Meet The Team
Lynne Rutherford
Chief Executive Officer
MEd Leadership; BECE; Cert IV TAE; COS-P facilitator
Since joining the Gowrie SA team in 2006, Lynne has served in various roles, including Children’s Program Leader, Assistant Chief Executive, Professional Learning leader, steering the Inclusion Agency for South Australia under the Inclusion Support Program. Lynne was appointed Interim Chief Executive on Kaye Colmer's retirement and then Chief Executive Officer. Some of Lynne’s favourite projects involve working with leaders, educators and other professionals to build their leadership through detailed thinking and sharing stories, and striving to achieve social justice and equity for all children. Lynne has commenced the next aspect of her learning journey as a PhD candidate.
Mary Scales
Professional Learning Program Leader
BECE; Diploma Teaching; Adv Dip Community Sector Management; Cert IV TAE; COS-P and RAN facilitator
In more than 20 years of service at Gowrie SA, Mary has worked in a variety of leadership roles, developing her interest in curriculum, professional learning, leadership and advocacy, reconciliation, and applying attachment theory to support children, families and educators. Currently, Mary is facilitating Gowrie SA’s professional learning program and works to support services in their pedagogy, practice and leadership.
Lyndsay Healy
Director - Children’s Program Thebarton
BECE; Grad Cert EC Leadership; Cert IV TAE; COS-P facilitator
Lyndsay has worked more than a decade at Gowrie SA, as a kindergarten teacher and project officer and now leads the Thebarton children’s program. Lyndsay has the role of ensuring the program is of a high standard and conducts teacher and educator mentoring, along with curriculum support, pedagogical leadership, evaluations and improvements. Making sure that children’s voices are heard is Lyndsay’s passion, along with advocating for quality education and care and supporting professional development.
Krystal Kimble
Director - Children's Program Underdale
BECE; Adv Dip Community Sector Management; RAN facilitator
Krystal has worked for more than a decade at Gowrie SA. She has worked as an educator across all age groups, including kindergarten teaching and mentoring roles. Currently, Krystal is the director of the Underdale children’s program and facilitator of Responding to Abuse and Neglect training. Krystal ensures the quality of the program by managing evaluations, improvements, curriculum support and pedagogical leadership, as well as teacher and educator mentoring. Her main interests are advocating for children’s rights and providing quality education and care for children from birth to school age.
Staff Team
We have over 90 staff across the organisation. They are the backbone of our work and we recruit to support our programs to be of a high standard with a focus on continuous improvement. This is includes having staff with a variety of qualifications, backgrounds and experience.
Almost 100% of our children's program staff have a diploma or degree in early childhood education. Several staff are studying for higher level qualifications. Every three to four years we negotiate an Enterprise Agreement with educators to ensure our organisation remains competitive and can attract high quality staff to our team.
In our Inclusion Agency, 100% of our Inclusion Professionals have a diploma, degree or post graduate qualifications to support the creation of a multidisciplinary team as they work with the early learning and child care sector across South Australia to improve inclusion outcomes for children in long day care, out of school hours care and family day care.
In our Professional Learning Program and Registered Training Organisation, we have a mix of facilitators with diploma, degree or postgraduate qualifications which they use in the delivery of robust professional learning and development sessions to enhance sector outcomes when working with young children.
