" Keynote Speakers at the AMASC World Congress in Sydney, Australia in April 2002 "

FRANK BRENNAN SJ AO

Frank Brennan, a Jesuit priest and lawyer, is Adjunct Fellow at the Australian National University in the Research School of Social Sciences, Visiting Fellow in Law at the University of New South Wales and Associate Director of Uniya, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre. He has written several books on Aboriginal Land Rights and civil liberties. He has completed field trips to the Philippines, Cambodia, Uganda and has recently returned from East Timor where he was Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service. In 1995, he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for services to Aboriginal Australia particularly as an advocate in the areas of law, justice and reconciliation.

 

HILARY CHARLESWORTH

Hilary Charlesworth is Professor and Director of the Centre for International and Public Law at the Australian National University. After graduating from the University of Melbourne with an LLB (Hons) and BA (Hons) in 1979 and experience as an Associate in the High Court, she undertook postgraduate work as a scholar at Harvard Law School. Her career as an academic took her successively to the Universities of Melbourne, Adelaide, Harvard and New York, and she has given distinguished service to the Australian Law Reform Commission, the Australian Council for Women, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and many other such institutions. She is an alumna of Sacre Coeur in Melbourne.

 

GERALDINE DOOGUE

Geraldine Doogue is a renowned Australian journalist and broadcaster, with a distinguished career in news and current affairs, mainly with the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Early on, she became widely respected for her incisive skills yet fairness as an interviewer. She currently presents Radio National‚s Life Matters program, which has pioneered new coverage of patterns of social change in Australian society. Geraldine is also presenting the weekly Compass program on ABC television, which deals with topics of religious beliefs and ethics. Geraldine was educated by the Sisters of Mercy in Western Australia.

 

ALEXANDRA FERNON

Alexandra was born in Sydney in 1958 and was raised on a sheep and wheat farm in country NSW. At the age of 12 she came to boarding school at Kincoppal Rose Bay. After completing her Higher School Certificate she went to the United States as a Rotary exchange student. On returning, she attended the University of NSW where she completed an honours degree in Social Work. She has worked in the fields of cancer care, drug & alcohol and more recently in the field of child and family health, assisting mothers in the early months of parenting, including the loss of a baby. Alex has a keen interest in the spiritual journey and describes herself as a searcher on that path. She is married with three sons. She loves to watch her boys playing as well as reading, playing competition tennis and laughing with friends.

 

HELEN McLAUGHLIN RSCJ

Sister Helen McLaughlin rscj entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1958. She is a member of the Ireland-Scotland Province. A teacher by profession, she taught in schools of the Society in Ireland and Scotland before going to Uganda where she became Provincial of Uganda/Kenya and Chad. In 1979 she was named as RSCJ Co-Ordinator for Africa, a position she held until elected Superior General of the international Society in rome in 1982. After completing her term of office in 1994, she was appointed Director of Nile Grove, the RSCJ House of Prayer in Edinburgh and is currently involved there in the ministry of retreats and spiritual direction.

 

TESSA PHILLIPS

Tessa Phillips has been a President of the New South Wales Institute of Psychotherapy and of the Faculty of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychotherapy and is currently involved in the Master of Medicine in Psychotherapy programme at Sydney University and the International Council of Self-Psychologists. She has presented papers interstate and internationally. in her areas of interest, which include the significance of eating disorders, addictions, trauma and on topics concerning social issues such as racism and reconciliation. Currently, she is doing research on Bystanders in South Africa during and immediately following the apartheid era. 

 

CLARE PRATT RSCJ

SUPERIOR GENERAL, SOCIETY OF THE SACRED HEART

Clare Pratt was born in Washington DC. and entered the novitiate at Kenwood in Albany after her second year of college, making her final profession in 1967. She began her ministry of education in Sacred Heart schools and, with a BA degree in English Literature and a master‚s degree in Religious Education, was appointed Provincial in Washington in 1978. After a period as principal of a parish school serving the Mexican community in Houston, she became a member of the Provincial Team for the United States, based in St. Louis, in 1988.

In 1994, Sister Pratt went to Rome on the team responsible for preparing young professed in the Society. Later that year, she was appointed Secretary General of the Society, and in her free time volunteered as liturgy coordinator at Regina Coeli, a men‚s prison in Rome. In August 2000, Sister Pratt was elected the 15th Superior General of the Society of the Sacred Heart, and began her service on November 21, 2000, the 200th anniversary of the Society's foundation. This is Sister Pratt's first visit to Australia.

 

Fr. Mark Raper is Director of UNIYA, the Jesuit Social Justice Centre in Sydney. From 1990 to 2000 he was International Director of Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), based in Rome, and throughout the 1980s he was the Regional Director of JRS for Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok, Thailand. In 2001 he held a visiting chair at the Center for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA. He is a member of the Board of the Refugee Council of Australia.

Jesuit Refugee Service is an international Catholic organisation with a mission to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people. Set up by the Society of Jesus in 1980, JRS offers practical and spiritual support to refugees, according to their humanitarian needs, regardless of their beliefs. JRS has programs in some 60 countries.

---

Invited Speakers & Panelists

 

 

TRISH BURNS

Trish has been World President of AMASC since elected at the 11th World Congress in Mexico in 1998. She had been an Advisor of AMASC from 1980 - 1990, establishing the International Hospitality Network. She and her family have hosted almost 50 young alumnae or sons or daughters of alumnae over the last 20 years. Trish is an alumna of Kincoppal-Rose Bay where she served on the Board as a Director for ten years until recently. Trish is a widow with two adult sons. She has had a career in public relations and is currently Executive Director of the Curran Foundation for St Vincent's, a major Catholic teaching hospital in Sydney.

