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Board of Directors
There are currently seven directors on the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Foundation Board.
Stephanie Alexander OAM
Carolyn Cresswell
Prue Gill
Frances Laurino
Helen Murray
Natalie O'Brien
Kate Quirke
Lance Stephenson
Past Board Directors
Stephanie is the author of thirteen books, including the Australian kitchen bible The Cook's Companion, and is a renowned chef and restaurateur. In 2009 she published The Kitchen Garden Companion, an inspirational family guide to growing and using edible crops. Her 35-year career has spanned books, words, food and young people, and she is now preoccupied with giving back wisdom and experience in meaningful ways. In practical terms this has meant establishing the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation as a means by which to convince policy makers that learning about food, how it grows, and the pleasure it can bring are vital to a healthy, happy society.
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Carolyn is the company founder and CEO of Carman’s Fine Foods, a leading Australian gourmet food company that supplies major supermarket chains in Australia and around the world. She brings to the Foundation 18 years of experience in the food industry and a passion for wholesome, real food. She is a popular public speaker and also a board member of the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, where she pursues her interest in equality and human rights. Being a mother to four young children, Carolyn is passionate about educating children on the joy of real food and the pleasures of preparing and sharing good food.
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Prue is a long-time classroom teacher, recently retired from the secondary classroom and now teaching Education students at Monash University. She has taught in a variety of settings: government and private secondary schools, TAFE and the tertiary sector; and in many different types of classroom: discipline-based, inter-disciplinary, vertical age groupings and in team teaching settings. Prue has been involved at both policy and planning level in the design and implementation of VCE English, and was for many years an assessor of VCE English and Literature. She is a past president of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English and a former member of the (then titled) Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board. Prue has recently been in Uganda helping the teachers of a district primary school for orphaned and vulnerable children to integrate their permaculture garden into the primary school curriculum.
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As former Principal, Collingwood College, Frances is highly respected and renowned for her ability to see a vision through to reality. She was employed by the Victorian Department of Education for 35 years and was a principal for 15 years. During this time Frances was invited to speak around Australia about the many educational innovations she implemented throughout her teaching career, particularly at Collingwood College, where she was instrumental in establishing the first Kitchen Garden Program. Now retired, Frances voluntarily undertakes the role of Treasurer for the Foundation.
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Helen is a former teacher and school social worker who was employed by the Victorian Education Department before taking a position as a lecturer in the School of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. In 1997 she relocated to the USA with her husband, and for eight years lived in up-state New York where she was Director of the Syracuse University Internship Program. Her responsibilities included arranging internships for students across the United States, and consulting with the internship programs in the University’s centres in Europe and Hong Kong. She is currently employed as the Community Wellbeing Program Manager with the Ian Potter Foundation in Melbourne. She is a strong believer in the importance of intervening early in a child’s life to develop desirable attitudes and behaviours, and is very keen to see the Foundation’s educational program introduced into all Australian primary schools.
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Natalie is the CEO, Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, and has been for the last six years. She spent seven years at Tourism Victoria working in marketing of hallmark events, including the Melbourne Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Prior to this she spent five years working with the Cultural Development Department of the City of Melbourne. Currently Natalie sits on the Victorian Winery Tourism Council.
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Kate has been involved in the Healthcare Industry for over 15 years, predominantly in the area of sales and marketing of information technology for the hospital sector. During that time she managed and directed large-scale sales campaigns across the Asia Pacific region. This involved interaction with corporations, Health Services and Government Health Departments. Kate has been a Director of several companies, including Healthnet and iSOFT Pty Ltd. Kate brings to the Foundation enormous expertise in the areas of sales and fund-raising, marketing and event management, and corporate governance. She is also passionate about food, the enjoyment it contributes to life and the opportunity it gives us to share with our families, friends and community.
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Lance is a fellowship member of CPA Australia (Management Accounting). His forty-year career has spanned almost two decades in senior financial roles for not-for-profit organisations, followed by two decades in managing sales and marketing activities within the corporate sector. Lance is very enthusiastic about the way in which young children have responded to the Foundation's school programs, particularly the way in which they have embraced the preparation of their own meals and the sharing of this food with friends. His involvement in the Foundation has been motivated by a desire to see it grow into a financially robust organisation, able to influence the social eating interests of a whole new generation of adults.
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Founding member of the Board and Senior Project Officer for the Foudation, Anna Dollard, stepped down from her Board role in September of 2008, in order to focus her energies on the continuing work of providing resources for schools implementing the Kitchen Garden Program.
We acknowledge the contribution of former director Barbara Heine, as the first supporter of the Kitchen Garden Program and of the Foundation, and we thank her in particular for her generous sponsorship of the Kitchen Garden at Collingwood College.
