Meet our Team.
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Glenn Loughrey
Founder, Empower To Teach
Glenn Loughrey is a Wiradjuri man, artist, writer, and Anglican priest. He is presently the Vicar at St Oswald’s Anglican Church, Glen Iris. He has completed his training at San Francis Theological College Brisbane and has a Diploma of Ministry, Graduate Diploma of Ministry and a Master of Arts. He was ordained Deacon in 2007 in Brisbane and Priest in Grafton in 2009.
He is the author of three books, the latest is “On Being Blackfella’s Young Fella - Is Being Aboriginal Enough?” and a contributing writer to 4 more on topics including poverty and young people, art and the imagination, Jesus and culture, and culture and language, the last three will be published in 2021. He is recognized internationally as a scholar of the life and writings of Thomas Merton, contributing articles and papers to peer reviewed publications and at the International Thomas Merton Conferences.
He is the founder of ‘Empower To Teach’ and acts as the Aboriginal advisor to Korowa Anglican Girls School, Glen Iris Primary School, Solway primary School and St Michael’s Ashburton Primary School.
You can discover more about Glenn via his website:
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Hannah Schaub
Program Writer, Empower To Teach
Hannah is a recent graduate of education from Swinburne University of Technology. Her interest in curriculum writing has led her to volunteering positions with the Red Cross and Richmond Football Club’s centre for Indigenous youth, Korin Gamadji.
During these experiences, Hannah has gained leadership skills while working with teachers, children and other stakeholders.
She has also undertaken cultural training at Korin Gamadji which has inspired an understanding and respect for Indigenous knowledge, culture and history.
Hannah, along with Winifred Madigan, wrote the Empower To Teach’s Curriculum Frameworks & Lesson Plans.
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Winifred Madigan
Program Writer, Empower To Teach
Win has been a teacher for a large part of her life, her areas of specialty being English As An Alternative Language, Literacy and Numeracy. Teaching new arrivals to Australia made her acutely aware of the need to tell the truth about Australia to these new students, something which had been lacking in her own education.
A teaching stint in Darwin added to her desire to involve herself with curriculum and cultural matters which created pathways to a deeper understanding of both our first Australians and our newest arrivals.
This interest in curriculum led to her volunteering with Hannah Schaub on The Reverend Glenn Loughrey’s idea to create a simple curriculum document for years foundation to ten and aligning this with the Australian Curriculum in a way which will help teachers incorporate Aboriginal Education seamlessly into their daily lessons.
Winifred, along with Hannah Schaub, wrote Empower To Teach’s Curriculum Frameworks & Lesson Plans.
St Oswald’s Anglican Church, Glen Iris
The church is St. Oswald’s has always had a strong community based and social justice focus.
The parish was at the forefront of the movement to ensure women could be ordained and become priests and then bishops in the Anglican Church. We have had a very active support group linked to other community organizations providing assistance to asylum seekers and to local disadvantaged children through the Kids Hope program. We have also provided training placements for students undertaking community engagement courses. Parishioners have been active on matters of climate change and other national issues such as indigenous reconciliation through our Social Responsibility committee.
Some seven years ago, Rev Glenn Loughrey joined us as our parish priest. He is a Wiradjuri man and not only a priest but a recognized author and artist. He brought a whole new knowledge and perspective to indigenous spirituality, history and culture. He was the inspiration behind our Wominjeka (Welcome) Spirituality Garden, and he has a program working with local school children, teaching them about aboriginal history, culture and art.
The development of indigenous education materials for a wide range of school children is the latest outworking of a parish church at St. Oswald’s which takes its commitment to social justice and strengthening communities very seriously.