DR JOHN WEST
PRESIDENT
Email: president@mawa.edu.au
John is an independent mathematics education consultant, author and sessional lecturer at The University of Western Australia. He has taught mathematics at primary, secondary and tertiary levels and has consulted for the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and the Government, Catholic and Independent education sectors in Western Australia. John is the WA Project Officer for The University of Adelaide’s Maths in Schools program and a fly-in/fly-out numeracy consultant for Coober Pedy Area School and the Port Augusta district in South Australia.
PAULA MCMAHON
EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Email: eo@mawa.edu.au
Paula McMahon’s original involvement with MAWA was to present at conferences before taking a more active role by assisting with the organisation of conferences and encouraging other teachers to present. Paula has been convening conferences for MAWA since 2010 and has coauthored several MAWA texts including Essential Mathematics Unit 3 and 4. Paula prides herself on advocating the needs of high school mathematics teachers to the committee when making decisions. In 2016 Paula was honoured in becoming a MAWA Life Member.
DR JACK BANA OAM
BOARD DIRECTOR
Jack Bana has been a member of the MAWA Committee every year since 1978. In most of that time he has coordinated the MAWA student activities. He is a past president of MAWA and an honorary life member, as well as being a Fellow of the Australian College of Education. His full-time profession was as a senior lecturer and also Director of the Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Centre at Edith Cowan University. He has presented at State, national and international conferences; as well as being the co-author of many mathematics textbooks for both students and teachers.
RACHAEL WHITNEY-SMITH
BOARD DIRECTOR
Rachael is the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics specialist at ACARA and is currently undertaking her PhD at Notre Dame University in Mathematics Education. Rachael is passionate about applied mathematics and teaching mathematics through rich tasks that engage student inquiry thinking. Rachael has worked on National and International projects focussed on improving the mathematical outcomes of Australian students and has actively participated in the OECD 2030 project through her role at ACARA. Rachael has been the Executive Officer and Professional Learning consultant for MAWA and is currently on the Memberships and Media Sub-committee managing the social media and promotion of MAWA across WA.
ROBERT BERWICK
BOARD DIRECTOR
Robert has over 20 years of teaching experience having taught the majority of these in the Great Southern region where currently he is the Head of Department at Albany SHS. Rob’s aim is to create classrooms where mathematics is made sense of and errors are valued. He believes that all students can learn, and that mastery is possible with the appropriate effort and time. Rob enjoys using low-floor/high-ceiling task with students and is constantly amazed where students go mathematically with these tasks. Being the MAWA Regional Ambassador for the Great Southern region provides Rob with a great opportunity to connect with the wonderful maths teachers in the area. He would like to foster greater collegiality between the mathematics teachers in the district who have a wealth of experience and expertise and to assist in providing opportunities for students to have positive experiences in mathematics through the support of MAWA.
RACHEL THEUNISSEN
BOARD DIRECTOR
Rachel is a Secondary Mathematics teacher at Lesmurdie SHS. She has been a volunteer for the Australian Mathematics Trust since 2012, is currently the WA State Director of the AMC and is working on the Discovery Series as a presenter. Rachel also teaches an online Gauss class for the WA Maths Problem Solving Program, which is a great initiative of MAWA. She has run workshops at different times, for students and teachers, including presenting at State and National Conferences, and her main focus is problem solving. Early in her career Rachel co-wrote a series of text books and more recently has been involved with writing worked solutions for current Year 12 text books.
She has 19 years experience teaching students remotely. Her work has seen her teach students all over Western Australia, as well as those studying the WA Curriculum but living in Europe and the US. One of Rachel’s goals each lesson is to ensure that students are actively involved in Mathematics, that they are doing concrete activities in class and moving around the room to different workstations or to participate in diverse activities. It is Rachel’s aim to engage students in Problem Solving, building skills that they will carry with them when they leave school. In 2020 Rachel joined the MAWA Board and is looking forward to being part of the Student Activities Committee.
JULIE RICHARDS
BOARD DIRECTOR
Julie is the Director of IETPL, the WA owned and operated publisher of “Numero”, a world class mental maths game. As the daughter of Numero’s creator, she has been involved with the game since its inception 28 years ago. Julie also runs the Interschool Numero® Challenges each year, for both primary and secondary schools.
She has a Bachelor of Education (BEd) from Murdoch University, having previously worked as a Special Needs Education Assistant.
Julie runs professional learning for staff, as well as student or parent workshops to instruct, develop and promote the use of Numero in all areas of maths education.
SHEILA GRIFFIN
BOARD DIRECTOR
Sheila has a passion for improving the teaching of mathematics by supporting schools and teachers through targeted professional learning and practical differentiated classroom ideas. Sheila is co-author of Teaching Mathematics Through Story Books 1,2 and 3 with Dr Paul Swan which was shortlisted at the national publication awards in 2022.
Sheila has a primary school background working in the state school sector where she had a range of Numeracy and leadership roles including the West Australian Project Officer for the teaching of Consumer and Financial Literacy education through the MoneySmart Program. Sheila has also delivered “hands on” Primary Maths workshops at Murdoch University.
She has received several awards with recognition at a national level when she was awarded an Excellence in Teaching Mathematics and Outstanding Primary Maths Teacher of the Year from the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI). Additionally, she received an award for her whole school approach to the teaching of Consumer and Financial Literacy.
ALAN SADLER
BOARD DIRECTOR
A Londoner by birth, Alan attended Bristol University and taught in the Bristol area for a number of years, quickly rising to Head of Department. Moving to Perth, he taught at Rossmoyne SHS for many years. Alan is the author of over 50 school mathematics books and has presented many sessions at MAWA conferences and elsewhere.