Our Tutors
Shaila Akhter
MPhil, PhD
Dr. Shaila Akhter has done an MPhil and a PhD in Astrophysics and has around 10 years of teaching experience in University Physics and Astronomy at UNSW. She has conducted extensive physics and...
Frank Amati
BA (Hons), MA (Hons)
Frank Amati BA (Hons), MA (Hons) has taught in the field of Classics and Ancient History for almost forty years and has taught at the WEA for the last four years. Frank has a keen interest in...
Graeme Aplin
MA, PhD
Graeme Aplin, PhD, taught geography at the tertiary level for nearly 40 years and has taught at WEA and U3A more recently. His interests became increasingly oriented toward environmental and...
Kailash Awati
Phd (Physics), Phd (Engineering)
Kailash Awati has over two decades of experience in helping organisations improve their data and decision-making capabilities. He currently works at an NSW government agency and is also an Adjunct...
Sharon Baker
Dip Western Calligraphy
Sharon has a Diploma in Western Calligraphy, Certificate IV in Illuminated Calligraphy, Commercial Italic and Historical Calligraphy. She continues to study with many international calligraphers...
Malabi Banerji
BA (Hons), MA
Malabi believes in the power of collaborative growth and learning. Malabi, is an experienced instructor with over 27 years of teaching expertise, brings a modern and realistic approach to her...
Andrew Banks
BEd, MMusTech
Andrew Banks, MMus Tech BEd has been a high school music teacher for over 38 years as well as being Head Teacher of Creative and Performing Arts. He has been a tutor at WEA for nine years offering...
Kerry Barlow
BA, MA
Kerry Barlow has an extensive background in education, having taught economics, economic history and education for many years, at high school, TAFE and university levels. Kerry also has strong...
Geoffrey Barnard
BA, MA, GradDipComm
Geoffrey Barnard has been involved with developments in contemporary music and sound art since 1969. Primarily a music historian, he completed a Masters thesis in 2003 on the music of John Cage,...
Juan Carlos Barreno
M AppLing
Juan Carlos has a Master of Applied Linguistics and is currently completing a PhD. He He has been a staff member of the Bureau de Coopération Linguistique of the French Embassy in Peru, and as...
Howard Bell
OAM LL.M PhD
Dr Howard Bell OAM, LL.M, PhD has taught in the fields of law, business and human rights for over thirty years through TAFE NSW and at community colleges and universities. He has taught social...
Inez Bennecke
MBA, GradCert TESOL & Foreign Lang Teaching
Inez was born and raised in Germany, obtained a degree in Economics (Diplom-Kauffrau, equivalent to Master in Business Administration) and had a successful international career in marketing and...
Lanning Bennett
B.Bus
Lanning has over forty years experience as an entrepreneur, banker, musician, author and is a passionate global food traveller. Since the sale of his business in 2015 Lanning has pursed his...
Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya
BS, PhD
Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya, BS, PhD, has taught in the fields of STEAM, including the history of mathematics and amusing mathematics, history of literature and creative writing and has taught in...
Michael Box
BSc, PhD
Michael has 30 years teaching University Physics at UNSW, with a special interest in Atmospheric Science and has over 100 peer-reviewed publications, mostly in this field. He is the co-author of...
Giorgia Bresciani
Dip TESOL
Giorgia comes from a town close to Milan, in the North of Italy. She grew up happily surrounded by art and teaching environments thanks to her two parents. She finished her teaching Diploma...
Andy Bromberger
ASCM, BMus Perf
Andy Bromberger (ASCM, BMus Perf) performed professionally for a number of year as well as teaching clarinet, conducting and running band programmes. In 2010 she started a music history series...
Cohen Brown
BA Philosophy, BA (Hons) Bioethics
Cohen is a lecturer in Bioethics at the University of Wollongong and a former tutor with Primary Ethics. He holds a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in Philosophy and is currently a PhD...
