Associate Professor Simon Denny
Associate Professor Simon Denny is a paediatrician who specialises in the clinical care of young people. He has expertise in adolescent development, epidemiology and multi-level modelling and has previously led the 2007 National Youth Health Survey. He is the current chairperson of the Adolescent Health Research Group and the Society of Youth Health Professionals Aotearoa.
Deidre Vercauteren
Education Manager, School Support
(M.Ed, National Diploma of Education Management, B.Ed)
As Education Programme Manager, Accent Learning I am responsible for leading professional development in schools, and for schools, on a fee for service basis. From 2000, and prior to my current role, I was an educational leader within Victoria University College of Education. I have evaluated different models of professional development to develop a more holistic and coherent approach that empowers advisers and teachers to transfer knowledge and effective teaching strategies across learning areas and transition points. Success is determined by the impact on student engagement progress and achievement.
My teaching experience covers primary, intermediate and tertiary levels. I am interested in adult professional learning and development, evidence-based teaching and learning and my research has been on aspects of classroom practice.
Associate Professor Paul Jose
Paul Jose graduated with a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Yale University in 1980, and after two post-docs at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, took his first job in Chicago at Loyola University Chicago. After 15 years there, he moved his family and himself to Wellington, New Zealand, in 2001, where he has been ever since. He is currently Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families at Victoria University of Wellington. He studies adolescent development chiefly, but also has interests in family dynamics and research methodology/statistics.
Justin Canty
Justin Canty is a PhD Fellow with the Social Psychiatry and Population Mental Health Research Unit at the University of Otago Wellington. His current research investigates children’s accounts of using social media and methods they use to define online bullying, combining grounded theory and fine-grain discourse analysis approaches. He is a Registered Social Worker with a professional background in child adolescent mental health, adult mental health, and work with same-sex attracted and sex/gender diverse people.
Neil Melhuish
Neil Melhuish works for NetSafe as Policy Programme Leader. He developed his interest in online safety issues during his time leading a national programme of initiatives designed to support schools’ use of digital technology New Zealand Ministry of Education and as a secondary teacher. Recent related work includes developing the guide for schools on the safe and responsible use of Digital Technology in schools and the cyberbullying strand of the bullying prevention and response guide for schools.
Brian Coffey
Brian Coffey is Group Manager in the Ministry of Education responsible for Special Education and Service Improvement. Brian has extensive experience in education and has worked as a teacher, educational psychologist, and within management and leadership of services to schools. The interest of work on bullying prevention reaches back to Brian’s work as an educational psychologist, and the recent development of the Positive Behaviour for Learning initiative and providing support to the work of the across agency Bullying Prevention Advisory Group.
Donna Swift
Dr Donna Swift, social anthropologist, is passionate about young women’s well-being and researches the challenges they face from societal pressures, violence and anti-social behaviour. As the principal researcher of The Girls’ Project (2011) and Girls of Concern (2014), Dr Swift delivers her findings through workshops and presentations, speaking throughout New Zealand, Australia and overseas. In 2014, Dr Swift received the New Zealand Sonja Davies Peace Award for her work with girls, also the 2011-2013 National Project for Soroptimist International New Zealand. She is a Principal Academic Staff Member and lectures on the Bachelor of Social Work and the Bachelor of Applied Social Science degrees at Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, New Zealand.
Michael Williams
Mike is the Head of Student Support and Counselling at Edgewater College in New Zealand. He has a Master’s of Education degree with honours from the University of Waikato. Mike was nominated by the New Zealand Herald as New Zealander of the Year in 2012 for his work with bullying and he has developed the Undercover Anti Bullying Team Approach which since 2004 has used successfully in over 40 events of bullying. Together with Dr John Winslade from California State University, San Bernardino, USA, he co-authored “Safe and Peaceful Schools: Addressing Conflict and Eliminating Violence” (Corwin, 2011), a book containing a comprehensive range of strategies to help schools manage conflict and eliminate violence. They have published many articles on Undercover Anti-bullying Teams and his work has been evaluated in a number of studies.
Gary Scott
Gary Scott is a television and multimedia producer and programme director, who holds a BA in NZ History and postgraduate qualification in Journalism. He started his career in the TV3 newsroom, then moved into documentary production at Ninox Films, and has been a producer and executive producer at the Gibson Group since 2001. Many of his documentaries include social history or social issue themes. He has two school age children.