Meet The Team
Lynne Rutherford
Chief Executive Officer
MEd Leadership; BECE; 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.
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; COS-P facilitator
Lyndsay has worked for many years 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;
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. 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.
Christina Moutos
Programs Manager
Master of Education | Bachelor of Early Education | Diploma of Children’s Services
Christina has worked at Gowrie SA since late 2022, and has worked across and led the Inclusion Agency, parenting programs and professional learning. She has dedicated more than 30 years to the early childhood sector, working across diverse roles including Team Leader, Director, Facilitator, Lecturer in Early Childhood, and Education Advisor for OSHC, supported playgroups, and preschools. Christina is deeply committed to ensuring equitable access to high-quality early years experiences for all children, families, and educators. Most recently, she completed a Master of Education with a focus on wellbeing and positive mental health in educational settings, strengthening her expertise in creating supportive, inclusive environments where children and educators can thrive.
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.
A majority of our children's program educators 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 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.
