The National Executive News

• June 2008

Committee Profiles 2006 - 2009

Charlene Lutes, President

Charlene is an American who moved to Auckland with her New Zealander husband when they both retired in 1996. Most of her family arrived in Virginia around 1700 from various parts of the Britain and Ireland and have lived there ever since. She graduated from Radford University in Virginia with a BSs (with honours) in biology and received MSc and PhD degrees in genetics from the Ohio State University. Returning to Radford, she served as Chair of the Department of Biology and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, retiring with the rank of Professor Emeritus.

She joined the Radford Branch of the American Association of University Women in 1972 and served as Vice President for Program and President. On arriving in New Zealand, she joined North Shore Branch of NZFUW, serving as Newsletter Editor, Vice President and President.

In addition to her work with FGW, Charlene has been active in U3A, an organisation which promotes lifelong learning for retired people, belonging to several study groups, mostly in areas of history, and serving on the U3A Takapuna Committee as Secretary. She enjoys playing Mah Jong and bridge socially, reading mystery novels, and visiting her family in Virginia annually.

Joyce Ivory
First Vice President
Membership and Minutes Secretary

Joyce graduated with a BA in History and Sociology from Auckland University and has a Primary Teaching Diploma from Canterbury. She has taught in Canterbury, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and Auckland with several breaks to raise her family of four. She joined the Auckland Branch in 1987 and has been Membership Secretary, Charitable Trust Trustee, Vice President and President. Joyce held the portfolio of Membership Convener for the 1997-2000 Auckland National Executive.

She has been active in PAC as a delegate to NCW West Auckland Branch where she was branch president for several years. Currently she is a delegate to Auckland NCW and is a corresponding member of the NCW Social Issues Standing Committee.

Joyce has been involved in the AFS Intercultural Programme since 1978 as a committee member, Canterbury President and for the last few years as the English Language Assessor for incoming exchange students. Through this involvement and the fact that three of her children live out of New Zealand she and her husband have travelled extensively. In her retirement Joyce is a member of U3A and Probus and also plays lawn bowls. Her interests apart from the above are family (including young grandchildren), travel and reading.

Stephanie Hutchinson
Second Vice President
Convener International Relations

Stephanie graduated from Otago University with a BHSc in 1966, after which she practiced as a dietician in Auckland and Canada. She is currently Manager of Alandale, a lifestyle retirement village in Hamilton.

She joined the Waikato Branch in 1978 and has held positions of Secretary, Awards Convenor and President; and National President 1994-1997. During this triennium Stephanie led the NZFUW delegation to the IFUW Conference in Yokohama and was an accredited observer to the 4th World Women’s Conference in Beijing. For the past 6 years she has been an IFUW Constitutional Advisor and was a Procedural Advisor at the IFUW Conferences in Ottawa and Perth.

Stephanie is a JP, a member of Fairfield Rotary Club, plays tennis and is addicted to sudoku, jigsaws and crosswords.

Jill Ellis
Secretary

Jill has a BSc in Mathematics and a Diploma of Teaching. Her career was in mathematics education; many years as a secondary school teacher including as Head of Department at Auckland Girls’ Grammar; three years in the Department of Education; and from 1991-1996 lecturing and researching in the Mathematics Education Unit at the University of Auckland. As a founder member of New Zealand Equals Network, Jill was committed to the improvement of Mathematics education for girls and minorities and to the greater participation of women teachers in Mathematics education developments. On retirement, she co-authored two Mathematics text books and worked in the family tour company. Her interests include family, tramping, travel and gardening.

Jill has been a member of NZFGW since 1962 and an active member of North Shore Branch since 1998. She has been Branch President (2002-2004); Convenor NZFGW 1999 Mid term Council Meeting; registrar Triennial Conference 2000; attended IFUW conferences in Graz, Ottawa and Perth; was a seminar convener in Perth and organised the NZFGW post-conference tour of New Zealand 2004.

Margaret Ellett
Treasurer

Margaret joined the North Shore Branch of NZFGW in 1987 serving in a number of positions on the Branch committee. She was given a grant from the North Shore Branch Young Members Fund to attend the IFGW Conference in Helsinki, Finland in 1989 and has attended these triennial conferences ever since, taking the responsibility of Chair of the Ballot Committee on three occasions. Margaret is the Convener of the Academic Dress Committee which services Massey University Auckland since its inception in 1992.

Margaret was on the National Executive (1997-2000) as the Secretary/Treasurer of the NZFGW Fellowship Trust Board. She served for six years on the New Horizons for Women Trust (1999-2005), the last three as Chair and also Chair of the Auckland Support Group. She is the current Chair of the Northbridge Retirement Village, being appointed a Trustee in 1992. She belongs to NCW and Zonta.

