Peter Lawless

Peter Lawless is Director of The Lawless Edge Ltd, a director of Tuatara Maori and father of five sons. Peter works as an independent facilitator and trainer in the Te Tau Ihu o te Waka a Maui, the top of New Zealand’s South Island. Trained originally as a freshwater ecologist, Peter worked in environmental management and conservation for twenty years in the New Zealand public service before launching out independently in 2005. Peter’s professional practice includes training facilitators, developing strategic plans in biodiversity, biosecurity, and education, assisting teams perform better, mentoring and coaching clients, supporting policy development, trouble shooting management issues in organisations and working with industry on better environmental practice.

Peter is passionate about the landscape and people of the top of the South Island. He is currently the independent facilitator for Te Korowai o te Tai o Marokura, the Kaikoura Coastal and Marine Guardians and is engaged in implementing the Nelson Biodiversity Strategy and the Top of the South Marine Biosecurity Strategy that he facilitated. When not facilitating and strategizing Peter is parenting, cycle racing (go Team Squeeze), tramping and yachting.

Melanie Ruth Shauer

I grew up under the shadow of Mt Taranaki the place I still refer to as home.  My family is of English/Austrian decent.  I have a very strong connection to my Tyrolean heritage (dad’s side) and one day aim to have a wee flock of sannen goats (with Austrian bells). My English heritage is very much a seafaring heritage and hence I am a lover of the ocean and all that it holds (mums side). 

I have fulfilled various roles throughout my short career.  Most of them have been focused around people and the environment and bridging the gap between the two.

I have a growing passion for facilitation and the role it plays in changing people’s hearts and minds in regards to the way we treat one another and the environment which supports us.  One day I would love to work with youth a risk in and for the environment.  I am currently employed as a Resource Care Coordinator for Environment Canterbury in Timaru. I love my job and want to do as much facilitation as possible.  Sometimes it can be hard to facilitate when you are there as a regional council officer as people can not see you as an impartial being. 

The Zenergy facilitation model totally resonates with me; it is a guiding light in my developing being.

My partner and I spend a bit of time romping around the hills hunting and gathering.  This is when I feel great and it is my time to recuperate and reconnect with nature.  I love lizards and have been doing a little bit of volunteer work in establishing some lizard monitoring plots.

Barbara Graves

Barbara Graves was born in Inverness, Scotland grew up on firstly the West Coast and then the East Coast, completing studies in St. Andrews and Edinburgh.

First job was as an outdoor pursuits instructor in the English Lake District, before training as primary teacher. Teaching took me around Scotland and England and ended up as the school principal on a small island off the West Coast of Scotland where we lived for 12 years.
Married with two children, several life choices led us to move to New Zealand in 2003 where we have made Nelson our home.

I worked in the Health Promotion team of the Public Health Service for 3 and a half years and since then have been doing contract work – report writing, facilitating, training and worked with ALAC to organise the programme  for one of their conferences held in the Rutherford Hotel in Nelson earlier this year.

I have undertaken stage one and two facilitation training and have spent the last year working with Peter on a contract for the Ministry of Education.

The loves of my life are family, escapes to the hills (on my own or with friends and family) and being on the water – preferably under sail. I get inspired and renewed in the great outdoors - of which there is plenty on our doorstep here in Nelson.

Chris Harkess

Chris Harkess is a teacher educator, facilitator and trainer. After nine years with the University of Canterbury, College of Education, Chris is now working in Auckland as a coach, facilitator, teacher educator and trainer for community, educational organisations and tertiary institutions. Chris has facilitated projects such as facilitation training, strategic planning, developing effective communication processes, conflict resolution, team relationships, project evaluation, as well as coaching and supervision for peers, managers and team leaders. Chris developed a passion for facilitation after beginning her facilitation training with Zenergy in 1998 and gaining a Zenergy Diploma in 2003. She has also worked part time with Zenergy as a consultant facilitator and in training to co-lead Stage 1 Facilitation courses. Chris has a love of learning and after completing an M.Ed (Adult Learning) has conducted a 12 month research and submitted a thesis for an M.Ed (Hon.). Chris divides her time between Taupo and Auckland, enjoying the quiet and magnificent outdoors of the Central North Island and the buzz of Auckland city. Family time is particularly important, especially time with her funky grand daughter Lucie. Favourite pastimes such as tai chi, walking, yoga and singing (with a choir rather than solo!) have a greater prominence now less time is devoted to study! A recent triathlon was a buzz! More are planned!

