Announcing Four New Board Members
Red Room Poetry Chair the Hon. Michael Pembroke today announced the appointment of four new directors to Red Room’s board.
Sharing a love of poetry and creative education, Daniel Browning, Ann Caro, Dr Jodi Edwards and Sophie Gee bring a wealth of experience from the worlds of media, academia and public education to help Red Room in its mission to fire the creativity of a new generation of Australian poets.
“I’m delighted to welcome four new directors to Red Room’s board,” Pembroke said. “Last year, Red Room celebrated its twentieth anniversary. This year, with the success of Contains Strong Language, Red Room looks forward to the next twenty, building opportunities and both domestic and international recognition for Australian poetry. Daniel Browning, Ann Caro, Dr Jodi Edwards and Sophie Gee will provide invaluable guidance and strategic insight to that mission.”
Sophie Gee is a Professor of English at Princeton University and Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Sydney. She is a published author of both academic monographs and fiction. Through her dual career in Australia and the USA, she will help Red Room as it continues to build an international profile through partnerships and collaborations throughout and beyond Australia.
Dr Jodi Edwards is an Indigenous Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong and an advisor to the NSW Education Standards Authority. Jodi was awarded her PhD from Macquarie University's Department of Indigenous Studies in 2021 for her thesis “Weaving the past into the future: The continuity of Aboriginal cultural practices in the Dharawal and Yuin Nations”. As a Dharawal language speaker and advocate, she is already a strong supporter of Red Room’s Poetry in First Languages programs and will continue to provide guidance and knowledge in that work.
Daniel Browning is a writer, broadcaster and sound artist. He hosts ABC Radio National’s The Art Show and leads ABC’s Indigenous Radio Unit. His book Close To The Subject: Selected Works won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. Daniel’s knowledge of the media landscape will help Red Room build on the success of Poetry Month and the Contains Strong Language festival.
Ann Caro is Principal of Chifley College Senior Campus in Mount Druitt and Deputy President of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council. She was previously an English teacher and then the first female Principal of Lithgow High School. Her experience in the public education sector will help Red Room expand its creative education mission with teachers and students. Ann replaces Andrew FitzSimons as public educationist on the board —Red Room’s longest-serving director — who will retire at the end of his second term later this year.
Daniel, Ann, Jodi and Sophie join Dr Tamryn Bennett, Emma Maple-Brown and Chi Ouyang, who joined Red Room’s board earlier this year, and long-time Board members Michael Pembroke and Martin Green.
“Next year, Red Room Poetry embarks on a new and bold five-year strategy. We are fortunate to be led by a board, whose new and longer-serving members together provide the necessary energy, wisdom and guidance to both preserve and build our reputation as Australia’s leading organisation for contemporary poetry.”
Meet the Board
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Michael Pembroke
ChairThe Hon. Michael Pembroke is Red Room Poetry's Chairman. He is a writer, historian, avid naturalist and former Supreme Court Judge. Michael was born in 1955 and served as a judge from 2010 to 2020. He is the author of four books including Trees of History & Romance (2009). His latest is Play by the Rules (2020).
Appointed to Red Room Poetry Board in 2020.
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Chi Ouyang
TreasurerChi brings financial and business leadership with more than 15 years of diverse commercial experience having worked in a variety of organisational contexts. He has a proven track record as a trusted business partner collaborating with leadership teams to drive organisational transformation and build sustainable business outcomes.
Chi is currently the Global Head of Commercial and FP&A at Bondi Sands, where he leads group planning and business performance. Prior to this, he held senior commercial finance positions with L'Oreal Australia in Professional Products and Luxury Cosmetics business divisions, where he led the execution of sound financial management and profitable growth. He also worked in corporate finance for the BBC based in London UK.
Chi has a long standing personal involvement and passion for the arts, having grown up in a literary family, and as a classical musician performing clarinet with various ensembles and repertoires.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and Information Systems from the University of Melbourne, studied in Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania, and is a qualified CPA.
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Tamryn Bennett
Board MemberTamryn Bennett is a poet and Artistic Director of Red Room Poetry living on Dharawal land. Her two poetry collections are Icaros (Vagabond Press) and phosphene (Rabbit Poetry). She is also editor of Líneas en tierra / Lines in land— a bilingual collection of Mexican poetry. Tamryn's poetic projects have been exhibited and published widely in Australia and internationally. She is a recipient of the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship and Australia Council Professional Development Grant. Tamryn has a PhD from the University of New South Wales where she also taught Creative Writing.
Related:
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Andrew FitzSimons
Board MemberAndrew has been the principal of Dapto High School in the southern Illawarra for the past 16 years; no plan to retire. Initially trained as an English teacher; he remains entranced by the power to language to encourage, to celebrate and to explore the human condition. Andrew is active in the NSW Secondary Principals' Council; chairing the Vocation Education and Training Reference Group. Dapto High School services and supports a middle/working-class community and has 1000 students. A focus on sustainability, Asian Literacy and 'student voice' are thoroughly infused across daily operations. Andrew started building his farmhouse in Kangaroo Valley nearly 40 years ago; its nearly finished! He runs cattle and trees. He is the foundation chair of Brogers Creek Land Care. Married with two fine children. Incurably optimistic. Andrew is honoured to also sit on the board of the 'Top Blokes Foundation'. The TBF does it utmost to nurture positive masculinity in the fine young men of NSW and Qld schools.
