OUR TEAM
Many people have been involved in the process of developing our programmes and resources since the Trust's inception. It has been a huge task that needed input from a range of professionals active in the field of violence prevention, education and health. And of course children have been consulted all along the way!
Our Programme Development Team
Elaine Dyer
Elaine has been a passionate advocate for peace, social justice and the prevention of violence for most of her working life.
Trained initially as a teacher of children, she initiated Youthline’s Action Education and has coordinated, trained and facilitated projects in prisons and communities nationally and internationally - such as the Alternatives to Violence Project and her own professional training courses for facilitators.
Elaine has written international manuals for trainers as well as being highly regarded as a trainer and supervisor of facilitators. She has presented at conferences here in New Zealand and internationally.
Previously CEO of Violence Free Waitakere, since 2015 she has been focused on programme development and teacher training.
Andrea O'Hagan
Andrea, programme co-developer and teacher trainer, focuses on effective learning strategies and the nuances of effective teacher talk with her background in education and neuro-linguistics.
Andrea has taught in kindergartens, primary schools, university and adult community settings. For three years from 2011 Andrea was the NLP Brain Coach in an Eastern Bay of Plenty secondary school, introducing teenagers to strategies to change their learning and behaviours. She has been teaching since 2004 in the University of Waikato Faculty of Education as a Teaching Fellow.
She was contracted by the Peace Foundation for 14 years as the regional trainer of the Peace Foundation Mediation Programmes in Primary Schools, and the Peaceful Family Communication Programmes. She co-wrote the Peaceful Family Communication manual in 2010 and Peaceful Teens Communication skills manual in 2013.
Our Support Team
Emma Bolwell
Emma supports the Trust’s fundraising activities and strategic planning.
With a Masters in International Development, she has worked in numerous roles in government and not-for-profits focused on improving children’s health and wellbeing.
Emma is passionate about using research and evidence in community development contexts and for children and young people to have the support and resources they need.
She also has two energetic young daughters and a boisterous labrador who keep her busy and active.
Emmy Nicol
Emmy supports the Trust’s operations and administration.
Emmy hails from Australia and has years of experience helping not-for-profits with their operational and administrative management. With a passion for helping build strong and resilient communities around her that feel empowered to create positive change in the world, she has worked across a broad range of sectors - from farming to the arts - and brings to the Trust a strong skillset of systems design thinking, community building, relationship management and facilitation.
Emmy has two young children and feels very passionate about equipping them early on with solid emotional literacy skills that will help guide them into adulthood.
Matt Wall
Matt helps look after the Trust’s finances.
He has a Bachelor of Commerce from Auckland University, and is a full member CA with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
Matt is keen on all things sport, and has a young family that keeps him busy when he’s not buried in spreadsheets or a cricket game!
Our Training Team
Megan Gallagher
Megan is a teacher, coach, presenter and writer. She is still teaching part time as well as taking part in a variety of initiatives including working with Jade Speaks Up. Megan has a strong interest in wellbeing, she was a health educator for a number of years and in 2017 she completed her masters of education with a dissertation focusing on teacher wellbeing.
Megan has worked in education most of her life in a variety of roles largely focused on primary school education with some work in early childhood through Playcentre, and secondary as a reliever and presenter. She worked for Life Education Trust for a number of years both as an educator and the national education manager. Megan has also spent time as an adult workplace assessor.
She is currently a teacher, beginning teacher mentor, and working in her own business Ignite Your Spark as a coach, presenter and contractor.
Evelyn Mann
Evelyn Mann, facilitator, runs Dramaworkz providing quality drama experiences in classrooms and teacher professional development using process drama as a pedagogical tool. Currently working for Drama NZ as a mentor to schools in Otago and Southland.
Evelyn was teaching in a primary school classroom before, and after, Lecturing in Drama at the Dunedin College of Education as an advisor in The Arts – Drama through the introduction of the Arts Curriculum.
Eight years were spent with ATCO as an actor/facilitator for Everyday Theatre, commissioned by Child Youth and Family, working with Year 7 and 8 in schools across the country around family issues. Following this eight years were spent as Artistic Director to THETA (Theatre in Health Education Trust) responsible for Sexwise, a programme funded by Ministry of Health, touring nationally in secondary level education settings. Sexwise led to half time employment with the Southern DHB as Sexual Health Promoter in Public Health South working in Otago and Southland from 2014-2021.
Evelyn has worked in over 600 education settings in Aotearoa between Te Hapu in the North and Half Moon Bay in Rakiura/Stewart Island.
Chris De La Mare
Chris has been involved with education for 19 years and taught across primary and secondary education, with almost 11 years as a school principal. His background education was in environmental science and Chris currently works as an Education Advisor in sustainability and conservation.
One of his life passions is in supporting people to develop positive relationships with one another, and he has coached and trained teachers and parents in developing positive and empathic communication skills to support them in developing deeper relationships and being able to solve challenges and problems in a way that actually develops deeper connections. Chris' other passion is in holistic wellbeing, and he is a trained facilitator of the Universal Wellbeing Evaluation Tool, providing consultation and coaching for individuals and organisations to support and develop wellbeing.
Chris also comes to the Jade Speaks Up team with a post graduate diploma in HR management that enables him to understand organisational cultures and how to support organisations to develop better structures for employee wellbeing.
Eve Tonkin
Eve Tonkin is the teaching principal of Timatanga Community School, a democratic school in Whenuapai, Auckland that helped pilot the Jade Speaks Up programme. She has worked for 20 years in emotional intelligence education and contributed exercises for the Jade Speaks Up programme. Eve is also a writer and is a published author of several children's readers on emotional intelligence themes.
Eve has taught teachers about democratic education and the importance of connectedness for children in enabling authentic learning, most notably at the International Democratic Education Conference in 2015 and 2023, the Connections Conference in 2017, and the Natural Phenomena Conference in 2017. Eve has been teaching and using the Jade Speaks Up and You Good? You Good! programmes in her school since the programmes' inception.
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