Family Help Trust Board members

The following people are board members (trustees) of the Family Help Trust:

Annabel Taylor PhD (chairperson)
A senior lecturer in the Social Work Department at Canterbury Uni, and with background in community and prison social work, she teaches social policy and social work practice, is on the Benefit Review Committee in Christchurch, and is Director of the Awatea Violence Research Centre.

Elizabeth Chesterman (deputy chair)
Elizabeth is the Chief Executive of the Cancer Society Canterbury West Coast Division. She is a qualified Social Worker with work experience in Family Health Counselling, Adult Education, Cancer Support Services and Alzheimer's New Zealand.

Jane Tappenden
Jane is a partner at local law firm, Cuningham Taylor, where she specialises in property law. She brings a legal perspective to Board matters. She believes that providing assistance at the earliest possible opportunity results in the best outcomes, particularly for children.

Judge Noel Walsh
Noel works as a District Court Judge in the Christchurch Family, Youth & Criminal courts. He practised Law in Christchurch and New Plymouth, worked as a Relationships Services counsellor in New Plymouth, and in 1999 was appointed as a District Court Judge.

Beatrice Cheer
Beatrice has a background in media and communications with experience in New Zealand and New York City. Most recently she has specialised in event marketing. Beatrice is married with a young son.

Charles Knibb (treasurer)
Charles is a Chartered Accountant of some 28 years, currently a sole practitioner. He has a particular interest in achieving something better in life for children, than what we constantly are reading in the media.

Dave Cliff
Dave is the District Commander for the Canterbury Police District. Since joining the police in 1983, he has filled criminal investigation and road policing positions around the country. He has been married for 20 years and has two teenage children.

Rae Ewing
Rae is a psychologist and former school principal. She has worked extensively with children with severely challenging behaviours and their families. Much of her work has focused on modifying learning environments.

Janetta Skiba
Janetta is a registered nurse with a background in acute care nursing including Intensive Care and Paediatrics. Janetta has held both senior health management and advisory roles, and brings the skills of a health professional, an administrator, and a background of volunteer work in NGOs to the Trust.

The following people are previous Chairpersons of the Family Help Trust:

	Sally Thompson, 2000 - 2006 Sally is an Early Childhood educator with a wider interest in out-of-school care, and is also a board member of the Oscar Network and Kaupapa Whakaora. Sally is currently employed as Project Co-ordinator for Canterbury Neighbourhood Support.
	Paul Fitzharris, 1996 - 2000 During the early 1990s as the District Commander of Police for Christchurch, Paul looked for programmes outside the Government sector that promised most to the community in reducing crime. "I saw that the Family Help Trust offered this - not from a gut feeling, but because it was supported through reputable research and offered then the best programmes to not only achieve this, but also provide broader positive outcomes for families and the community."
	Karen Guilliland, 1993 - 1996
	Harry Eyre-Cohen, 1990 - 1992 Harry was the first Chairperson of the Family Help Trust and as such an original core group member of the steering committee during the establishment phase. Harry's primary interest, as a retired Clinical Psychologist of the Justice Department, South Island region, was the synergy between the importance of infant/mother bonding and assisting chronic offenders take responsibility for their behaviours and make lasting changes. "I saw Family Help Trust as having the potential to make a serious impact on breaking the cycle for intergenerational criminal offending with their service."