Anne Gorman  - Chairperson and Founding Director

Anne has served on a number of public and private sector boards including the NSW Law Foundation, the Cities Commission, ACOSS and the Management Investment Companies Licensing Board. In 1998 she co-founded the Australian Institute of Executive Coaching (now the Institute of Executive Coaching).

In July 2005 she was appointed by the NSW Catholic Bishops to Chair the Catholic Commission for Employment Relations to see the organization through changes wrought  by the ‘Work Choices’ legislation, and then the transfer of powers to ‘Fair Work’ Australia under the 2009 changes to industrial law.

Anne is a foundation member of Chief Executive Women and has played a significant role in actively encouraging women leaders to realise their true leadership potential.

Much of Anne’s professional life has been spent in the design of change management programs, including scenario planning and group facilitation and in the field of executive coaching as well as the support of the not for profit sector, particularly the childrens’ services sector where she has been engaged to provide advice to both State and Federal governments.

Anne has always been an active lobbyist for improved child care services and human services in general. Her appointments in this area include Executive Director of the Family and Children’s Services Agency to review and reform child services in NSW, United Nations representative in Australia for the International Year Of The Child, and she received a fellowship from an American Foundation to study child care services in the US.

Anne has received a number of awards, the most recent of which was the Commonwealth Government’s 2003 Centenary of Federation Medal, for services to business leadership in Australia. She is the author of several business books and published research reports, is the mother of five grown children and twelve grandchildren, and has been widowed since 1973.

Norma Tracey – Founding Director

Norma Tracey is a social worker and psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Throughout her career she has helped countless mothers, children and families to cope with the inherent challenges of birth and raising children. She worked at the Royal Alexander Children’s Hospital for ten years, and has been a psychotherapist in private practice for the last 30 years. She has written five books and booklets and had many papers internationally published. She is an acknowledged specialist in her field of parent children relationship.

In 1998, Norma helped develop Parent Infant Family Australia (PIFA).  Norma feels  an especially strong empathy for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and works with them via direct clinical work, and support and training of preschool staff.  She shares the vision of Gunawirra which works to ensure that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children receive adequate and appropriate emotional  support throughout their early childhood.

Norma’s work for Gunawirra primarily involves project development and training and counselling workers within Aboriginal childcare centres. She acts as a guide and sounding board for staff of the centres to discuss a wide range of topics including ongoing problems with individual children. She also speaks to community groups, coordinates fund raising and is involved in the day-to-day administration of the organisation.  She is writing a book on her work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and the idea of partnerships and companioning as the way forward.

Charles Handmer - Director

Charles Handmer comes from a corporate background and currently works with the global Human Resources company Drake International. He brings an additional depth of business management and technology skills to Gunawirra, and believes that communication and educational technology will play a major role in bridging the gaps between communities and cultures across Australia.

Originally with IBM, Charles has since managed a number of successful companies. He has also consulted to a wide range of public and private sector organisations, including not-for-profit organisations, assisting them in taking on the environmental, social and economic challenges of today.

Charles has lived in more than a dozen countries and has a keen interest in societies and cultures. His interest in Australian Aboriginal cultures was first sparked by interaction with Aboriginal people in Western Australia when he was a teenager. He feels strongly that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and history is fundamental to the Australian identity and essential to the future of Australia.