Luciana Buonanno
M.TI, B.Mod Lang/Linguistics
Luciana is a passionate language professional. She has a Master in Translation and Interpreting Studies and a Bachelor in Modern Languages/Linguistics. Born and raised in Milan, Italy. Luciana...
Ian Burnet
BSc
Ian Burnet has a combined Bsc. In Geology and Geophysics and has an interest in maritime history and historic maps. He is the author of six books on maritime history and the Indonesian archipelago...
Mayra Camacho Ardila
BFL
Mayra Camacho is a Spanish tutor, who holds a bachelor's degree in foreign Languages Teaching. With more than 10 years’ experience, both in Colombia and Australia, Mayra has had the opportunity to...
Cilla Campbell
BFA
Cilla Campbell studied art at Julian Ashton Art School and then the National Art School. You can visit her website at www.cillacampbell.com
Perry Celestino
BA, MA
Perry Celestino, M.A. has been teaching with the WEA since 1985. He is a teaching anthropologist, musician, and traveller. Perry has offered over 100 different courses with the WEA on...
Franz Cheung
MA Studio Art
Franz Chi Lik Cheung was the lecturer in Chinese Art History in Macquarie University from 2004 until 2020. He specializes in Chinese calligraphy and painting, while he continues exploring art in a...
Michaela Clarkson
BA(Vis Arts). Art Cert.
Michaela Clarkson. B.A (Visual Arts) Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University Alumnus. Art Certificate Hornsby TAFE. Michaela has been working, exhibiting and teaching in the field of...
Byron Comninos
B. Econs., Dip. Ed
Byron Comninos has many years of experience in course design and presentation. Greek by ethnicity, he has travelled to Greece more than eight times covering extensive areas of the country by foot,...
John Coombs
BA (Hons)
John Coombs gained his BA (Hons) from the University of Wales in Welsh Language and Classical studies. He has since supplemented this with a BA in Classics from the University of New England. John...
David Crawford
PhD, Grad.Dip Policy Studies
David Crawford PhD, Grad.Dip Policy Studies. A newcomer to WEA teaching, he has for several years facilitated Men's Wellbeing workshops. David is a professional public sector research writer of 30...
Isabella Croce
MEng, MTE
Isabella, MEng, MTE, was born in Milan, Italy. She holds a Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering and a Master’s in Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship from the Swiss Federal Institute...
Blandine Crouch
After working on corporate identity and design in Paris, Blandine moved to Sydney where she began teaching French in the corporate environment, as well as translating for large companies. Blandine...
Liliane Cunliffe
BA, MTeach (FLE)
Liliane Cunliffe has an impressive academic background including a BA in Modern Literature and Languages from Paris XIII University, and a MA in Teaching French as a Foreign Language from the...
Jacqueline Curry
BA (Hons). Woven and Printed Textile Design
Jacqueline has been working as a designer in the textile industry for over 25 years in both Australia and the UK. She has a love of texture fabric construction, colour and pattern. She uses a...
Emma Darragh
PhD, BCA (Hons I), BA (Writing & English Literatures)
Emma Darragh is a writer and academic specialising in short stories and short story cycles. She holds a PhD and Honours (Class I) in Creative Writing, and a BA in Writing and English Literatures...
Olivia De Bergerac
PhD, MBA
Olivia de Bergerac was born on the French Riviera, lived in Paris and stated teaching French to business people while completing a PhD in French Literature and Psychology. In Australia Olivia was...
Susan Deas
B.Mus., M.Mus.
Susan Deas is a professional musician, lecturer and teacher. She has been teaching music appreciation courses for more than twenty years, and is a regular lecturer at WEA Sydney. Her training...
Yvette Debergue
BA (Hons), PhD
Dr Yvette Debergue has a passionate interest in all things medieval, especially Gothic architecture, medieval saints and heretics and historical fiction. She has taught medieval history and church...
Racho Donef
PhD (Anthropology), PhD (Politics)
Dr Donef has completed two doctorates (Anthropology and Politics), as well as a number of other degrees inter alia in languages, social sciences and ancient history. Dr Donef specialised on...
