The Tasmanian Centre for Global Learning
Management Committee 2012

Heather Chong, President
Heather is an active community member with many honourary roles including, Chair of the RHH Research Foundation and Vice President of the Rotary Club of Hobart. She is an Alderman on Clarence City Council and sits on a number of agriculture related advisory boards. Heather has received a number of awards as CEO of QEW Orchards including the Telstra Tasmania Business Woman of the Year (2003), and Rural Industries Research and Development Corporations Rural Woman award for Tasmania (2005). Heather is a member of the Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She has an MBA and is currently undertaking a Masters in Public Policy.

Mary Dickins, Vice President
Mary has a Bachelor of Science in International Business, a Masters in Development Studies, a Masters in International Law and works at the Hobart Department of Immigration and Citizenship. She has been interested in equality among all people sharing the world since high school. Mary was introduced to TCGL through her involvement in the United Nations Association of Australia Tasmanian Division. Mary fully believes in the Centre's aim of educating Tasmanian children to become global citizens and the power they have to make a difference in the world. Read about Mary's time as a Youth Ambassador in the Philippines...

Greg Sawyer, Vice President
Greg had been a SOSE/English teacher since 1980 and is currently the Assistant Principal at Rose Bay High School. Greg spent much of his childhood in less developed and developing countries and has always had an interest in development education and social justice issues. He had been a member of the TCGL from the early TASDEC days and has always found it an essential resource for students and teachers.

Wendy Evans, Treasurer & Public Officer
Wendy is President of Soroptimist International of Hobart and a Fellow Professional National Accountant.

Robin Bowden
Robin has been associated with the Centre since the planning meetings which resulted in TASDEC in 1985! A social worker by profession, Robin worked for the Commonwealth Government in the areas of aid, refugee resettlement and Indigenous affairs and was Deputy Manager & CoAG Partnerships Officer with Indigenous Coordination Centre Tasmania before retiring in 2008. The 'liberating energy' toward social justice which is achievable through global learning remains a strong motivation for Robin's involvement with the Centre.

Sue Chaston
Sue joins the committee as the Oxfam Australia representative. Having been a long term member of Oxfam and active within Tasmanian community programs, both professionally and in her private life, Sue is passionate about the power of community development to provide educational opportunities that bring meaningful and sustainable change. For some years she was an active member of the Deloraine community, went on to study Social Work at the University of Tasmania and later gained a Graduate Certificate in Community Development at the University of Queensland.

Amy Fogarty
She is currently having a few years out of study to work here and adventure overseas. Her first destination was be Ethiopia in October 2010 where she worked in a Kindergarten and visited some of World Vision's Area Development Projects. Amy recently stepped down as the State Director for Vision Generation in Tasmania. As well as her dedication to VGen for the past 3 years, Amy has volunteered with the Oaktree Foundation, Make Poverty History, and Australian Youth Climate Coalition. Her dream is that her children will never know what poverty is truly like - they will only be able to read about it in history books.

Jeff Garsed
Jeff Garsed is Research Officer at the Australian Education Union (Tasmanian Branch). In this role he provides information and analysis on a range of teacher professional and industrial issues as well as drafting union policy. Previous to working with the AEU Jeff was a classroom teacher. The AEU works to improve conditions for its 6000 members in Tasmanian schools and for a better deal for public education. The AEU has long been a supporting organisation of the Tasmanian Centre for Global Learning.

Rob Hortle
Rob has been with Oaktree Tasmania from the very early days, when founding Tasmanian State Director Jess Jacobson used packet-mix muffins to lure new volunteers to meetings on her lounge room floor. His first major role with the Oaktree Foundation was Operations Manager for the Tasmanian leg of the 2010 Make Poverty History Roadtrip. In 2011, Rob was a facilitator for the inaugural Tasmanian Generate program until taking on the role of Tasmanian Director in July. Rob is in the final semester of an Arts degree at UTAS, majoring in Indonesian and International Relations.

Ros Lewis
Ros is State Coordinator (and past Chair) of the Tasmanian State Committee of Oxfam Australia (both voluntary positions). Born at Wynyard, she studied at UTAS in Hobart and taught in Launceston where she now lives. In retirement, Ros is active in the community, working for organisations such as the Migrant Resource Centre, Climate Action group, Northern Suburbs Neighbourhood House and Make Poverty History. She has had a long association with the Tasmanian Centre for Global Learning and the ruMAD? Program and is particularly keen to promote opportunities for people from all age groups and backgrounds and from regional areas.

Jeremy Picone
Jeremy works at the Centre as the School Coordinator, having a strong background in voluntary work to 'make a difference' which has taken him as far afield as Kenya. On the Committee he represents RESULTS Australia. Jeremy has always understood that being an Australian means he has access to a standard of living matched by few other countries. He has found the Centre to be central in enabling him to act upon his commitment to overcoming poverty and he highly values the Centre's role in enabling others to learn about and act upon their global concerns. Jeremy has an Arts-Economic degree with First Class Honours in Political Science. He is also the Tasmanian Coordinator for the Global Poverty Project.

Eamonn Pollard
Eamonn is Deputy Principal at Sacred Heart College, where he also has responsibility for justice and outreach programs. Eamonn has taught mainly in the Religious Education and SOSE areas and coordinated the Amnesty International Hobart School network - which became the  Justice Action Network in 2007 - for a number of years. One of the initiatives this network helps to coordinate is Justice Action Day. Eamonn is passionate about justice, outreach and global learning issues.

Laura Sykes
Laura is currently the Tasmanian State Director of Vision Generation, World Vision’s youth movement, which inspires, educates and empowers young people to respond to social injustice and poverty. Laura is passionate about human trafficking and slavery and a strong advocate for Fairtrade and ethical purchasing. As founder and President of Go Fair in Launceston, Laura assisted the Launceston City Council to become Tasmania’s first Fairtrade Town. Go Fair will expand their advocacy state-wide in 2012, actively encouraging businesses and schools to source products from companies that don’t use child labour. Laura is currently in her second year of a Bachelor of Arts at UTAS, majoring in international relations.

Yabbo Thompson
Yabbo has been a member ever since TCGL was known as TASDEC and Coordinator from 1988 until 2003. She is passionate about global issues and believes having a global perspective gives us optimism to work towards a fairer, more sustainable and peaceful world. Global education aims to develop an understanding of the interacting factors that cause poverty, injustice, inhumanity, conflict and environmental abuse. Most importantly it develops the skills, values and attitudes that lead to a commitment to act for change, to preserve and fairly distribute the earth's resources and to create a more just society.

Lynn Townsend
Lynn has had a long career in the Tasmanian public service in various social work, social research and social policy positions within the Department of Community Services, Department of Justice and the Office of the Status of Women. She has also worked as a consultant to a number of community based organisations. In 1999 she was appointed as a member of the Australian Film Classification Board where she served for two terms and was subsequently employed by SBS TV in a similar role. Lynn retired from paid work and returned to Tasmania in 2009. She has a commitment to global issues and is engaged in volunteer work with local agencies with a human rights focus.

Helen Hortle, Centre Coordinator
Helen was introduced to the Centre in 1999 after returning to Tasmania from volunteering in Tonga. Her experience overseas brought her to a belief that education is the key to overcoming poverty and other forms of injustice: provided that education develops in young people the knowledge, skills and values that would motivate them to be active citizens. At the Centre, Helen found an impressive balance between strong ideals and practical projects – an exemplar of the “think global, act local” philosophy. Helen is a qualified accountant (CPA) and teacher (further education) and has a Master of Social Science (International Development).