 

ITA BUTTROSE AO OBE

Ita combines many roles as businesswoman, journalist, author and media personaliy. She is one of Australia's leading communicators and advisers to corporate Australia as well as to community and welfare organsations. In 2001, she was voted one of Australia's most admired business women. Ita is an alumna of Barat Burn, the junior school of Kincoppal-Rose Bay.

 

CHRISTINA CASTRO

Qualified as a dentist, Cristina is President of the Board of St Madeleine Sophie Social Centre in Bogota, a child-care facility for the underprivileged. Supported by the alumnae of Bogota, her centre, complete with doctor, dentist and day-care facilities, gives the children a sound start in life and education. It also has an outreach arm for older members of the community.

 

CAROL CURR

Carol lived for most of her married life on the 180,000-acre cattle and sheep station, Dagworth, in Central Queensland. As well as raising her four children and running the busy country homesteads, she made her homes a centre for outreach to isolated women and aboriginal peoples, and a base for artistic and spiritual development. Carol is a Councillor with the St Vincent de Paul Society.

 

BOZENA KUNICKA RSCJ

Sister Bozena Kunicka rscj is principal of Liceum I Gimnazjum Zgomadzenia Sacre Coeur. The school is a day and boarding school of set in the countryside near to Poznam. She has held this position for five years.

 

JOANNE LEE

With a background in psychology, Joanne is the President of Star Communications, Kore'‚s first multi-service business consulting agency. She is the author of four best-selling books, hosts a weekly television program and lectures at several institutions. Joanne is a Director of the Commission for North Korean Refugees and has spoken at the UN in their support.

 

GREGOIRE NEUBOURG

Gregoire Neubourg is Principal of the Primary School of the Sacred Heart in Jette, Brussels, Belgium. He joined the school as the first male teacher in the primary school 23 years ago and was appointed Principal ten years later. He is the second secular principal of the school. Gregoire is married with two sons.

---

STUARTHOLME SACRE COEUR SCHOOL PROJECT

The Community Problem Solving Team (HEART) from Stuarthome, the Sacred Heart school in Brisbane was formed a year ago with the aim to resolve a problem in their community. They chose the International Sacred Heart Community and recognized the urgent need for girls in Uganda to have access to school and resources. In September last year, they launched a major fundraising project - selling HEART (Helping Education in Africa: Reaching Target) book stickers and T-shirts. Their hope is that the project will be shared by the international Sacred Heart community. Their hope is that other schools from Australasia and overseas will also sell the HEART products, and that the project will strengthen international bonds between Sacred Hear schools.

 

PENNY STURROCK

Penny is a lawyer and an alumna of Kincoppal Rose Bay. She is deeply involved in Christian meditation and has arranged the meditation workshops for the Congress. From her Reconciliation study group Penny produced the Nallawilli project. These beautiful aboriginal stories on video, told to the children at Kincoppal Rose Bay by Pauline McLeod is a gift to each Congress delegates from several study groups in Sydney.

 

CLAUDIA TAYLOR EAST

Claudia has been closely involved as a voluntary Director of the Hospice Movement in Malta. From assisting Albanian refugees arriving in Malta, she has now moved to helping rebuild Albania itself with the training of nurses in palliative care and the building of children's playgrounds, community centres and libraries in Albania.

---

CHAIRPERSONS

SUZANNE DANIEL

Suzanne Daniel has worked for much of her career with BBC London, ABC TV and the Sydney Morning Herald before moving into crisis and issues management with Hill & Knowlton after completing a fellowship with the St James Ethics Centre. She has taken a number of Board positions including Hunter Hall, the Ethical Investment Association and the Young Endeavour Youth Scheme. She has a BA Comms, MA (Journalism) and Dip Speech & Drama. Suzanne is married to Michael Daniel and they have three young children. She is an alumna of Kincoppal-Rose Bay.

 

JUSTICE MARY FINN

The Hon Justice Mary Finn has been a Judge of the Family Court of Australia since 1990 and a member of the Appeal Division since 1993. She served with the Commonwealth Attorney-General‚s Department from 1980 to 1990. She has served on the Boards of the Institute of Family Studies, the Family Law Council and others and is currently a Member of the Council of the Australian National University. She is an alumna of Stuartholme.

 

CATHERINE HARRIS PSM

Catherine Harris is Deputy Chancellor of the University of New South Wales. She sits on the Boards of numerous public institutions and private companies, is a former Director of Affirmative Action for the Australian Government, a holder of the Australian Public Service Medal, a mother of five sons and a third-generation alumna of Rose Bay Convent.

 

JOSEPHINE HEESH

An alumna of Kincoppal and Sancta Sophia College, Josephine now practices as a lawyer in the banking industry. She is currently Chairman of Sancta Sophia College Council , having also served on the Kincoppal-Rose Bay Board (1992-97). Josephine is a member of AMASC's Ad Hoc Commission instituted to revise the Constitution and ByLaws.

 

MARGARET HETHERTON

Margaret, an alumna of Rose Bay Convent and formerly chief executive officer of the Mercy Family Centre, has published in the areas of social research and religious education. She is a member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal and of several NGO Social Welfare Boards.

JACQUELINE KLOMP-VERHOEVEN

Jacqueline is private practitioner lawyer from the Netherlands. Community standards have been her interest, as a member of the Dutch Consumers Union and a member of the City Council of the Hague. Jacqueline headed the AMASC Ad Hoc Commission to revise the Constitution and ByLaws.

 

SUSAN SCANLAN

Susan Scanlan is the President of the Australian Sacre Coeur Association (ACSA). Four generations of her family, including her two daughters, have followed the Sacred Heart tradition. Suzie is a psychologist and psychotherapist in practice at North Sydney and has a deep interest in developmental and attachment disorders and their repercussions in adult life, especially for women.

Back to top