Di has worked in education in both paid and volunteer capacity for the past 38 years

Di has a passion for education, in particular public education, and the opportunities it affords young people. She has led the ACSSO secretariat since 2011 but has been a significant player in parent activism since 1984 when her eldest child commenced school. 

She has held various volunteer roles in the parent movement finishing her P&C career as President of the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW.

Di was a founding Director of Public Education Foundation whose board position she held for six years; a founding Director of Primary Ethics Board and also a founding Director of The Parenthood board.

She worked in a paid capacity for the NSW education department in a number of roles across a large area of Sydney. Her roles were all in the area of family engagement and home-school partnerships including school based community officer, across district Community Development Officer and regional Partnership Officer – all through the Priority Schools Program. In this role Di contributed to a number of Department documents supporting family engagement.  She also participated as a key research support for many of the projects including the Freebody and Freebody “Teachers Researching their Communities”

 

She also managed the Family, School Partnerships Bureau for three years – whilst the CEO of ACSSO.  In this role she was fortunate to visit schools in the USA and even partake in a short course at Harvard University focusing on the Closing the Equity Gap through Family Engagement.  The Bureau revised the Home School Partnership Framework and put the first version online. 

 

In 2017, Di and ACSSO team developed the Family Engagement Circle – an online resource to support schools to engage with their families.  In 2018 Di and her colleague presented this resource at the National Family and Community Engagement Conference in Cleveland Ohio at the invitation of Dr Karen Mapp.

 

Together with Kate Xavier from Together for Humanity, Di has published an online course “Introduction to Family Engagement” – a course targeting new teachers.  This course is free

Recognition of her work saw her commended for Meritorious Service to Public Education and Training in 2010. In 2012 Dianne was admitted as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her service to public education and the community.