Berylla Jones

Born in New Zealand, I grew up on a dairy farm. It was here that a love of the natural world developed and fostered.  Since that time I have never lived far from the countryside. Even when I lived in Boston, USA. I was on a farm!!!!! I now live in Murchison, a small community in the mountains of the South Island. Murchison is renowned worldwide for its great rivers and is a mecca for kayakers. I enjoy its bush-covered hills as well.

I trained as an early childhood teacher and have continued my interest in education throughout my life. I currently coordinate the Adult Community Education program for our community and tutor in many subjects. I am also co coordinator for a non-profit community group that provides community development and activities for the whole township. 

I am very interested in health. I am developing a small herbal business and am a certified Healing Touch Practitioner.

I have recently become a grandparent and am enjoying this chapter of life.

Three years ago I found Zenergy and began a journey learning about facilitation. Being on the creation team is allowing me the space to practice the skills learnt and to give back to the facilitation community.

Shirley O’Toole

Shirley is a relative newcomer to the AFN, having attended her first conference in Adelaide 2007. She has been facilitating throughout her career in human services and in 2007 established her business which is based in Hobart, Tasmania. Her main areas of interest are in facilitating personal change, believing that empowered people participate more in their communities, and reflective and soul based leadership. Shirley is a mother and grandmother, a singer/songwriter/storyteller and improviser. She is a member of Hobart Playback Theatre Company www.hobartplayback.com.au and is the convenor of the 2010 AFN conference.

Photo Left - “We’re pushing forward” Shirley sings the song she wrote for the opening of the 2008 AFN conference in Bathurst. (Photo courtesy of Ashley Bland – Strangedaisy Imagery)

Joan Firkins

Joan Firkins is a facilitator based in Adelaide, South Australia with over 25 years experience in facilitation both in Australia and the U.S. and has worked extensively with community groups enabling participative planning towards effective governance at a local level. Joan is a psychology graduate with a focus in the field of organisational psychology and human resources. Joan has also worked with Dale Hunter and Stephen Thorpe to co-champion the International Association of Facilitators Statement of Values and Code of Ethics as part of a two year international task force. In 2007 Joan was part of the South Australian facilitation team which hosted the Australasian Facilitator's Network Adelaide Conference and is privileged to be a part of the 2009 Nelson AFN Conference Creation Team. Her work supports just and sustainable change processes.

Stephen Thorpe

Stephen Thorpe is a facilitator specialising in the online domain and trains others in online facilitation. Working with Zenergy, he has been researching ways to enhance the effectiveness of online groups. His PhD explores facilitation as a vital domain in assisting online groups with a focus on the benefit of story and narrative in online relationship development.

Stephen is the Secretary of the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) and the Editor-in-Chief of the IAF’s Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal. He is on the Advisory Panel of of the Global Facilitators Service Corps (GFSC), Heart Politics, The New Zealand Computer Society, Toastmasters (District 72: Club 7686) and the Participation Community of Practice - part of New Zealand's E-government Strategy.

Stephen holds a Zenergy Diploma of Facilitation and a Bachelor of Business with first class honours from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) where he has a background researching computer-assisted group work. He was part of a team who researched, developed and commercialised a multi-site large interactive digital whiteboard. Stephen has also managed projects developing online and cd-rom based tutorials for systems modelling. He is a part-time lecturer at AUT teaching on the Human Computer Interaction paper in the Bachelor of Business degree.

Stephen has recently written a chapters on The Use of Storytelling in Building Online Group Relationships in the Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication, and a chapter entitled Facilitation Online in The Art of Facilitation and has previously co-written a chapter on Facilitator Values and Ethics in the IAF Handbook of Group Facilitation with Dr. Dale Hunter.