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John has been teaching for more than 20 years. During this time, he has designed courses and taught at TAFE and universities at the undergraduate and post graduate levels, including helping PhD students manage research data.

In over 30 years of programming and data management, John has consulted for many companies large and small, including Westpac, Readers Digest, PwC, Thales and a research group for Novartis.

Along the way, John has achieved qualifications including an Associate Diploma in commercial data processing, certificates in Program Design and Networking, and progress towards a Masters degree.

John’s passion for learning has seen him teach himself several coding languages and explored programming in many ways including successfully programming computers to enhance the lives of people with disabilities.

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Colleen Cummins. Tutor of CCE

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Gus Ferreira is a native Portuguese speaker from Brazil who has had a passion for learning and teaching languages from a young age. After Gus turned 8, he was already teaching Portuguese to his immigrant siblings from Italy.

Gus has been delivering training in Brazilian Portuguese at the University of Sydney for 10 years, establishing himself as a highly experienced language facilitator. His extensive experience has allowed him to refine his teaching methods and connect with a diverse range of students, helping them to achieve higher proficiency in Brazilian Portuguese.

In addition to his teaching career, Gus has completed a Master's in Psychology, providing him with a deep understanding of human behaviour, learning processes, and language. His background in psychology supports and guides his teaching approach, allowing him to apply evidence-based strategies to language learning. Gus’s unique combination of linguistic expertise and psychological knowledge helps his students to excel.

Gus also believes language learning is a gateway to appreciating and embracing different cultures. He encourages his students to immerse themselves in Brazilian culture through music, literature, and social interactions, fostering a deeper connection with the language and its speakers.

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Lauren is a highly experienced digital marketing professional, boasting a decade of expertise in the realm of social media advertising. Her journey began in the UK, where she honed her skills in a fast-paced digital agency before making a strategic move in-house. Lauren played a pivotal role in developing the social media team for JUST EAT, the world's leading mobile takeaway ordering service (known as Menulog/EatNow in Australia).

In 2016, Lauren embarked on a new chapter in Australia, joining Mindshare, a global media agency, as their Paid Social Associate Director. Here, she managed a diverse portfolio of key clients and led a dynamic social media team. Lauren's trajectory reached new heights as she spent the last three years at Facebook and Instagram as a Client Solutions Manager. In this role, she managed the top 10 spending advertisers in Australia and New Zealand for Retail and E-commerce, showcasing her strategic prowess and deep understanding of the ever-evolving digital landscape. Lauren's extensive experience, spanning agencies, in-house roles, and tech giants, solidifies her as a go-to expert in the world of social media advertising.

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Director - Executive Leadership in Major Projects
John Grill Institute for Project Leadership, University of Sydney

As Associate Professor of Practice, Michael is the director of the Executive Leadership in Major Projects program at the John Grill Institute for Project Leadership, University of Sydney.

He is a highly skilled executive educator, facilitator and executive coach, and he specialises in leadership effectiveness and strategy implementation. He focuses on the development and performance of leaders and executive teams to better deliver on their individual and organisational strategy and purpose.

Michael’s first career was as a sea-going senior naval officer in the Australian Navy. While based in the UK he was course director for the Royal Navy’s Tactical and Strategic Development Program with responsibility for training and developing mid and senior British, Commonwealth and NATO naval officers worldwide.

Over the last two decades, his career has included roles as ANZ Managing Director of a global human capital consulting business, Principal Consultant - Executive Education for a leading Australian university, and a global role in a large insurance company as head of its Global Leadership Academy. He runs his own consulting business – Michael Curtin Consulting - and is a co-founder of XEd Space, working alongside several large universities to deliver significant executive development across all sectors. He is also a founding board member of the Centre for Social Purpose. He has a broad international experience with strong cultural ability and sensitivity.

Michael grew up in Fremantle, Western Australia. He has lived and worked in several Australian cities, the United Kingdom and the United States, and works extensively in SE Asia. He and his wife currently live in Sydney, and they have two adult sons. He enjoys trekking in wild places with his wife, playing classical piano and daydreaming in his garden.

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Associate Professor Carole M. Cusack of Studies in Religion at the University of Sydney has taught for the Centre for Continuing Education since 1985. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Studies in Religion and English Literature, a Master of Education (Educational Psychology), and a PhD, all from the University of Sydney. She is the author of Conversion Among the Germanic Peoples (Cassell 1998), The Essence of Buddhism (Lansdowne 2001), and Invented Religions: Imagination, Fiction and Faith (Ashgate 2010), as well as a number of edited volumes and academic articles. With Dr Christopher Hartney (University of Sydney) she is editor of the Journal of Religious History, and with Professor Liselotte Frisk (Dalarna University, Sweden) she is editor of the International Journal for the Study of New Religions. In 2010 she was the winner of the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Research Higher Degree Supervision. She has a close affiliation with University of Edinburgh, where she spends periods of research leave and participates in teaching exchanges.

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Christopher Cyrill is a published novelist, short story writer, playwright and poet. He began publishing his work in 1987 and served for many years as the fiction editor for HEAT magazine and the fiction editor of Giramondo Publishing.

His work history includes acting as the LOTE officer/Section Coordinator for the Australia Council of The Arts –Literature Unit, Director of the New South Wales Writers' Centre and as the Policy Officer at the Australian Society of Authors. He currently runs an editing/ mentoring and manuscript assessment business named The Collected Fiction.

He has taught Creative Writing at Wollongong, Macquarie, Sydney, Newcastle and New South Wales universities.