Vicki Dwyer
M.Mus.
Vicki Dwyer holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Voice with over 30 years of teaching experience. In addition to her expertise as a singing teacher, she is a seasoned conductor, leading a...
Charles Fellner
BA, MMgt
Charles Fellner is a retired IT professional from Sydney. After seeing various friends being scammed, he wanted to do something to fight back. Rather than creating yet another website on the topic...
Robert Forgacs
MA (Hons), PhD
Robert has been a casual lecturer, tutor and post-doctoral fellow at UNSW. He has taught at the WEA since 1992 and has also lectured for CCE at Sydney University, the North-side Opera Study Group,...
Michael Gal
PhD, Prof. Emeritus
Michael Gal is Professor Emeritus at the School of Physics of the University of NSW. He has been involved in research and teaching at UNSW for over 30 years. Prior to the UNSW, he worked at...
Roy Gerente
MA in Teaching Italian
A passion for Italy and its culture took Roy on a life journey of exploration which started in Greece and led to her Italian citizenship. She studied Italian language and literature and obtained a...
Matthew Gibbs
BEcon, GCertPubAff
Matthew Gibbs - BEcon, GCertPubAff - has worked as a speaker, writer, adviser and teacher in the financial services, education and cultural industries for over 30 years. He was the General Manager...
Christine Gietz
BA Dip Ed, Grad Cert in Uni Teaching
Christine Gietz (BA Dip Ed, Grad. Cert. in University Teaching) is the Education Manager at WEA Sydney and has held this position since 2021 and has tutored at WEA Sydney since 2012. She also...
Christine Graff
BALLB, Licence es Lettres
Christine has taught French in the UK, the US and Australia at secondary and tertiary levels. She has continued to teach and train adults through her professional life (WEA and Alliance from...
Anne Harbers
M. Arts (Art History), GCLT
Anne Harbers MA, MBA, MAppSc, GCLT, is an experienced presenter and writer in Art History and European Decorative Arts and has tutored at WEA for over 5 years as well as given talks to museums,...
Michael Hauptman
MBA, MEngSci
Michael Hauptman, MBA, MEngSci, has conducted walking tours of the Sydney CBD for over 15 years. He is a keen amateur historian with a passion for studying the late 1800s and early 1900s, when so...
Peter Headley
BA, MA
Peter Headley, MA, BA has had a career mainly in the export sector globally covering over 40 years in fields such as food processing, renewable energy, environment management and Trade...
Marie Heinrich
PhD, MM
Marie Heinrich, PhD, MM, enjoys a lively career as a music researcher, educator, and performer. She earned her doctorate in music from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University,...
Jo Henwood
Grad Dip Mus St, M Cult Her
Jo Henwood, BA (Libr Sc), Tourism III Cert, Grad Dip Mus St, Grad Cert (Gifted Ed), M Cult Her, has done most of her teaching outside schools - museum education, gifted education, tour guiding,...
David Hirsch
LLB (Common Law), BCL (Civil Law)
David Hirsch graduated from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with an honours arts degree (BA Phil), and honours degrees in common law (LLB) and civil law (BCL). He came to Australia in 1989...
Paul Howles
BA, PhD
Paul Howles, BA PhD, has taught at WEA for over five years. Majoring in ancient history, Near Eastern archaeology, and science, Paul is passionate about both the ancient world of the eastern...
Anna Imbernon
MA, BA, DipEd
Anna, MA, BA, Dip Ed, is from Barcelona and she has a bachelor's degree in Classic Philology and two masters of education, one of them about Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. She has taught...
Irene Jimenez
MA in Language Teaching
Irene Jiménez, MA in Teaching and Degree in Linguistics and Applied Languages, brings over a decade of Spanish language teaching experience from Spain to the United Kingdom and Australia. With a...
