Akeshia Dart, the drug and alcohol team leader at Tamworth Aboriginal Medical Service, has been awarded the Rebecca Gregory Indigenous Scholarship by the Australian Institute of Management NSW and ACT.

The scholarship will go towards the costs of a diploma in management and governance for Miss Dart.

She hopes the course will “well-round” her by giving her a background in management and governance, given her role as drug and alcohol team leader is her first management position after coming from a clinical background in mental health.

Miss Dart hit the ground running when taking on her new role in August – the drug and alcohol program had not been running for the previous two years, meaning she had to rebuild it from the ground up.

Last year she got the program in order and will begin staff recruitment shortly, with the program to kick off up to six weeks after that.

She said a challenge she would face was that her main responsibility would be to not only the individual clients, but also the service and the program.

But management has been something she has always wanted to do.

“I’ve always had that leadership drive,” Miss Dart said.