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Martin Green
Board MemberMartin has been a director of Sydney-based social purpose book publisher Pantera Press for 15 years, investing in the next generation of Australian reading and writing, and the Pantera Press Foundation, which focuses primarily on literacy programs for marginalised youth. He is also a musician and songwriter.
Appointed to the Red Room Poetry Board in 2022.
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Emma Maple-Brown
Board MemberEmma is a non-executive director and experienced senior pro bono lawyer who has spent over 20 years working in social justice connecting community need with professional skills. She specialises in the strategic delivery of pro bono legal services to socially, culturally and linguistically diverse groups including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability and people seeking asylum.
Emma has over 20 years’ experience working with and supporting a diverse range of pro bono clients including not for profit entities, charities, social enterprises, and vulnerable and disadvantaged individuals. She led and managed the Australian Pro Bono practice of global law firm Herbert Smith Freehills for over 8 years before moving to UNSW where she was the Director of the Office of the Pro Vice Chancellor Indigenous.
Emma is an experienced manager of large, diverse teams and has strong governance and strategic planning skills. She holds several Non-Executive Director roles as well as consulting to not for profit organisations on governance, leadership and strategy.
Emma is a graduate of the University of Sydney – BA (Hons)/ LLB (Hons) - and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
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Sophie Gee
Board MemberSophie Gee is an academic, novelist and essayist, currently living and working on Gadigal land. Sophie attended Sydney Girls’ High School and the University of Sydney, before moving to the US, where she completed a doctorate in English Literature at Harvard. Since 2002 she has been a member of the English Department at Princeton University, where she taught courses on the history of literature from Beowulf to the Romantics, history of satire and the rise of the novel, — as well as a course featuring live interviews with contemporary poets and novelists. She’s written an acclaimed historical novel The Scandal of the Season, about Alexander Pope’s comic poem “The Rape of the Lock.” She’s the author of two academic monographs, one about garbage and waste in 18thC English poetry, and the other about eating and migrating in the 18thC colonial world. She writes regularly about books and the value of humanities for a wide range of publications and is currently the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Sydney.
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Dr Jodi Edwards
Board MemberDr Jodi Edwards is a Yuin woman with Dharawal kinship connection who has dedicated her life to Community, Culture, education and Language.
Jodi is a certified Wayapa® Wuurrk Practitioner and a Cultural Experience, Language and Tourism Consultant who takes people on a magical journey through storytelling of Aboriginal peoples lives through the eyes of Mother Earth. Jodi shares stories from the oceans, mountains and rivers with Aboriginal Culture as the vocal point.
Nominated as 2023 NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year, she has spent more than 20 years advocating for improved cultural education across NSW. She was named 2022 Shellharbour Woman of the Year and Illawarra Regional NAIDOC Aboriginal Community Person of the Year for her Language and Cultural work across Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama and Shoalhaven local government areas.
Jodi was awarded her PhD from Macquarie University's Department of Indigenous Studies in 2021 for her thesis “Weaving the past into the future: The continuity of Aboriginal cultural practices in the Dharawal and Yuin Nations”.
As a D’harawal language speaker and advocate, she is passionate about awakening the language. She is a Curriculum Reform Advisor for Aboriginal Education with the NSW Education Standards Authority, providing expertise and advice to support the curriculum reform and delivery process. Jodi is also a Research Fellow at RMIT and a tutor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney. An author and advisor, Dr Edwards has published 4 local Dharawal Dreaming Stories, co-founded the Shellharbour Aboriginal Community Youth Association, established the Guwura Surfing program, works with the Illawarra Women’s Health Centre and continues to sit on the advisory board of Shellharbour Council.
Jodi has great love and respect for Yuin Country and the local Community who continue to teach and nurture her.
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Daniel Browning
Board MemberDaniel Browning is an experienced and highly respected First Nations journalist, radio broadcaster, writer and sound artist. Currently, he presents The Art Show on Radio National and is the Editor of Indigenous Radio with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), where he began his media career in 1994. A visual arts graduate, Daniel is also a widely published freelance writer on the arts and culture, with a particular focus on Australian Indigenous art. He is a former guest editor of Artlink Indigenous, an occasional series of the quarterly Australian contemporary arts journal. He is the inaugural curator of Blak Box, an award-winning, architect-designed sound pavilion commissioned by Western Sydney-based multiform arts company UTP to amplify the voices of First Nations artists and communities through live recorded storytelling. Daniel is a descendant of the Bundjalung and Kullilli peoples of far northern New South Wales and south-western Queensland.
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Ann Caro
Board MemberAnn Caro is currently the Principal of Chifley College Senior Campus in Mt Druitt and was previously the Principal at Lithgow High School . She trained as an English and drama teacher and has been privileged to work in schools with large numbers of disadvantaged students. Ann is an Australian Teaching Fellow , recipient of the Harvard Club of Australia’s leadership award and is Deputy President of the NSW Secondary Principal’s Council.
Ann is a ferocious advocate for public education as the foundation of democracy and believes in building the aspiration and opportunity for disadvantaged students as her primary goal. Her work has focussed on building reading and promoting school libraries and reading for pleasure in an educational environment that is too often focussed on the mechanics of reading.
She lives in the Blue Mountains with her partner of 40 years , has two daughters, two grandchildren and two rescue greyhounds.