Lu Jin
SFQCPGL / METACOACH
Lu is a Life Coach, Neuro Semantics Trainer, Enneagram Facilitator and Practice Group Leader trained in the techniques of Spring Forest Qigong, and has led sessions in Nepal, Kazakhstan, Western...
Sigrid Kaly
CertTESOL NAATI
Sigrid Kaly was born and educated in Germany, where she obtained various diplomas from language schools as interpreter/translator. She came to Australia in 1957 and worked for 20 years as liaison...
Georgina Kenyon
BA (Hons) Semiotics/HPS
Georgina Kenyon, has worked as a teacher, editor and writer for over 20 years, contributing to the BBC, ABC, New Scientist, The Lancet journals, Deutsche Welle and The Guardian. She writes about...
Sandy Killick
Sandra Killick is a leading authority in democracy education, adaptive leadership & systems thinking. A skilled facilitator, she creates spaces where people can have challenging, messy, necessary...
Judith King
OAM, MA, Dip Ed
Judy King, OAM, MA, Dip Ed has taught History and Politics at WEA since 2011. Before then, she taught HSC Modern History, Ancient History and English in NSW public schools for many years. She has...
Diana Levy
BA DipEd.
Diana Levy, BA, Dip Ed. is an author, poet and walks leader in the Blue Mountains where she has lived for 34 years. A zen student for 45 years, she founded and led the Blue Mountains Yatras from...
Ying Liu
MBA, B.Mus
Ying Liu (MBA, B.Mus) is a qualified language teacher, established musician and culture promoter, with more than twenty years of experience in teaching and presenting Chinese music, language and...
Marie-Christine Louis
BA, MA
Marie-Christine Louis, MA, BA, has taught French and ESL for over thirty years at Alliance Française in Sydney, Marseille, Aix-en-Provence and in various schools of continuing education....
Suzanne MacAlister
BA (Hons), PhD
Dr Suzanne Macalister gained her BA Hons in both Modern and Ancient Greek, followed by her doctorate in Ancient Greek and Byzantine language and literature (University of Sydney); she became...
Silvia Martinez Jimeno
BA (Int&Trans), PGCE
Silvia Martínez Jimeno, PGCE, BA (Int&Trans), has taught Spanish and French at the WEA for the last seven years. Most recently, Silvia has been accredited by Instituto Cervantes as a Spanish DELE...
John McBride
AM
John McBride AM, has taught at WEA in the field of Japanese history and art for over ten years. John majored in Japanese classical literature at a major national university in Tokyo before...
Virginia McGill
BMus (Hons), PhD
Dr Virginia McGill, B.Mus (Hons), PhD, studied music at UNSW. The subject of her doctorate was opera but her musical interests are very broad. Her teaching experience is considerable. Virginia has...
Blandine Midy Boutry
GradDip LOTE
Blandine Midy Boutry is an experienced French tutor with qualifications from the University of NSW (Cert. in Teaching French) and UTS (Graduate Diploma in Teaching French). She has been teaching...
Marco Migotto
LLB Dip Arts (Fine Arts), CELTA
Marco Migotto LLB Dip Arts (Fine Arts) CELTA has qualifications in language teaching and art history. He has worked as a translator, has taught Italian and English languages in Australia and...
Dominique Millar
MA
Dominique has two Master's degrees in Italian art history and art curatorship. He was also the recipient of the prestigious Sir William Dobell Scholarship for Classical Drawing and Painting at...
Eugene Mitchell
Eugene is an energetic singer, songwriter and guitar teacher, who loves to teach and inspire his students. Eugene studied drama at James Cook University, where he learnt valuable performance...
Linda Moctezuma
Linda Moctezuma has been an English Teacher in a Sydney High School for most of her career. She taught adults at WEA in the late 90's and recently completed a Masters by Research degree in English...
Tibor Molnar
Tibor Molnar studied Chemical Engineering at UNSW in the 1960s, but then forged a career in IT and business. Retired in 2003, he now pursues a wide range of interests: from physics and...