Writing History (Condensed)

• Author of two novels, The Ganges and Its Tributaries Penguin 1993 and Hymns for the Drowning, Allen & Unwin 1999.
• Third novel Quarternion – Crown and Anchor Volume 1 a work in progress
• Published over 100 poems, reviews and stories both within Australia and internationally between 1987 –2013
• Four radioplays written, produced and broadcast by ABC Radio Drama
• Fiction editor of Heat International Literary journal 2001-2008
• Fiction editor of Giramondo publishing 2003- 2008
• Essayist/Reviewer for journals such as HEAT, Meanjin, ABR, Southerly, Australian Author, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Literary Review and the Australian newspaper
• Reader/Host/Chair at all major Australian literary festivals and a variety of academic conferences
• Winner of the Marten Bequest Scholarship 1993, Varuna Residency 1994 & 2010, Delamotte Studios Residency 1995, Australia Council Literature Grants 1998 & 2004 & 2009, shortlisted for the NSW and Victorian Premiers' Awards, 1994

Testimonials

“Cyrill's prose is remarkably controlled, poetic in pitch and rhythm, without the self-conscious verbosity that is too often mistaken for the same…Calvino is present, even, perhaps unavoidably, Proust.” - James Bradley, novelist

“Christopher Cyrill read my 200,000 word novel and gave me detailed suggestions that were not only helpful and practical, but which also managed to be sensitive to my deeper literary aims. His comments are pure and focused, from one writer to another: there is no ego, no misunderstanding. He knows how long it takes and how hard it can be to edit and rework a novel countless times. Yet his feedback does not shy away from the hard truths; he gets to the nub of the manuscript and works to make it the best it can be. I would not hesitate in recommending him to any writer at any level of experience.”" - Dr. Katerina Cosgrove, novelist

“In the brief space of a semester, Chris was able to improve my writing dramatically by greatly enhancing my skills as an editor and my awareness as a reader. He has always emphasised the importance of restraint, of writing in a clear, purposeful manner and the need to develop strong systems of images when attempting to bring a text to life. He was also able to demonstrate how a writer can dissect a text and come to understand how grammar is a means of modifying the modality and pace of a piece of writing. It goes without saying that I strongly recommend Chris as a teacher and as a mentor. I should add that having a writer of Chris' calibre teaching you is a great aid to any student who wishes to take writing seriously and his knowledge of the industry enables him to instruct such students on the best path for progress.” - John Leonard, writer

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Louise received a BA (Hons) specializing in medieval literature from the University of Sydney in 1990. Her 1997 PhD thesis, also completed at the University of Sydney, examined the concepts of political and literary authority in the writings of medieval women. Her two main current research areas are medievalism and medieval women’s writing. Medievalism examines post-medieval receptions and constructions of the Middle Ages, and considers the impact of these constructions on modern cultural, political, and social life. Louise’s work on Australian medievalism examines the cultural and ideological role played by medievalism in colonial and former-colonial societies. Her work on Christine de Pizan focuses on Christine’s political writings, examining how Christine deploys notions of gender and ethnicity to formulate models of political action and to authorize her own intervention into the late medieval political sphere.

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Dr Garry Darby is an Art Historian from the University of Sydney. Garry was born in Sydney and educated at the Universities of New England and Sydney. He has three degrees in Art History culminating with a PhD in that discipline.

Whilst he lectures in a wide range of art-historical subjects such as Modernism, Australian Art, Art of the Italian Renaissance and French Impressionism his specialty is Australian Aboriginal art.

During September 2006 and again in 2007 Garry lectured throughout Britain in places as far apart as London, Cambridge, Bath, Ledbury and Glasgow. He has also lectured on Aboriginal art in Brussels, New York, Tokyo and Nagoya.

In Sydney Garry lectures regularly for the CCE and has done so for the past 15 years. He is currently writing “Art from Utopia and Beyond” which will be published in mid-2013 and is the author of four other books.

In recent times Garry has staged very successful exhibitions of Indigenous art at Mary Place Gallery, Paddington for the Warmun (WA) Community and a private exhibition at the same gallery in May 2008.

He arranges “Master Classes” for advanced students of Indigenous art and is sought after as an adviser for corporate collections

Before taking up a university career he was a professional painter, designer and photographer.

For the past fifteen years Garry he has led groups of devoted adult students, collectors and academics on flying tours of Arnhemland and Central Australia to investigate Aboriginal art in far-flung places such as Elcho Island and the country west of Alice Springs. He has also lectured extensively on the enigmatic “Bradshaw” and Wandjina cave paintings in Australia’s Kimberley region.

Garry was featured in the ABC radio documentary on Aboriginal art, “Looking for Johnny W”.

During September 1999, he was part of a group that staged the important Aboriginal Art “Desert Dreaming” exhibition at the United Nations Building, New York.

He has been a visiting lecturer at the Art Gallery of NSW delivering sessions on Romanticism, J M W Turner, van Gogh and much more.

At sea Garry has presented lectures aboard Cunard and P&O ships on Australian segments of their world cruises. This includes a recent engagement aboard the wonderful ocean liner “Queen Elizabeth”. In early 2012 Garry presented lectures aboard the “Paul Gauguin” as she cruised the South Pacific. Since 2000 he has been a guest lecturer aboard the “Coral Princess” along the Kimberley Coast of north – western Australia. Subjects of talks and expeditions there include the enigmatic “Wandjina” and “Bradshaw” cave paintings.

Formerly a volunteer guide at the AGNSW Garry has gone on to train volunteer guides at Hazelhurst, Manly and Mosman regional galleries in Sydney and at the Western Plains Cultural Centre Dubbo, NSW. Now as part of his practice he is advisor to corporate and individual collectors.