About Our Team

Ann is a registered nurse with over 50 years’ experience and whose entire nursing career has focused on the provision of high-quality personalized support to clients who are aged or have a disability and wanted to use her expertise and passion for the industry to train the next generation of support staff. Her favourite thing about her role is being able to work with people who are as committed as she is to achieving the Akadia vision.

When she isn’t in the office she can be found walking, either with her dog Cody at dawn or away on a multi-day hike in a place most of us can’t pronounce.

Qualifications: Registered Nurse, Cert IV Disability, Cert IV Training and Assessment, Diploma of Management, Diversional Therapist.

Prior to founding Akadia, Simon had a fulfilling career in the Army where he gained valuable experience in training systems and operations management that helped his transition into leading a registered training organisation.  His favourite thing about Akadia is that he gets to work with a team of passionate people who share the Akadia vision. 

Simon is a competitively social tennis player, or socially competitive depending on the way you look at it.  It may surprise you to know that yoga is also one of his loves, it allows him to play tennis and playing tennis means he needs to go to yoga.

Qualifications: Diploma of Training and Assessment Systems, Student of Life

Michelle began her career as an accountant working on special projects for companies like the Golden Casket, Boeing Australia and London Electricity.  She then moved to teaching English to speakers of other languages and on to training teachers and also training trainers.  In the move to language teaching,  she also became very involved in online learning and have developed online courses as well as trained through them for nearly 10 years. 

Michelle feels that everyone knows someone that needs support or care and that should be provided by an appropriately trained care-giver and sees Akadia as playing a vital role to help to make that a reality.  

Michelle is always working on some kind of new craft project and especially loves hobbytex. 

Qualifications: Bachelor of Accounting and Information Technology

After 10 years working as a support worker Ashleigh wanted to use her passion for the industry to train future workers so she moved into being a trainer and assessor. 

The thing that she loves most about working at Akadia is that she is able to provide a truly individualised service to students to meet their learning needs.  Working at Akadia also gives her the flexibility to spend time with her family and doing things that she enjoys like going to the gym.  Somewhat surprisingly while she admits to knowing close to nothing about trucking some of her favourite shows are Outback Truckers and Highway through Hell.  Ashleigh is also an op shop fanatic and every new outfit she wears to the office always has a story to tell.

Qualifications: Certificate IV Training and Assessment, Certificate III in Individual Support,  Certificate IV Disability, Certificate IV Leadership and Management

Katrina’s role includes training students for Cert lll in Aged Care, delivering VET in Schools training to school students undertaking Cert ll Health Service Support, and industry specific workshops. She has also recently commenced working with the Community Care arm of Akadia.

After completing her training as a Registered Nurse at the Royal Brisbane Hospital in 1991 she moved to Toowoomba and worked mainly at St. Vincent’s and then later at Clifton Community Health Services. She also spent a few years teaching with the Health and Life Sciences Faculty at TAFE Queensland.

Katrina’s favourite thing about working at Akadia is that it allows her to share her passion for aged and dementia care.  Living on a mixed farm west of Toowoomba she is grateful for the wide-open spaces and fresh air.

Qualifications: Registered Nurse, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, Graduate Certificate in Palliative Care, Diploma of Dementia Care.  Currently studying a Diploma in Clinical Aromatherapy, focusing on aged and palliative care.

Shelley has been a Trainer/Assessor for Akadia for 4 years and currently trains Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing).  While she loves most aspects of her job she says by far the most rewarding is to see the sense of achievement on the faces of her students when they accomplish something they didn’t think they could. Most of her working life has been in the aged care sector, 8 years as an Assistant in Nursing and 10 years as a Registered Nurse.  

When she is not working she loves spending time with her family, enjoys reading and doing the odd bit of interior decorating.   Shelley is very much a morning person and starts every day watching the birds from her front verandah.

Qualifications: Bachelor of Nursing, Graduate Diploma of Psychology, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

Karen is a Registered Nurse with extensive experience in the disability sector, in community nursing and in acute and clinical care environments.

Karen is devoted to providing excellent healthcare and prides herself on paying attention to detail and bringing a caring smile to patients of all ages and needs.  Working at Akadia enables Karen to provide quality healthcare to people in their own homes in a friendly and supportive environment.  

Outside of the office Karen is quite the artist and enjoys making the most amazing mosaics.

Qualifications: Registered Nurse

Kylie’s role is to assist with Community Care enquiries along with supporting the Community Care Nursing team.

The thing that she values most about working at Akadia is knowing that she is part of a supportive and compassionate team who values integrity and strive to achieve optimal outcomes for clients through high quality support and care.

Kylie has two young sons who love outdoor adventures, and spend most weekends going for bike rides, bush walks and playing at the park.

Faye has spent 42 years working for the Queensland Government in the Disability Sector. Faye was a direct support worker for the first 20 years of her career. The following years were spent in supervisory roles, until she followed her interest in supporting new support staff to gain their Certificate IV in Disability.

After her retirement from the government, Faye joined the team at Akadia as an Online Marker.

The thing Faye loves the most about working at Akadia is the flexibility. Working for Akadia makes her feel like she is still contributing to the Disability sector, but still gives her the time to follow her passion of helping animals, by volunteering for RSPCA Qld and spending time cross stitching.

QUALIFICATIONS 

Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

Certificate IV in Disability