Vivienne is a Professional/Industry Fellow in the School of Built Environment at the University of Technology Sydney and Principal of the urban strategy company Metropolis. For nearly two decades she was an adviser and speechwriter to two NSW premiers and the deputy prime minister of Australia. Vivienne has been a television newsreader and journalist and is a member of The Big Issue Women’s Advisory Committee. Her former board appointments include the Centennial Parklands and Moore Park Trust, chair of the Centennial Parklands’ Community Consultative Committee, deputy Chair of the Adelaide Film Festival, the South Australian Film Corporation, Beyond Empathy and the physical theatre company, Legs on the Wall. She sits on the Community Consultative Committee for the construction of the Sydney Football Stadium and is Vice-President of Saving Moore Park. Vivienne has a Masters degree in Urban Policy and Strategy from UNSW and a Bachelor of Arts from the Australian National University.

Libby is author of forty titles for children and young adults. Her work has won many national literary awards and is widely published internationally.

She is formerly Chair of the Australian Society of Authors, Chair of the Literature and History Committee of ArtsNSW, a Director of the Copyright Agency and recently stepped down as a Director of the Public Education Foundation.

Brett is a Senior Financial Executive with 40+ years’ experience in the banking and finance industry. His core capabilities are in the field of risk management and compliance.  He has led successful risk management teams across credit risk, operational risk, and regulatory compliance. Brett holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Deakin University).

Lucy Brotherton is a Community Capacity Building Officer – Social Investment at the City of Parramatta. In her role in Council, Lucy implements and facilitates a range of social investment activities to happen in the Parramatta Local Government Area. These activities use innovative approaches to create positive and sustainable social change in the community. Examples include supporting social enterprise, engaging the business and community sectors in developing shared value partnerships, encouraging the use of co-design approaches to complex problem solving and providing opportunities for social projects to pitch their ideas and raise funds through crowdfunding.

Lucy has extensive experience in State Government engaged in policy work on social issues such as alcohol-related violence and responsible gambling. She has worked within policy development, project management and strategic planning.

Lucy has also been active in local Parents and Citizens Associations (P&Cs), having been president of Northmead Public School P&C. She also independently founded the Parramatta P&C Executive Networking and Capacity Building program, bringing together the executives of local primary school P&Cs to talk about issues and make connections between these groups. Lucy and other volunteers with personal experience in P&Cs run and present at the program events.

Brian has worked in all facets of general publishing since 1969 from sales and marketing to editorial and distribution. He left the corporate world of publishing in 1996 and established The Manuscript Appraisal Agency which he operated for 17 years. 

His literary agency, The Authors’ Agent, has developed a strong list of clients writing and illustrating children’s books and has a very strong and diverse family of SCWBI members.

Jacqueline has 15 years of K-12 teaching experience in Australia, the United Kingdom, and India. She began her career as an elementary school teacher teaching a range of grades and specializing in ESL and literacy development. Jacqueline has written and edited literacy materials for inclusion in professional development packages and curriculum documents for Australian Public Schools in NSW.

Jacqueline has been a lecturer at the University of California, Irvine and at the University of California, Los Angeles and was involved in both, curriculum and staff development in the U.S., working on a variety of interdisciplinary language and literacy projects. Jacqueline was involved in training and scoring performance assessments for Californian Teachers and working on large-scale research projects such as Literacy in the History Classroom.

Jacqueline also had a continuing role as a literacy consultant for the New York City Public Schools. She is currently Senior Lecturer in English/Literacy/ESL Curriculum and Pedagogy, K-6. Primary Education in the School of Education at Western Sydney University.

Janice is a Director in Economics and Public Policy at Ernst and Young and has more than 15 years’ experience of working on economic and social policy at the state and federal levels. In her role at EY, Janice specialises in government strategy, economic policy, and strategic city and infrastructure planning. Roles currently or previously held included: Director, EY (2011 – present); Board, Legs on the Wall (2012 – present); Policy Adviser to the Federal Infrastructure Minister (2010 11); Policy Adviser to Federal Treasurer (2008 10); Policy Officer, the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet (2004 07); Researcher, Office of the Federal Opposition Leader (2003 04).

Janice has worked or volunteered in various literacy or educational initiatives, including at a drop in centre for young people in Redfern, and as an English tutor for students of non English speaking backgrounds.