early in her career. In 2015 she was recognised for her continued contribution to women in leadership and was nominated as an Australasian Council of Women and Policing nominee in policing excellence. Melissa created the Eastern Region and the Victoria Police Academy women’s leadership program developing and promoting over 100 women.

Family violence is another passion of Melissa’s (as a survivor of family violence) where she continues to drive positive change and attitudes towards family violence as well as training and enabling police to respond effectively to family violence incidents. She recently completed a Batchelor of Arts with Professional Honours (Specialisation).

Husband Mark and Melissa have eight children, two girls and six boys aged 29 to 15 years. She has two granddaughters and two golden Labradors.

Warwick Cavell is Melissa’s Rotary mentor.