Sally Morris
PhD
Dr Sally Morris has a BA with 1st class Honours and PhD from Macquarie University and a Diploma of Fine Arts from COFA (Uni. NSW). Sally specialises in the comparative study of ancient Egyptian,...
Adrian Muir
BA(Hons), Dip Ed.
Adrian Muir is a history teacher with 30 years of classroom experience. His major interests are 20th century Germany, World War One, 20th century global politics and popular culture. When Adrian...
Masafumi NAITO
BEng, MEd
Masafumi Naito (Masa) started his Japanese class experience as a volunteer assistant in 2000, and has been teaching various courses of Japanese language and culture mainly to adults. Since he...
Michael Newton
MA
Michael Newton gained his initial degree in Medieval and Ancient History from St Andrews University in Scotland. After pursuing a business career based in the Middle East, he joined the University...
Rodney Nillsen
PhD, DSc
Rodney Nillsen PhD DSc, has had a wide experience of teaching, research, and exposition in mathematics over forty-plus years. As an undergraduate he studied mathematics, science and literature. ...
Lindsay Nunez Lopez
Dip LIS, Dip (Travel and Tourism)
Lindsay Nunez, Dip LIS, Diploma of Travel and Tourism, has worked in the tourism industry for over ten years and has taught at the WEA for the past three years. She has traveled to 20+ countries...
Fiona O'Beirne
B. Visual Arts
Fiona O'Beirne, B. Visual Arts, a Post-Grad Dip in Professional Arts Studies and has worked and taught in the field of Art for nearly 40 years, and has taught at WEA for the last thirty years....
Nahla O'Waisha
BA, MA
Nahla is a highly experienced Arabic teacher who has been with WEA since 2017. With over 18 years of experience teaching across a wide range of ages, she studied at the University of Damascus and...
Roberto Pettini
BA (Hons)
Roberto Pettini is one of Sydney's most experienced Italian teachers. His tutoring experience includes over three decades teaching at CCE Sydney, the Department of Modern Languages at UNSW, the...
Chris Puplick
BA(Hons), MA
Chris Puplick AM served as a Senator for New South Wales and member of the Shadow Cabinet. He represented Australia at meetings of the UN General Assembly, the World Health Organisation and the...
Michael Pyne
MA, MEd, PhD
Michael has been teaching history for over 40 years, from high school to university level. He has written or co-written 13 history text books including HSC texts on the Arab/Israeli conflict and...
Eva-Britt Rogerson
Eva-Britt Rogerson, Certificate in Language Teaching, has taught Swedish for 15 years and has taught at WEA for the last 12 years. She teaches all ages and levels of Swedish. She has a keen...
Royal Australian Historical Society
The Royal Australian Historical Society (RAHS), Australia's oldest historical organisation founded in Sydney in 1901, promotes the study of Australian history. The Society organises events,...
Dilly Rusca
BA, AdvDip TESOL
Born and raised in Piacenza, a town right on the border between Emilia-Romagna and Lombardia, Diletta (AKA Dilly) is a certified Italian teacher with extensive teaching experience both in Europe...
Kerry Sanders
BA (Hons), PhD
Dr Kerry Sanders gained her PhD in Philosophy at the University of Sydney. Her specialist areas are: Aesthetics, Phenomenology, Postmodernism and Political Philosophy. She has formerly taught at...
Rebecca Scott
Dip.Op.Arts, MAMT
In 1991 Rebecca graduated as an opera singer from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with a Diploma in Operatic Arts (DOA). She worked and lived in London and Europe for 13 years as a professional...
Almis Simans
Almis is an avid traveller who has walked many of the traditional European trails. Making the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain inspired Almis to write Santiago – Walking the Pilgrim...
Beatrice Siragusa
MA. Conference Interpreting
Beatrice holds a Bachelor's degree in Applied Interlinguistic Communication and a Master's Degree in Specialized Translation and Conference Interpreting (with a focus on Italian, French and...
