State President
MLTAQ Executive Committee
Lester Ford
Secondary teacher, 21 years; 12 as Languages HOD, teaching Years 8-12. Set up 8 school cluster, introducing languages to Years 5-7 in early 90s.
18 years at QBSSS/QSA/QCAA advising senior teachers on languages syllabus implementation, assessment design and moderation/QA processes.
9 years Honorary Associate Professor, School of Languages and Cultures, UQ.
Concurrently & continuing, UQ course coordinator & lecturer, Languages Curriculum Studies since 2004; ACU lecturer-in-charge, Languages Curriculum, Pedagogy & Assessment (online) since 2017.
Interest: Initial teacher education, support for early career teachers, languages resources.
Dr Florence Boulard
Vice-President
Florence has experienced teaching students aged 3 to 86 years old. Her teaching, research and engagement work focuses on developing Pacific mindedness. An academic at James Cook University and a mother of two children, Florence aims for a healthy work-life balance and makes sure she spends quality time with her family.
Interest: Discovering new places and meeting new people, world cuisines, Pacific and Asian Languages, International Education, Exploring the ocean
Nathan Williams
State Secretary
Nathan began his career in the federal Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) where he worked in the APS for a few years, prior to coming to teaching as a Japanese teacher, and has experience in both state & catholic education in Central Queensland and South East Queensland.
He is passionate about developing opportunities for teachers’ professional development and networking, with a particular interest in quality pedagogy.
Interest: TPRS, Politics, International Relations
Joanne Aaron
Professional Learning Officer
Network Convenor - Central Queensland
inservice@mltaq.asn.au
mltaqconvenorcentralqueensland@gmail.com
Joanne has been teaching Japanese in the Central Queensland area for over 25 years and is passionate about supporting regional Languages teachers.
Interest: Joanne loves reading and all things Japanese!
Helen Best
Membership Officer
Helen has been the membership registrar and webmaster for the MLTAQ for many years. She taught French Japanese and German at several schools for many years then spent 26 years with QBSSS/QSA/QCAA. She is now retired from teaching
Itin Hadijah
Branch President - Peninsula
mltaqpresidentpeninsula@gmail.com
Itin has been involved in MLTAQ activities in the FNQ region since 2011. She pioneered an online speaking competition for Indonesian language, giving students in small regional schools the opportunity to showcase their skills.
Interest: Good food & good conversation!
Erin Peters
Branch President - French
mltaqpresidentfrench@gmail.com
Erin is a teacher of French between years 7-12 and has been an active member of the MLTAQ since 2016.
Interest: Erin is passionate about languages, is a beekeeper, a dog owner and a travel enthusiast. How fun would it be to travel to France with Erin as your guide!
Paula Hay
Branch President - German
Paula is currently an itinerant primary school teacher (servicing three schools) with 36 years experience. She began her teaching career in 1986 as a secondary school teacher, before moving across to the primary sector. Paula has been a member of MLTAQ Inc for 40 years, serving as the German convenor for the Network before establishing the German Branch in 2005. She is now a Life Member of the MLTAQ Inc.
Paula’s major contribution to the energising of the teaching of German is as the organiser of the Student Oktoberfest since 1987, now known as the Oktoberfest for Teens since 2008. She also coordinates and organises a range of inservice workshops and seminars for teachers of Queensland as well as interstate teachers in her role as a Multiplikatorin (train the trainer) for the Goethe Institut Australien.
Interest: Singing and dancing, Anything and everything German!, Travelling to Germany!, Developing resources for the teaching of languages/German
Alison Law
Branch President - Sunshine Coast
Alison is an accomplished educator with over 25 years of experience teaching Japanese across all year levels of high school and primary school in regional, rural and remote Queensland.
Interest: Alison enjoys spending time with her family, planning her next overseas holiday and when she is not teaching or MLTAQ-ing, you might find her cruising the boulevards of the Sunshine Coast on her Vespa.
Dr. Leigh Kirwan
Branch President - Gold Coast
Dr Leigh Kirwan once taught French and Japanese at Palm Beach - Currumbin SHS, but has been a lecturer in Japanese at Griffith University for 32 years. He has also studied Italian, Spanish and Chinese. He is ‘Mr Speech Contest’ and is an authority on taking student tours to Japan
Interest: Leigh loves planning student tours to Japan!
Alexander Walsh
Network Convenor - Japanese
mltaqconvenorjapanese@gmail.com
My name's Alexander and I am one of the Japanese Network Convenors. I worked as a secondary school Japanese teacher for about 8 years before returning to university to pursue post-graduate studies. Currently, I am researching the use and influence of kanji on Japanese literacy skills in Japanese bilingual education programs and standard language programs in Queensland schools.
