Nelly Mohibi
Growing up an Afghan refugee in Pakistan, Nelly moved to Australia at the age of nine. As a daughter of two teachers, she knew she would follow in their footsteps.
In 2019, Nelly began teaching in the community services subjects at Chisholm, focusing on teaching students about identifying and responding to family violence risk.
She teaches two units in the Bachelor of Community Mental Health, Alcohol and Other Drugs.
In 2018, her young son was diagnosed with cancer. This led to Nelly’s involvement in many childhood cancer advocacy groups. She is a Committee Adviser for the Children’s Cancer CoLab and the Hudson Institute of Medical Research. At Monash Health, she helps migrant women who have cared for a child with cancer.
Nelly’s passion for teaching has had a positive impact on her students, colleagues and the community. Her students rated her an average of 4.84 out five for her teaching. She scored a full five stars from her entire class for her concern for students’ learning, how her feedback improved learning, and setting tasks that challenged students to learn.
Nelly provides a diverse, inclusive and supportive learning environment. She caters to students from all backgrounds, including those with sensory challenges. Before every class, she wheels a trolley of resources and sensory toys into the classroom, for students.
She also loves to make students laugh. ‘I teach very heavy content, but I think it's also important to see the humour in things — to bring some positivity and light back into our days,’ says Nelly.
Always going above and beyond, Nellie developed a training handout to help her team use MyChisholm pages. She also took the lead in organising Chisholm’s International Women’s Day event for the past few years.
Nelly was included in a children’s book about moving from Afghanistan to Australia, We came to Australia looking for Freedom. She has always spoken out about social justice, gender equity and family violence.
She is currently studying a Master of Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Nelly won the 2025 Chisholm Education Awards Educator of the Year.