Meet our team
Allison Burns
Founder & President
Allison Burns is the founder of Bella's Footprints, which was formed in 2015. Bella's footprints is a community-driven, non-profit organisation dedicated to educating, raising awareness, and advocating for change regarding the dangers of button batteries.
Allison is the mother of Isabella Rees, who died at the age of 14 months after ingesting a button battery. Bella was the first child in Victoria and the second in Australia to die from a button battery. Allison made it her mission to share Bella's story in the hope of making significant changes and saving little lives after realising the lack of button battery education and awareness among parents and carers, retailers, manufacturers, and medical professionals in Australia.
Allison's commitment and advocacy in this area were critical in implementing world-first button battery safety laws in Australia in June 2022. Changes to warning labels, updated medical advice and education for all consumers, improved button battery packaging, and secure battery compartments in all household goods are now in place as a result.
Haley Ballingall
Finance Manager
Haley is the current Treasurer of Bella’s Footprints and has been a member of the association since its inception.
Haley is passionate about creating awareness around the dangers of button batteries and was involved in the setup of the foundation.
Haley is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser and has worked with many businesses to assist with their Accounting, Bookkeeping and Advisory needs since 2001.
Lisa Hart
Operations Manger
Lisa is a qualified first aid trainer and a doctor of Chinese medicine. She is dedicated to helping to improve the health and wellbeing of all individuals.
Lisa has a great love for her family, friends and especially the young children in her life.
She is passionate about button battery safety, education and awareness. Lisa is dedicated to helping to protect young families from experiencing unnecessary trauma.
Penny Toth
Events Manger
Penny currently serves of the board of Bella’s Footprints as the Vice President. She works with the events industry where she has managed exhibitions , conferences and both virtual and hybrid professional development and training program.
Much of this work involves working with internal and external stakeholders and like-minded organisations to create, manage and deliver professional development opportunities in the form of conferences, webinars, workshops, exhibitions and seminars.
Penny completed a degree in public relations in 2005 and currently has more than 20 years of experience working in events and marketing for a variety of public, private and not-for-profit organisations.
MAKE A DONATION
Donate to assist in raising awareness among manufacturers, educators, caregivers, retails and industry about the dangers of button battery ingestion.
BE A SUPPORTER
Support our mission to eliminate injuries and fatalities caused through button battery ingestion by becoming a supporting partner of the Bella's Footprints Foundation
SPREAD THE WORD
Help us to spread the word about the dangers of button battery ingestion to your friends, families, peers, colleagues clients and care givers.