Ms Jenny Gale has had a 43 year career in in the public service, having started in education teaching mathematics at Queechy High School and working across primary, secondary and senior secondary schools as a teacher and principal for 22 years, before being promoted to the position of director, Office for Educational Review in 2000.

Since then Ms Gale has worked in a number of senior leadership roles in education supporting schools, developing and implementing school improvement frameworks; leading the development of the Tasmanian Curriculum, including assessment standards and reporting; and on behalf of the Tasmanian Government, negotiating national education policy and strategy. Ms Gale was Acting Secretary of the Department of Education between 2010 and 2011.

Following a time out of the workforce, Ms Gale returned to serve as the Deputy Premier’s Chief of Staff in 2014 and 2015. Ms Gale was appointed Secretary of the Department of Education in January 2016. Her professional goals included improving educational outcomes in Tasmania so that more young people stay in education and training for longer and achieve more; ensuring that the Department of Education leads and contributes strongly to whole of Government priorities; and supporting a high quality workforce to drive innovation in lifelong education and information services to benefit all Tasmanians.

Ms Gale was appointed as Secretary of DPAC and Head of the State Service in November 2017.