Executive Members
Colin CoakleyPresident
Colin Coakley is currently working with RailCorp on a Transport Infrastructure Project, previously General Manager of the Country Womens Association of NSW. Colin has held the postion of National Secretary with the Flight Attendants Association of Australia. Colin is involved in community projects and supports equity in society. Colin has studied change management in the US.
James Wilson-MillerSenior Vice-President
James Wilson-Miller is a descendent of the Wonnarua People from the Hunter Valley in NSW. He is a former school teacher, university lecturer, an accomplished writer and author and now the Head/Curator of Koori History and Culture at the Powerhouse Museum, Ultimo. He been working in Indigenous education for close to thirty years and has worked on various local, regional, state and federal committees and boards representing Indigenous issues over that timeframe.
Alan T Duncan, OAMPresident Emeritus
After service in World War II, Alan went to university and qualified as a teacher. He taught at a number of bush schools on the North Coast and the Riverina, and was one of the last of the teacher-managers on NSW reserves. In 1963, as a tutor in Adult Education at Sydney Univeristy, he started the Consultative Committee on Aboriginal Education, working with Aboriginal people. This became the Aboriginal Education Council NSW, now Inc. Alan was also very involved in FCATSI, the Aboriginal civil rights movement, leading up to the 1967 Referendum. His services to Aboriginal education were recoginesed with an Order of Australia Medal.
Geoffrey Hogan AMVice President
Retired Company Director
AEC Member approx 40 yrs, including Treasurer, Vice-President & President
Honorary Positions: National President Freedom from Hunger 1978-82, Between 1960 & 1990 State & National Committee Member of Austcare, UNICEF, United Nations Association, Community Aid Abroad 1992-98.
Roy Bliss Walden J.P B.EcHonorary Treasurer
Many years of experience as Chief Financial Officer of major business organisations in Australia and Overseas. Voluntary service in Australia has included Honorary Treasurer of the Surf Life Saving Association and of the United Way Sydney.
Janet MooneyVice President/Tertiary Chairperson
Ms Janet Mooney is currently the Director of the Koori Centre, University of Sydney. She is a Wandandian person from the South Coast of NSW. She has had many years of working in Aboriginal Education, as a Secondary Teacher, Education Officer, Consultant in Aboriginal Education, Lecturer in the Aboriginal Education Assistants Program at the Koori Centre and then as the Coordinator of that program. She is an Indigenous academic who has dedicated her career to improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal people; she believes strongly that education is a tool for social justice and therefore actively promotes exemplary and innovative educational practice. Hence, in all of the positions she has held she has kept abreast of sound educational practices for Aboriginal learners, but has strived to create an understanding for non-Aboriginal people of the practices and principles of attitudinal change that can only produce a more cohesive community of Australians.
Bill MuirVice President/Secondary Scholarship Chairperson
Former Teacher, principal, Inspector of Schools and District Superintendent with the NSW Department of Education & Training. Bill Muir believes that education is critical to enable Indigenous students to participate fully in their own and in the broader Australian community and to maintain Indigenous culture. Bill is the co-ordinator of the AEC Secondary Scholarship Scheme.
John WardCommittee Member/Primary Scholarships Chairman
Education: Biddon Primary, Hurlstone Agricultural High, Armidale Teachers College TCert; Sydney University BA; University of NSW M.Ed Admin. Sport & Recreation Dip. Rec.
Career: 41 Years teaching; including 5 years Directing Narrabeen National Fitness Centre and one year as a Secretary Sydney University Sports Union and 13 years as High School Principal.
Life Membership: Sydney North Secondary School Sports Association, Manly-Warringah Teachers Association and NSW Teachers Federation.
Dianne ButlandCommittee Member
Dianne has been involved in issues regarding Aboriginal education since 1968. She has taught Primary and Secondary students in Victoria and NSW. Dianne has lectured in universities in sociology and education for 30 years, with a significant involvement in teacher education. She has maintained a strong committment to the engagement of school to their community and to the importance of public policy development within a democratic framework. Dianne was a member of of the review team for the HSC and was a member of the NSW Board of Studies 1994-2004.
Charline Emzin-Boyd
Committee Member
Committee Member
John Lester
Committee Member
John Lester is a Wonnarua man from the Singleton area. He has more than 21 years of operational and managerial leadership in Indigenous education and training covering school, TAFE and university. At the University of Newcastle he was chair of Aboriginal studies. John is now Director, Aboriginal Education and Training in the NSW Department of Education and Training.
“The biggest thing my father ever gave me was a clear sense of who I was as an Aboriginal person, so I have a very solid sense of identity,” he says. “It stood me in line to take the knocks and to pursue education to the maximum.”
“If we can make Aboriginal kids feel part of the environment, feel welcome in the school and classrooms and see that the culture and their beliefs and families are appreciated and understood we can engage those kids – they’re the big changes that need to take place.”
Committee Member
John Lester is a Wonnarua man from the Singleton area. He has more than 21 years of operational and managerial leadership in Indigenous education and training covering school, TAFE and university. At the University of Newcastle he was chair of Aboriginal studies. John is now Director, Aboriginal Education and Training in the NSW Department of Education and Training.
“The biggest thing my father ever gave me was a clear sense of who I was as an Aboriginal person, so I have a very solid sense of identity,” he says. “It stood me in line to take the knocks and to pursue education to the maximum.”
“If we can make Aboriginal kids feel part of the environment, feel welcome in the school and classrooms and see that the culture and their beliefs and families are appreciated and understood we can engage those kids – they’re the big changes that need to take place.”
Alison Mathews
Committee Member
Committee Member
Nigel ParburyCommittee Member
Born 1942, White Australia, educated St Ignatius Riverview and Sydney Univeristy, MA (Latin), Dip Ed, then MA qualifying in Fine Arts; 9 years secondary teaching, 5 years taxi driver, with some relief teaching, 10 years taxi radio operator. Wrote and illustrated Survival: A history of Aboriginal Life in NSW for Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs. Worked in Aboriginal Education Unit, then 1990-99 with NSW AECG, edited Teaching the Teachers and 1788: Great South Land; 1999-2004 with DAA, mainly working on update of Survival (published Dec. 2005); 2005-6 part-time writer with NSW AECG; founding member and now President ASA.
Alexandra RiversCommittee Member
B.A (Hons.)(NZ); M.A; DipTching; T.T Cert..Carer. Psychologist; former Lecturer, (Special Education), Faculty of Education, University of Sydney; Tribunal member, Gurardianship Tribunal, NSW; Guardian ad Litem, Children's Court, NSW; Vice President Schizophrenia Fellowship of NSW; Vice President Aboriginal Education Council of NSW; Board member Consumes' Health Forum; Board member Mental Health Coordinating Council of NSW; Board member Neurological Institute for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders, Advocate Associate, Citizen Advocacy East Side.