You can click the roles and names below to learn more about each of the Board members.
CHAIR
PROFESSOR JOHN O’TOOLE
John O’Toole was Foundation Chair of Arts Education at the University of Melbourne from 2005-2010. Before that he spent twelve years teaching in schools and working in community theatre in education, then twenty-five years as a lecturer, finishing as Professor of Drama and Applied Theatre at Griffith University. He has taught drama to all ages from early childhood to adult seniors, and on all continents. He has designed many curricula, including being Lead Writer for the Arts in the new Australian Curriculum. John developed the world’s first BA Degree course in Applied Theatre, now a common university study internationally. He has written or co-written numerous books on teaching and research, from Theatre in Education (1977) – the first book on the subject – to his co-editorship of Routledge International Handbook of Arts and Education (2016) and Education in the Arts (OUP 2017) and more recently Researching Conflict, Drama and Education (Springer 2019). He received the Griffith University Award for Excellence in Teaching 2005, the Drama Australia President’s Award in 2003, and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education Lifetime Achievement award in 2001. In 2014 he was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia for services to drama education. He is currently involved in long-term arts education projects in China and Singapore..
VICE CHAIR
DR SUSAN OSTLING
Dr Susan Ostling is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. She continues to supervise, mentor and examine higher degree students. Her research agenda is to explore ways for art in exhibition to provide a means to frame and question the conditions of contemporary society.
Susan has received several Australia Council development grants and been a recipient of several Griffith University joint research grants. Her curatorial projects have consisted of Place.Product which investigated the social history of clay, tiles and ceramic manufacture in the Ipswich area, Brisbane and involved three contemporary artists working with temporal ideas of clay and its products; Future Factor, which toured nationally, examined the impact of new technologies on craft and design practices; Lingua Franca considered the shared language between art, design and craft; The course of objects—the fine lines of inquiry unravelling the triggers that inspire art practice and lead to rigorous lines of inquiry; Radical Romanticism brought artists together whose work considered anew the experience of the everyday.
Susan has served on state and national arts advisory bodies. Her PhD investigated the shaping and defining of the contemporary art curator.
SECRETARY
GABRIELLA RITCHIE
Gabriella Ritchie is a Senior Associate at McCullough Robertson Lawyers in Brisbane. Gabriella’s specialty is in commercial litigation and dispute resolution, acting for a variety of clients. Gabriella is heavily involved in McCullough Robertson’s community partnerships program, and is also a member of the management committee of Queensland Public Interest Law Clearing House (QPILCH), a not-for-profit, community-based legal organisation providing pro bono legal services for individuals and community groups. Gabriella has a special interest in the arts, including ensuring that every person has the opportunity to access and enjoy the arts, no matter their situation or location.
TREASURER
ANDREW STEPHANOS
Andy Stephanos began his career in finance in the 1960s in CBCS bank. He returned to Brisbane and joined Mercantile Mutual Insurance in 1971 as an assistant accountant, undertaking management roles of State Accountant and State Administration Manager until 1991.
His formal qualifications include a Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) QUT (1983) and an MBA at UQ (1990), as well as holding CPA status for several years from 1984.
Andy qualified to work as a Financial Planner in 1993 and coupled this with bookkeeping services within a Chartered Accountancy firm. He was an Accountant with publicly listed Dark Blue Sea Ltd intermittently for 10 years from the year 2000.
Through his passionate support of Surf Lifesaving, Andy was appointed Executive Manager (Admin) in the Queensland Surf Lifesaving Foundation and assisted with fundraising in the 100th anniversary the Year of the Surf Lifesaver (2007).
Andy has provided bookkeeping services to a variety of commercial and private clients, including Flying Arts since 2006.
