MARYANNE DIAMOND (Director)

In May 2007 Maryanne started working with Vision Australia as Manager International Development. A major focus of this role is to establish a range of programs for blind and vision impaired people in the Pacific region. From 2004 - 2007 Maryanne was the CEO of the Australian Federation of Disability Organisations (AFDO), the peak organization of Australia's disability consumer organisations which is based in Melbourne. You can find out more about AFDO at www.afdo.org.au.

Before that Maryanne spent four years as Executive Officer with Blind Citizens Australia. Between 2000-2004 Maryanne was the chair of the World Blind Union Women's Committee and a member of the Asia Pacific board. During this period Maryanne developed a major resource for women. It is a self training leadership kit "Leading the Way". Copies of the kit are available at www.worldblindunion.org.

Maryanne is currently the President of World Blind Union. She has also been named as a member of the National Disability Council. Congratulations Maryanne - we are proud of you.

 

Maryanne and Bill enjoying lunch at the July 2007 Directors meeting at a cafe in Melbourne's Federation Square

ROBYN JAMES (Secretary)

Robyn James currently works as a Project Officer with the Women's Centre for Health Matters in Canberra. She trained as a secondary teacher, but only taught in secondary schools for two years. Robyn has worked in the disability sector since 1970, starting as a volunteer on camps with the Yooralla Society of Victoria; Robyn then had paid work with Yooralla, the Spastic Society of Victoria, Australian Quadriplegic Association, teaching in courses for people working with people with disabilities in TAFE colleges and Disability Services Queensland.

Robyn has had two volunteer placements with Australian Volunteers International. In 1992/93 she was a Community Development Worker with Kindegaden Long Ples in Madang, Papua New Guinea, and this began a love affair with the Pacific. From 2003-2005 Robyn was Advocacy Officer with Fiji Disabled Peoples Association (FDPA). She maintains her volunteer commitment to FDPA and in 2006 conducted a four week advanced advocacy course for six women with disabilities in Suva.

WILLIAM (BILL) JOLLEY (Treasurer)

Bill works as a Senior Policy Analyst with the Australian Communications and Media Authority He is Chair of the Board of Seeing Eye Dogs Australia and is Australia's representative on the International Council on English Braille. Bills involvement with Blind Citizens Australia goes back to its founding in 1975, and he was President for seven years and Executive Officer for six years until June 2000.

Bill has been involved in capacity building and training projects in Fiji (with UBP), Vietnam, Kenya and Zimbabwe. He recently carried out evaluations of capacity-building and material support projects for the Asian Blind Union on behalf of the funding partners from Norway and Denmark.

DEBORAH RHODES (Vice- President)

Deborah has been visiting countries in the Pacific region for 20 years, working on a wide variety of aid projects. This period included 7 years as an officer of the Australian Government aid agency (now called AusAID) mainly with Pacific regional organisations and small island countries as well as 7 years at Australian Volunteers International, where she was Director for Pacific and Africa programs for a period.

After some time off to have two children (now 10 and 8 years), Deborah joined another aid agency and had the role of Project Director for the Pacific Children's Program. This Program supported local Government and community efforts to promote the protection of children in Vanuatu, Samoa and Fiji. Deborah now works independently, assisting Government and community based organisations to develop and manage overseas aid activities. She designs new activities, reviews existing activities and trains aid workers in topics ranging from cross-cultural communications to project monitoring frameworks. She has a particular interest in the concept of "capacity development" and likes to work with people involved in efforts to support Pacific organisations and networks.

Deborah and her husband Ernie worked with Fiji Disabled Peoples Association (FDPA) and its affiliates to deliver 4 one-week training courses for members and office bearers in January 2003 and January 2004. Deborah has a Master in International Development which included research on the consequences of using the rights based approach. The study focussed on the work of FDPA and its affiliates, and was wonderfully supported by them from 2003 to 2005.

DANIEL STUBBS (Chair)

Daniel consults on social policy and organisation development issues in the Pacific. He works for development agencies, regional and international bodies on human rights issues (often relating to people with disabilities) and civil society organisation issues such as governance and management. Daniel lives in New Caledonia. Until moving to the Pacific, Daniel was the Executive Director of a high profile Australian social justice organisation (ACT Council of Social Service). Daniel's history in the disability sector and his own disability (vision impairment) has seen him develop a strong commitment to the experiences and challenges faced by people living with disadvantage. He has been successful in promoting responses to these issues which are developed, owned and implemented by the affected community. Daniel has experience in both the community and government sectors where he has undertaken research, developed/analysed social policy, implemented social change and community development. He has also worked voluntarily with many small and large organisations on social justice and organisation development issues. Daniel has an Economics Degree (university of Melbourne), a Graduate Diploma in Development Economics (ANU) and is currently undertaking a Law Degree (Macquarie University).

DANIEL STUBBS PAPER ON THE RIGHTS BASED APPROACH

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