Judith Sleijpen
Cert III Hort (Dis)
Judith Sleijpen graduated from Ryde School of Horticulture with distinction in Urban Horticulture and gained experience in the retail nursery industry for several years. She now conducts her...
Brendan Smith
MFA, Dip Arts
Brendan Vivian Smith (MFA, Dip Arts) is an exhibiting artist showing nationally & internationally since 1986. His work is held in significant national public and private collections. He has taught...
Erica Tamm
BA Ling
Erica grew up in Uddevalla, Sweden, but has lived in Sydney since 2017. She is passionate about language education and has several years of experience teaching Swedish to both adults and...
Michael Taylor
LLM, DPhil
Michael Taylor (LLM, DPhil) is new to the WEA but has extensive teaching experience over a long career. He began over thirty years ago as a College Lecturer in Moral and Political Philosophy at...
Maria Teixeira-Alves
Maria Teixeira-Alves studied Germanic Philology at Porto University in Portugal before coming to Australia where she graduated from the University of Sydney with a major in Linguistics and then...
Pernilla Thakur-Lundqvist
B.SocSci, Dip. Teaching
Pernilla has an Advanced Certificate in Language Teaching and has been working as a teacher since 2014. Currently, she serves as the Headteacher (Principal) at the Swedish School in Sydney,...
Sonya Thompson
MALP, MA
Sonya Thompson, MA, MALP, has taught in the subject areas of history and politics for over thirty years, much of that time with the WEA. Sonya holds postgraduate degrees in history, law and...
John Tidmarsh
MA (Hons), PhD
Dr John Tidmarsh was formerly President of the University of Sydney's Near Eastern Archaeology Foundation and currently Chairman, Executive Committee of the Australian Archaeological Institute at...
Graziella Trafeli
GDLIS
Graziella Trafeli (GDLIS - Graduate Diploma of Library and Information Studies, Australia) is a native speaker of Italian residing in Australia since the mid-1980s. She has led a vast range of...
Hugh Tranter
BA, MA
Hugh Tranter is an author and historian, with interests in creative writing and the research and examination of Australian history.
Vivian Tse
BA, Grad Cert in Tesol
Vivian, BA, Grad Cert in Tesol, is an innovative teacher with 30 years of teaching experience. She has taught English and Arts and Crafts in both Hong Kong and Australia. Among her students are...
Mia Tsikrikas
BA (Hons), MTeach
Mia Tsikrikas, (Master of Teaching, BA (Honours Class I)), has taught English Literature for the past six years and has been at the WEA since mid-2022. She majored in eighteenth-century...
Silvia Tullio
Silvia is a native Italian speaker. She grew up in a small town close to Milan, then she moved to Madrid and in 2012 she came to Sydney. She received a Bachelor Degree in Marketing and Public...
Penelope Vakalopoulos
BA (Hons)
A linguaphile and literary enthusiast, Penelope Vakalopouls is proficient in the literacies of Modern Greek, Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Indonesian. She has a B-ARTS from the University of...
John Walsh
After working as an osteopath in the UK for 16 years John realised a life-long dream and went to China to study Tai Chi for three-and-a-half years, receiving his teaching certificate in Tai Chi &...
Elaine Witton
Guild Member ASC BEd (Adult)
Elaine Witton BEd (Adult), Guild member ASC, has taught calligraphy and allied crafts face-to-face and online in Australia and Europe for over 30 years. She has taught at WEA since 1990. Elaine...
John Wu
MEc, BEng
Jun Wu (MEc, BEng) graduated from one of the top universities in Beijing with majors in Management Information Systems and Economics. Since then, he ran his own consulting and market research...
Ray Younis
MA (Hons), DPhil
Ray Younis was educated at the University of Sydney (BA Hons. MA Hons.) and the University of Oxford (DPhil). He has over 30 years of teaching experience at Oxford, the University of Sydney and...
Sofya Yunusova
PhD, MA
Sofya Yunusova is a Sydney-based language educator and researcher. She holds a PhD in Russian Studies from Macquarie University and a qualification in Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language from...