Interest: Bilingual education; music, arts, and culture; martial arts; slowly teaching myself Korean; visiting Japan - Hokkaido is my go-to destination.
Esther Dohijo
Network Convenor - Spanish (Co-Convenors)
mltaqspanishconvenor@gmail.com
Born and bred in Madrid, Spain. After completing a PGCE in Spanish in the University of London, worked in secondary schools and colleges in Britain before moving to Australia.
Interest: Passionate about teaching her language and sharing the culture from Spanish speaking countries with students. She has worked in some of the top public schools in Brisbane for the last 10 years. She has a long experience as examiner for international examination boards. Together with Beatriz, she co-hosts "Español se escribe con ñ" a monthly programme in Radio 4EB and runs the MLTAQ Spanish Facebook page. Interest: travelling and spending times with her kids.
Beatriz Gil
Network Convenor - Spanish (Co-Convenors)
mltaqspanishconvenor@gmail.com
I'm Beatriz and I am from Soria, a beautiful town near Madrid, Spain. I worked previously as an ESL teacher, but soon after arriving in Australia, I found my passion for teaching my native language. Since then, I have enjoyed teaching Spanish in a variety of settings, from kindy to primary schools, secondary students, and adults.
Interest: During my free time, I compete in triathlons and powerlifting meets, or I just sail for fun. I am an active member of The Australian Spanish Socio-Cultural Association, collaborating in the celebration of different cultural events that bring Spanish culture closer. Esther (Spanish co-convenor) and I are also the broadcasters of "Español se escribe con ñ", a monthly programme focused on the teaching and learning of Spanish and the language itself, in radio 4EB.
Mark Ivory
Network Convenor - Townsville
mltaqconvenortownsville@gmail.com
My name is Mark Ivory and I am a Japanese teacher and am the Network Convenor for Townsville. I became interested in Japanese from growing up in Papua New Guinea and finding some of the WW2 relics and stories about the Japanese army and their efficiency and tenacity. I wanted to see an MLTAQ presence in Townsville because we have a great group of talented language teachers, and it makes sense to help one another to make our teaching easier. One of my students drew this caricature of me.
Interest: My interests are: music, movies (sci-fi, action, comedy, real life), martial arts (retired but still interested), camping, fishing, walking, outdoors, exploring, and technology. I think the best part about Japan is the sense of pride in one's work and attention to detail, and the people.
TBC
Network Convenor - Indonesian
mltaqconvenorindonesian@gmail.com
Please contact secretary@mltaq.asn.au if you are interested in supporting your colleague teachers as Convenor of the Indonesian Network.
We thank Fi Hudghton for all her work over many years.
Connie Lammertsma
Network Convenor - Italian
mltaqconvenoritalian@gmail.com
Connie is a teacher of the Italian language in Brisbane and for over 30 years has worked in schools across Brisbane in mainstream education and languages education with experience in the Catholic, independent, state and adult education systems. She has sat on various Languages Curriculum Review groups and was a pioneer of CLIL in Italian in primary schooling. Professionally, Connie is proactive and welcomes collaboration and innovation for the best possible outcomes for all.
Interest: Connie enjoys implementing the latest languages pedagogy but most of all loves spending time with her family, extended family and friends.
Wide Bay Convenor
Network Convenor - Wide Bay
mltaqconvenorwidebay@gmail.com
This position is currently vacant. If interested, please email secretary@mltaq.asn.au
Jaime Nakahara
Network Convenor - Darling Downs & South-West
Jaime Nakahara worked as a translator specialising in the biomedical field before becoming a secondary teacher of science and Japanese. She works in the western corridor of Brisbane and is passionate about opening up language and culture opportunities for students, pre-service teachers and beginner teachers in this area.
Beau Pett
Network Convenor - CCLT
Beau is a Japanese teacher working in Central Queensland at Gladstone SHS. Beau has been the CCLT convenor since 2019. He has a passion for comprehensible input methods and research based language pedagogy. Beau also helps to manage many of the MLTAQ social media accounts.
Interest: Bonsai and Language Pedagogy
Sherryl Saunders
Webmaster
Sherryl is currently working on her PhD, researching what supports are needed by Early Career Languages Teachers. She has been an itinerant Japanese teacher, working across Catholic primary schools in Brisbane and she worked as an Education Officer for Languages. She has, also, been an Assistant Principal in a P-12 school.
Sherryl has been a member of MLTAQ Inc for as long as she can remember and she has been an Executive Committee member since 1996, serving terms as President and as Inservice Officer. She felt privileged to receive Life Membership in 2021.
Interests: Working with beginning teachers, travel and family (but not necessarily in that order!).
CLIL Network
Network Convenor - CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning)
This position is currently vacant. If interested, please email secretary@mltaq.asn.au