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Stephanie Alexander OAM
Stephanie is the author of thirteen books, including the Australian kitchen bible The Cook's Companion, and is a renowned chef and restaurateur. In 2009 she published The Kitchen Garden Companion, an inspirational family guide to growing and using edible crops. Her 35-year career has spanned books, words, food and young people, and she is now preoccupied with giving back wisdom and experience in meaningful ways. In practical terms this has meant establishing the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation as a means by which to convince policy makers that learning about food, how it grows, and the pleasure it can bring are vital to a healthy, happy society.
Back to top
Carolyn Cresswell
Carolyn is the company founder and CEO of Carman’s Fine Foods, a leading Australian gourmet food company that supplies major supermarket chains in Australia and around the world. She brings to the Foundation 18 years of experience in the food industry and a passion for wholesome, real food. She is a popular public speaker and also a board member of the Victorian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, where she pursues her interest in equality and human rights. Being a mother to four young children, Carolyn is passionate about educating children on the joy of real food and the pleasures of preparing and sharing good food.
Back to top
Prue Gill
Prue is a long-time classroom teacher, recently retired from the secondary classroom and now teaching Education students at Monash University. She has taught in a variety of settings: government and private secondary schools, TAFE and the tertiary sector; and in many different types of classroom: discipline-based, inter-disciplinary, vertical age groupings and in team teaching settings. Prue has been involved at both policy and planning level in the design and implementation of VCE English, and was for many years an assessor of VCE English and Literature. She is a past president of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English and a former member of the (then titled) Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Board. Prue has recently been in Uganda helping the teachers of a district primary school for orphaned and vulnerable children to integrate their permaculture garden into the primary school curriculum.
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Frances Laurino
As former Principal, Collingwood College, Frances is highly respected and renowned for her ability to see a vision through to reality. She was employed by the Victorian Department of Education for 35 years and was a principal for 15 years. During this time Frances was invited to speak around Australia about the many educational innovations she implemented throughout her teaching career, particularly at Collingwood College, where she was instrumental in establishing the first Kitchen Garden Program. Now retired, Frances voluntarily undertakes the role of Treasurer for the Foundation.
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Helen Murray
Helen is a former teacher and school social worker who was employed by the Victorian Education Department before taking a position as a lecturer in the School of Social Work at the University of Melbourne. In 1997 she relocated to the USA with her husband, and for eight years lived in up-state New York where she was Director of the Syracuse University Internship Program. Her responsibilities included arranging internships for students across the United States, and consulting with the internship programs in the University’s centres in Europe and Hong Kong. She is currently employed as the Community Wellbeing Program Manager with the Ian Potter Foundation in Melbourne. She is a strong believer in the importance of intervening early in a child’s life to develop desirable attitudes and behaviours, and is very keen to see the Foundation’s educational program introduced into all Australian primary schools.
Back to top
Natalie O'Brien
Natalie is the CEO, Melbourne Food & Wine Festival, and has been for the last six years. She spent seven years at Tourism Victoria working in marketing of hallmark events, including the Melbourne Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Prior to this she spent five years working with the Cultural Development Department of the City of Melbourne. Currently Natalie sits on the Victorian Winery Tourism Council.
Back to top
Kate Quirke
Kate has been involved in the Healthcare Industry for over 15 years, predominantly in the area of sales and marketing of information technology for the hospital sector. During that time she managed and directed large-scale sales campaigns across the Asia Pacific region. This involved interaction with corporations, Health Services and Government Health Departments. Kate has been a Director of several companies, including Healthnet and iSOFT Pty Ltd. Kate brings to the Foundation enormous expertise in the areas of sales and fund-raising, marketing and event management, and corporate governance. She is also passionate about food, the enjoyment it contributes to life and the opportunity it gives us to share with our families, friends and community.
Back to top
Lance Stephenson
Lance is a fellowship member of CPA Australia (Management Accounting). His forty-year career has spanned almost two decades in senior financial roles for not-for-profit organisations, followed by two decades in managing sales and marketing activities within the corporate sector. Lance is very enthusiastic about the way in which young children have responded to the Foundation's school programs, particularly the way in which they have embraced the preparation of their own meals and the sharing of this food with friends. His involvement in the Foundation has been motivated by a desire to see it grow into a financially robust organisation, able to influence the social eating interests of a whole new generation of adults.
Back to top
Past Board Directors
Founding member of the Board and Senior Project Officer for the Foudation, Anna Dollard, stepped down from her Board role in September of 2008, in order to focus her energies on the continuing work of providing resources for schools implementing the Kitchen Garden Program.
We acknowledge the contribution of former director Barbara Heine, as the first supporter of the Kitchen Garden Program and of the Foundation, and we thank her in particular for her generous sponsorship of the Kitchen Garden at Collingwood College.
Back to top
