Solomon Islands School Certificate – Selwyn College (1976 – 1980), Pacific Certificate – Form 6, King George VI Secondary School, Honiara, Solomon Islands (1981), Bachelor of Arts – (Administration and History Politics) University of the South Pacific (USP) Suva, Fiji (1982 – 1985); Certificate in Project Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Centre for Pacific Development and Training, Sydney, Australia
Ethel retired as a senior public servant in 2019, after 33 years of service in the Solomon Islands Public Service. For seventeen of those years, she was a Permanent Secretary (PS) serving in a total of six ministries including:
• Ministry of Women, Youth & Sports (May 2002 - February 2003
• Ministry of Home Affairs (February 2003 - July 2004).
• Ministry of National Unity, Reconciliation and Peace (July 2004 - February 2006).
• Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (February 2006 - March 2007).
• Ministry of Women, Youth, Children and Family Affairs (March 2007 to June 2017).
• Ministry of Justice & Legal Affairs (June 2017-July 31st, 2019)
Under Ethel’s leadership some of Solomon Island’s key social policy advances have been achieved including adoption by the government of the Gender Equality and Women’s Development Policy; the Eliminating Violence against Women Policy; the National Strategy for Women’s Economic Empowerment; the National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security; the National Youth Policy; and the National Children’s Policy.

Since retiring Ethel has continued to undertake consultancy work and has progressed into other areas of government and community development. In her consultancy work she applies strategic thinking with an ability to take initiatives and provide oversight. In her public service life, she maximized leadership opportunities to influence gender equality, youth empowerment and child protection outcomes across the Solomon Islands with some notable results. For example, she was responsible for driving the significant policy shift from a women in development (WID) approach which focuses solely on women to a gender and development (GAD) approach which recognizes that the status of women and girls can only improve if the systemic and systematic barriers between women and men are addressed, and gender inequality is redressed. She continues these endeavours in her current consultancy practice.

Ethel has worked with HRDA on reviewing the Solomon Islands National Strategic Health Plan.