Dr Liz Manley: Chair
Liz is an educator, scientist and writer. She was born in Zambia, lived across central and southern Africa, the UK and Europe, and moved to Titirangi thirty years ago. She has a diverse range of skills and experience, including early childhood through to tertiary education. She has a degree in journalism, an MSc and PhD in human physiology and most recently, a Masters of Creative Writing. She was the principal of a local primary school and was awarded a Kiwibank Local Hero Award for her work with children in the areas of diversity and inclusion. She is currently an elected member of the Waitakere Ranges Local Board (local government) and Co-chairs Te Toka Tumai – Auckland Hospital’s Consumer Experience Council. She is also a member of Te Toka Tumai Clinical Ethics Advisory Group and sits on the Titirangi Community Arts Board. When time allows, she is an avid swimmer, reader and grower of kai.
Dr Will Flavell: Deputy Chair
Will grew up in Whangārei, attended Bream Bay College and is passionate about realising the potential of our young people. He is an experienced secondary school teacher of te reo Māori and Japanese. Will recently completed his PhD studies at Otago University on the learning experiences of non-Māori secondary school students learning te reo Māori. Will leads the Education Māori portfolio at COMET Auckland, and strongly supports the flourishing of te reo Māori in Tāmaki Makaurau. He is also an elected member to the Henderson Massey Local Board (Auckland Council). He affiliates to several iwi including Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Whatua and Ngāti Maniapoto. He trained as a secondary school teacher at the University of Waikato and started his teaching career in 2007. In his spare time, Will enjoys playing sport particularly tennis, reading novels, hanging out with whānau and travelling around the world.
Tam Alexander
Tam is a not-for-profit specialist who was born in Africa, but has lived in Titirangi since 2002. He works on most aspects of not-for-profit operations and governance, with particular emphasis on finance. He started out with a varied career in the commercial sector before moving almost exclusively to working with community organisations. Interests include politics, music, movies, tramping, DIY and coffee. As a typical home coffee roaster his claims of producing the finest coffee in the area must be considered questionable – however you are encouraged to taste for yourself…
Kay Thomas
Kay’s background is in secondary teaching and management in multicultural schools across Auckland and she is passionate about education in all its forms. She is currently chair of Whau Local Board, chair of the Waitākere Citizens Advice Bureau board, and a volunteer at New Lynn Citizens Advice Bureau. These experiences have given her the skills and knowledge necessary to represent her community very effectively and she brings a wealth of experience to our board.
Christine Harmsworth
Christine has been a tutor with us for 13 years, combining this with her bookkeeping job. She has enjoyed a variety of volunteer roles throughout her adult life as she believes that giving back to her community is very important. Christine began her working life as a bookkeeper but has also worked in the areas of disability, as an advocate for parents, and in the area of health behaviour change, working with pregnant women to have better health outcomes. As an adult university student she understands the difficulty of going into a new learning environment, and the courage it takes to make the first step. She is passionate about ensuring everyone has a chance to fulfill their dreams of improving their literacy and numeracy. At present she is a computer tutor and gets great satisfaction in seeing the learners progress. Her spare time is spent enjoying Nordic walking, water walking, participating in her Red Hat group adventures, and being treasurer for a local women’s dinner club. She is a proud mother of 4 adult children and has 7 grandchildren, who she enjoys spending time with.
Paul Chappory
After leaving school Paul found he liked singing and opera and trained to be an opera singer. As one of New Zealand’s emerging Artists with Opera New Zealand he was able to attend a master class with Pavarotti. He subsequently moved to London to sing and further his studies. Later in life on returning to NZ he discovered that he had several learning disabilities. This discovery explained and gave him a new perspective on the difficulties he had faced in his career and life. He has since dedicated himself to overcoming them and becoming numerate and literate. He has now been a student at Literacy Waitakere for a number of years. He provides a student’s viewpoint for the board based on a lifetime’s experience dealing with and overcoming learning difficulties. He is passionate about improving outcomes for students and enabling them to realize their full social, cultural and economic potential.
Pale Sauni
Pale works as an independent Pasifika Consultant, targeting Pasifika and Maori communities as part of the Government’s priority audience to open up conversations to enable strategies to be designed and developed by and in these communities. His focus is on engaging communities in building their financial capability and providing links to services and providers who help do this best. Pale has a Bachelor of Night Clubbing and Socialising from Avondale College and is a consummate musician.
Sue West
Sue joined as Mana Whakarite – Manager – of Literacy Waitakere in July 2021. She has worked all her life in different aspects of education including working with the Learning Network NZ (formally West Auckland Education Centre), Coastguard Boating Education, the Dairy Women’s Network, The University of Auckland, Internet NZ, Budget Advisory Services and Skills Highway. She is passionate about the power of life-long learning with a particular focus on adult second-chance learners and assisting them to re-engage with education. She has also lived and worked in other countries, including Laos, Kiribati and an aboriginal community in the north west of Western Australia which has given her an interesting perspective on different cultures. Most recently she was Executive Director of the 20/20 Trust which focuses on digital inclusion – getting computers into homes and giving people the skills to use them.