NZRA President

B.Ed., M.Ed (Waikato)

I am proud to be the national president of such a dynamic and passionate group of literacy educators. Involvement in this organisation has provided me with many professional development and leadership opportunities and I have made lifelong friends along the way. I became involved with the Waikato Reading Association in the mid 90s and held several committee positions over the years before becoming NZRA Secretary in 2003/4. I then became an executive member and finally took on the role of President in 2008. I have always been passionate about teaching literacy and am currently a lecturer in the Arts and Language Education Department, Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato. I teach Literacy Education papers to primary preservice teachers and postgrad students both face to face and through the online medium. Prior to this I was a classroom teacher in various schools in the King Country and Te Awamutu areas. I am also a member of the International Development in Oceania Committee (IDOC) and will be chair of this committee during 2012-14.

President Elect.

B.Ed.

Kia ora koutou. I am Wendy Morgan. In my professional role, I am one of the Associate Principals of Westbrook School in Rotorua. I am currently President-elect. I have been a member of three different councils across New Zealand. I have held the positions of President, Vice-President, Past President, Secretary, Observer and Delegate within our local council. I have also held the position of National Secretary for two years.
I am passionate about literacy. I am always very interested and focused in looking for interesting and varied pedagogy to encourage children and teachers to gain more knowledge to improve their practice of teaching literacy. I feel honoured to be part of an association that promotes literacy across different groups of people in our community and further afield.

Executive member (2010-13)

I am Associate Principal at Napier Central School, and teach a class of Year 5/6 students. I am currently the leader of the HBLA organising committee for the 2012 NZRA Conference, “Reading Between the Vines”. We are very excited about the opportunity to host this event in Hawke’s Bay from 30 September – 3 October and the committee is working hard to make it a very memorable event. I was President of HBLA before taking on the role of conference convenor. Before coming to Napier 6 years ago, I was involved in the Manawatu Literacy Association for many years and I held positions of treasurer and delegate. Involvement in NZRA local councils and then becoming an executive member has enabled me to meet many wonderful people who share a passion for literacy and learning. So many fantastic initiatives are taking place in councils around New Zealand, and it is a privilege to be part of a group that strives to promote literacy through quality professional learning.

NZRA Executive member (2011-14)

M.Ed (DCE), Ph.D (Curtin, Perth)

I am currently working for University of Otago College of Education as a School Support Facilitator. I work mainly in the Secondary Literacy, Curriculum-English and Pathways/ Careers Development. Recently I completed my doctorate from Curtin University, Perth, WA.
I have been working for UOCE for 7 years, working in secondary schools in the Otago and Southland regions. I have been a member of NZRA for a number of years. I was a secondary school teacher for about 23 years prior to joining Education Support Services. I am passionate about literacy and helping schools to improve the literacy skills of their students.

NZRA Treasurer.

M.Ed, Dip. Teaching

Yr 3 & 4 Senior teacher, Greytown Primary School. I have always had an interest in Literacy and have been involved with NZRA since graduating, as a mature student, in 1987. My first experience of NZRA Annual Meeting was as the Taranaki Delegate in the early 1990’s. At that meeting I met many people who are still involved with NZRA. I was on the organising committee for Wellington Conference in 2003. After moving to the Wairarapa in 2004 I discovered the local Council had been in recess for approximately 13 years. After discussion, with several local Principals and teachers, I began the process to start up again. In late 2004 Wairarapa Literacy Council began and became part of NZRA. I have been president of our local council and delegate to Annual Meeting from 2004 until 2009 when I was elected to National Executive. After completing my two year term I continued on as Treasurer. I am a member of the Oceania committee and I look forward to being more fully involved in this IRA committee.

NZRA Secretary