Gaining a BSc in Mathematics at Victoria and a Teaching Diploma (Secondary) Auckland, Margaret taught at Auckland Girls Grammar School before raising four children. During this family time she was a Community Education Tutor at Glenfield College and gained her B Com in Accountancy at Auckland. She is currently the Executive Officer of Murray’s Bay Intermediate School (1990 to present).

Her interests include family, cooking, travel, theatre and reading.

Jean Silver
Public Affairs Convener

Jean trained as a primary teacher at Christchurch Teachers College and then did a specialist year in physical education at Dunedin Teachers College. Later she undertook further training at the Chelsea College of Physical Education (University of London).

Initially she worked as an assistant physical education organiser in Wanganui, Nelson and Auckland. She taught at secondary schools in England and New Zealand before becoming District Adviser in Health and Physical Education in Auckland. She also assisted teachers to use movement to liberate their own and children’s learning in art, dance, drama, language and music.

She was co-founder of Dance and the Child: New Zealand and became Chairperson of Dance and the Child: International (DaCi). She was included in the 1993 Suffrage Year publication Liberating Learning - Women as Facilitators of Learning for her work in Dance in Education.

She is an Honorary Member of Dance and the Child: International (UNESCO) and a Life Member of Physical Education New Zealand.

She has been a member of FGW since 2001 and has convened the North Shore Branch Public Affairs committee for four years. Her current interests include writing poetry, politics, travel, gardening and walking.

Katherine Blaikie
Fellowship Trust Treasurer

Katherine graduated with a BA, majoring in Classics, from Otago University in 1976 followed by a Diploma in Personnel Management and a Masters in Business Administration in 1983. She worked for the Southland Hospital Board for seven years then took up the position of Executive Manager Personnel with the Waikato Hospital Board in 1985.

During her career within the health service she was involved with the Institute of Health Administrators on a local, regional and national level and was a founding member and President of the Waikato Branch, Institute of Personnel Management.

While living in Southland she joined NZFUW and helped to establish the Southland Branch - she was their first Secretary. After her move to Hamilton she served on the Waikato Branch committee from 1986-1991. This included four years as Treasurer and two years as a Trustee on the Waikato Graduate Women Charitable Trust.

When her youngest child started kindergarten in 1998 she became the Treasurer for Waikato Graduate Women Trust and over the past few years has become actively involved on a dayto- day basis with the financial side of its Academic Dress Hire business. Katherine’s interests include reading, children’s literature and most kinds of handwork. However most of her time is spent trying to keep one step ahead of her four teenage children.

Helen Sturm
Publicity and Publications

Helen graduated with a BA from the University of Auckland and then trained at Auckland Teachers’ College as a secondary school teacher. She specialised in teaching English and English as a second language, working in New Zealand, England and Australia at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. Her last teaching position was head of English at Auckland Girls’ Grammar School. During her teaching career she gained a Diploma in Multi Cultural Education (Armidale, NSW) and studied te Reo Maori to Stage 3 level.

Since the beginning of ‘Tomorrow’s Schools’ in 1989, Helen has worked in operational and management roles in the Ministry of Education in Auckland and Wellington. Part of her work involved responsibility for the development of the current English curriculum. She is currently employed in the Education Review Office in Auckland. Helen has been a member of NZFGW since 1983 and has been on the committee of the North Shore Branch 2005-06, with responsibility for the Branch newsletter. She has three adult sons and four grandsons. Interests include reading, theatre, films, music and opera.

Vivienne Shepherd
Archives, Young Members

Vivienne has been a member of NZFGW since 1999. She is involved in Northland Branch with the local scholarship programme and with the annual distribution of gowns for graduation ceremonies throughout the North.

Vivienne graduated from The School of Physical Education, Otago University in 1979 and Christchurch Teachers College in 1980. She has taught skiing in New Zealand and overseas and has been involved in golf, tennis, swim coaching and personnel training.

At present her focus is in Health Promotion in population health and its interrelationship with movement activity and nutrition, with particular attention to physical education in pre-school and primary education.

Vivienne is very active, spending time with swimming, resistance training, mountain biking and ballet.

Noeline Alcorn
Awards and Fellowships Convener

Noeline recently retired as Dean of the School of Education at the University of Waikato and is currently working part time in the School’s Wilf Malcolm Institute for Educational Research. She holds a BA from Victoria, an MA from Canterbury and a PhD in English from the University of California. She held a number of senior posts at Auckland Teachers’ College and was Director of the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of Auckland for eight years before joining Waikato in 1992. Her research interests are in educational policy, history and leadership and she has published a biography of New Zealand’s most famous educator, C.E. Beeby.

Noeline joined the Canterbury Branch of the Federation in 1960 and has been a member of Waikato since 1993. She was awarded a Suffrage Medal in 1993 and a QSO in 2005.

Noeline has three adult children and her interests include reading, walking, travel, music, and gardening.