Margaret Reynolds has a professional background in education, public policy development and human rights advocacy, and has been an elected member of local government and Federal Parliament over a twenty-year period and has represented Australia at the United Nations General Assembly.

Margaret was a Labor Senator and Minister in the Hawke and Keating Government Governments, working on a range of social policy reforms with a particular focus on the rights of women, First Australians and people living with disability.

Since retiring from parliament, Margaret has lectured in international relations and human rights at the University of Queensland. She chaired the Australian Centre for Excellence in Local Government Board (University of Technology, Sydney) to recognise innovation in council initiatives in community and cultural development. 

In Tasmania Margaret was CEO of National Disability Services 2004-2012 and was appointed to State and Federal advisory committees to assist the introduction of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. She was Chair of Screen Tasmania Board 2000-2010 and Chair of the Tasmanian Women’s Advisory Committee 2000-2005.

She and her partner Henry live at Tasmania’s History House in Richmond where they are involved in promoting an understanding of Tasmanian history and recognition of built heritage.

Ian Broinowski, PhD, MEd, BA(Soc Wk), BEc, Dip Teach, worked as an advanced skills teacher in children’s services at TAFE Tasmania in Hobart, Australia for many years. Ian has a background in Economics’, Social Work and Education.

He has taught in a wide range of subjects in aged care, disability services, children’s services, community and youth work. Ian also taught with UTAS and Curtin University in Education. He worked for a period as a house parent in Bristol, England and in Northern Ireland. He has also held positions as a child welfare officer in Tasmania and NSW. Ian’s publications include Child Care Social Policy and Economics, (1994) Creative Childcare Practice: Program design in early childhood, (2002) and Managing Children’s Services 2004.

In his PhD at the University of South Australia he examined the relationship between enchantment, imagination and creativity, and the quality of the work of the early childhood educator. Ian was awarded the Jean Denton national scholarship in 2001. In 2013 he presented a paper at the Future of Education Conference in Florence Italy on the ‘Use of Humour in Online Teaching’.

He was on the UTAS Medical Ethics Research Committee from 2011 to 2022. In 2019 he published The Pakana Voice: Tales of a War Correspondent from Lutruwita (Tasmania) 1814 — 1856.

Ian also enjoys woodcraft and bookbinding. 

Kate’s career paths include nursing, teaching ceramics, retail management and home executive. She has a Masters degree in Art in Public Space from RMIT, her project focusing on the integration of art into the health care environment. This progressed to becoming an ongoing business venture before she relocated to Hobart.

Kate enjoyed teaching ceramics to adults & children, which was her full time occupation for several years, but prefers to retain her creative craft as an exhibiting ceramicist and sells her work in a local gallery. She currently works as an operating theatre nurse.

Michelle Forbes is an arts administrator and is currently the State Manager for AMEB Tasmania. Michelle studied her BMus at Sydney Conservatorium on oboe, before moving to Melbourne where she worked for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Matt Irwin Photography, and Melbourne Youth Music. Michelle moved to Tasmania to become General Manager of Tasmanian Youth Music and has greatly enjoyed engaging with the sector through positions on the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board, Story Island Project Board, as a peer assessor for Arts Tasmania, and in performing in various festivals and ensembles. Michelle joined the Board of Salamanca Arts Centre in August 2021.

Rowan Silva is a lawyer with a lengthy and varied career, having worked for Indigenous legal services, community legal centres, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and two separate law firms he established whilst living in Queensland.

He has served extensively on the management committees of several community legal centres and is a former board director of the New Moon Theatre Company.  He is also a past AHRC Law Award finalist, and the recipient of awards for his contributions to legal aid services and his local community.  He has a longstanding passion for, and keen interest in, the arts.

Matthew Woolf is a Chartered Accountant with 12 years’ post-qualification experience across banking and financial services. The first 5 years of his career were spent at Deloitte in business advisory for the middle market, working with high-net-worth individuals and family-owned businesses. There Matt gained experience in areas such as corporate tax, advisory and improving business processes.

From 2013 to 2016 Matt worked in Financial Control at The Royal Bank of Scotland, gaining experience in regulatory and financial reporting, liquidity reporting, taxation, and collaborating with people across Asia on several projects. Until recently he led the RBS Digital Channels Finance team at The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) as Executive Manager. In his time at CBA, Matt has been part of Finance teams supporting both the Retail Bank and Wealth Management divisions. He has been the financial controller for several entities, and gained extensive experience in business partnering, FP&A, financial and subsidiary reporting as well as leading teams of highly engaged finance professionals.

Peter West is an audience development and communication specialist and, until recently, was General Manager of Optus in Tasmania.

Peter has been fortunate in his working life to help change and grow some of our most challenging and loved organisations – such as the Tasmanian Football League, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and RSPCA Tasmania.He was a founding board member of the not-for-profit charity Water for a Village (providing clean fresh water to Ethiopian villages), is on the Board of Nexus Inc and also Coastal Residential Services (disability service providers) and is also on the Board of Foodbank Tasmania.