Yvette Terpstra, Chairperson
Yvette Terpstra is a language, literacy and numeracy specialist. She teaches at-risk youth, and inmates at a remand and reintegration facility.
Yvette helps her students tap into their strengths and forge pathways to empowerment. Yvette never makes assumptions about her students and prefers to base her teaching on the development of shared knowledge.
Yvette works closely with an Aboriginal community development officer, who acts as a guide to ensure her class content is culturally appropriate for Indigenous students.
Paul Barnes, Treasurer
Paul Barnes has over 15 years’ strategic and operational management experience within corrections centres across Australia. Paul has broad cross jurisdictional experience working in a variety of correctional centres including maximum, medium and minimum centres and he has been a pioneer in the provision of education and training services in those centres.
Paul is an award winning correctional education management practitioner whose focus is on providing quality vocational education and training services which assists incarcerated learners to improve their literacy and numeracy skills making them more employable upon release and reducing the risk of them reoffending.
Paul is the Prisoner Education Campus Manager at West Kimberley Regional Prison.
Marguerite Cullity, Secretary
Dr Marguerite Cullity (Ph.D) is an experienced ‘literacy’ researcher, teacher, curriculum designer, and WAALC Committee member.
Marguerite has worked across a range of educational sectors including adult corrections, adult basic, undergraduate, TAFE, primary, CALD and special needs education. As an Australian volunteer (2016) she designed an adult literacy curriculum famework for the Mothers’ Union of Melanesia.
Jenny Blair, Committee
Jenny Blair is a Quality Assurance Manager in the TAFE sector with 30 years of experience in education.
Jenny started her working life as a high school English and Literature teacher in the Western Australian goldfields before moving to South Australia and starting a family. The arrival of her two daughters and subsequent move to New Zealand saw Jenny develop an interest in the early childhood sector. This experience challenged Jenny to consider how we become literate and how our formative experiences of education impact our chances of future success.
On returning to Western Australia, Jenny moved into the adult education sector and worked at Centacare Employment and Training in the SEE program and doing CAVSS support for vocational learners for a number of years. She also worked for Red Cross in the Humanitarian Settlement Program. Jenny now leads the Curriculum and Quality Assurance team at South Metropolitan TAFE.
Emilia Biemmi Beurteaux, Committee
Emilia Biemmi Beurteaux is an adult educator with 22 years’ experience having worked as a literacy and numeracy specialist in prisons, an Indigenous RTO and TAFE – mostly in the West Kimberley of Western Australia.
Emilia’s experiences centre predominantly around Indigenous adult learners and teaching literacy/numeracy skills through practical projects based on individual, community or organisational needs. Emilia strives to develop a welcoming environment, developing rapport and connecting to communities.
Emilia is a currently a Principal Lecturer at North Regional TAFE providing academic support to lecturers across five different training packages using her skills in adult education and the vocational sector to support successful learning outcomes for all students of TAFE.
Sara Venuto, Committee
Sara Venuto (Associate Director Academic Quality, South Regional TAFE)
Born in the UK, resided in Italy (Venice) up to the age of 25 years, bilingual Italian/English, also speak French, Spanish and German.
English as an Additional Language teacher for over 25yrs – in Italy, Czech Republic, Australia.
CELTA, Bachelor of Adult Education and VET, Post-Graduate Certificate in TESOL, Lead Auditor Skillset.
A passion for well-planned lessons, engaging/interactive delivery and Academic Quality.
Sharonjeet Kaur, Committee
Sharonjeet Kaur is a language, literacy and numeracy specialist and an experienced Business Manager for MAX Learning RTO in Perth, WA.
MAX Learning delivers the Skills for Education and Employment (SEE) program for all job seekers. Sharonjeet is also a TESOL trainer and assessor who has worked in the education management industry. Skilled in English as a Second Language (ESL), Lesson Planning, Educational Technology, Instructional Design and Curriculum Development. She holds a Masters Degree in TESOL from Edith Cowan University.
Sharonjeet has worked across a range of educational sectors including adult basic, TAFE, secondary/ high school, CALD and special needs education both in Singapore and in Australia. She advocates for a safe, nurturing learning environment for all learners to develop and express themselves despite coming from varying backgrounds and cultures.
Simone Collard, Committee
Simone is a Senior Aboriginal Advisor Officer at the WA State Administrative Tribunal. As a Noongar woman, Simone is committed to promoting cultural awareness and assisting Aboriginal people by improving services to achieve better outcomes.
Simone has extensive experience in community and engagement work, having supported the development of numerous programs in the past for Aboriginal people. She has collaborated with various organisations and the community to ensure that the workplace and programs are culturally appropriate, inclusive and demonstrate aspects of two-way learning.
In her previous role, Simone has also advocated for the shared knowledge of Noongar language within the workplace as well as through various programs.
Simone has served as a committee member for the Western Australian Adult Literacy Council aiming to raise awareness and improve services for Aboriginal people to develop and gain literacy and numeracy skills.