The Beans Team!

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 President

Julie has taught and written materials for students and teachers in U.K Australia, Canada USA.

Her leadership roles include Head of Education at the Australian Museum, Manager,  Academic Learning Centre, International College of Management Sydney and General Manager of the Peer Support Foundation. 

She founded Leading and Learning which developed projects for charities, businesses, and schools.  She loves reading, writing, singing, art  bushwalking  and travel. 

Her novel Nowt But Drippin’ was published in 2019. She is working on 'Sisters' an anthology of short stories.

Treasurer

My working life led to such diverse experiences as teaching, teacher education, educational research and school administration in United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States.  

I love to sketch, cycle, bush walk, cook and play bass guitar.   Travel is my passion and I have visited over 30 countries.  

My creative writing journey has only just begun, which why I joined ‘Spill the Beans”!

Vice President, Challenge and Book Editor

Sarah's  background is a qualified Naturopath and is currently taking a hiatus. Prior to naturopathy Sarah was a freelance photographer.

Sarah is currently creating our future books of stories and poems, and is enjoying reading and editing the challenge entries.

Secretary

I worked for forty years in the health sector after training at St Vincent’s Hospital Darlinghurst, where I qualified as a Registered Nurse. 

I also hold a Graduate Diploma in Nursing Management and a Master of Public Health. 

During my career I have worked in public, private and not-for-profit organisations holding a wide variety of positions, many being at management and executive level. 

While I have retired from the health sector, my experience means I have acquired management and governance skills. It would be a shame not to continue to use those skills. 

Being on the Board of Easylink Community Transport and now on the team at Spill the Beans as the Secretary means I continue to make use of my skills and experience.

 During my working life, my writing needed to be factual, to be evidence based. Now, with those restrictions lifted, I want to explore my capacity for creative writing. I have a Graduate Certificate in Writing, I’ve joined Spill the Beans, so it’s time to get writing.  

Grants and Fundraising

I joined Spill the Beans to get motivated with my writing, as well as to meet people with a similar interest. It is great to see the wonderfully diverse stories written by members – who come from all walks of life.

I have started many a story – and am hopeful being part of the Beans will spur me on to complete something substantial. I find the writing challenges are fun and really look forward to them.

I have lived in the Manly area for 30 years but am not a Northern Beaches native, having migrated to Australia as a child and grown up in western Sydney. I have lived in Queensland and on the NSW mid-north coast and have a daughter who lives in Melbourne.

For the past two decades, I have worked in local government, mainly in community development.

I am interested psychology, music and art and enjoy walking in nature and swimming.

I hope to put my skills to good use for the Beans and help raise funds for the group.

Photographer

Laurie Wilson grew up on the Northern Beaches and spent most of his working like as a research scientist, specialising in applications of physics and computer science in medicine.  

He worked at the Universities of Sydney and Oxford and later led research groups in CSIRO in medical imaging research, with a focus on clinical ultrasound.  

Since retiring, he has revived a strong interest in photography, and is now a frequent speaker to U3A (University of the Third Age) and other community groups on his interests in science and photography. 

Challenge and Book Editor

Twitter Editor   

Ambra describes herself as a recovering arts administrator turned freelance writer. I’ve written for lifestyle sites and magazines on my experiences as a sole carer and have been included in a number of short story anthologies.  I’m a crazy cat lady and also dabble in watercolour painting and gardening. 

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@SpillBeans321

Author, Jamie Brooke produced our first eBook of stories and poems.  She provides the 'Beans' with advice about social media and has recently established the publishing company 'Brave Moon Publishing '