DSA Board of Directors

 

President

Brent Phillips
B.A. (Criminology)
e - brent.phillips@deafsports.org.au

Sport is undoubtedly Brent’s biggest passion, and this is reflected by his involvement in sport at various levels. Brent currently works as Project Coordinator in the Major Projects Unit at Sport & Recreation Victoria.  Previously, he was Senior Sport Liaison Officer for the Melbourne 2005 Deaflympic Games where he managed several functional areas, including four sports, Anti Doping and Games-Wide Results, to name a few. Brent was Manager for the Victorian Council of Deaf People and also worked at the Equal Opportunity Commission of Victoria.

Brent has lived in Melbourne all my life, apart from two years in the United Kingdom on a working holiday visa and is a third-generation Deaf person in his family. He served as captain of the seconds XI for the Melbourne Deaf Cricket Club, following in his father and grandfathers' footsteps. Playing cricket takes up Brent’s summer, while watching his beloved Western Bulldogs play in the AFL takes up my winter! John Lovett (former DSA & Deaflympics President) was behind Brent’s decision to barrack for the Bulldogs! Brent’s passion for sports has taken him to many places worldwide – he has been a spectator at Olympic, Commonwealth and Deaflympic Games, and one of his not-so-well known life ambitions is to visit every Olympic city - so far he have been to 15 out of the 21 Olympic cities.

As President, Brent aims to see deaf and hard of hearing athletes in Australia access the best sporting opportunities available in Australia in both the deaf and mainstream pathways.  He is also responsible for Government Relations and DSA’s stated objective is to establish productive working relations with the Federal Government and all State and Territory Governments resulting in funding opportunities and increased recognition of deaf sports and athletes.

 

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Vice President

David F. Peters

e - david.peters@deafsports.org.au

David was born Deaf and represents the third generation of a Deaf family. David's parents, grandparents and 7 siblings are Deaf. David is married with two adult children. David attended Victorian School for the Deaf.

Having been involved with the Victorian Deaf Society (Vicdeaf) for 23 years in various roles and departments David is currently engaged as the Information Officer at Vicdeaf where he lectures to a variety of organisations about Deaf Awareness, Deaf Culture, Workplace relationships / communication. In addition to this he organizes information workshops for the community and is involved in special development projects on an ongoing basis.

David has a long history of involvement with Deaf sporting organisations;

  • Deaf Sports Australia Treasurer (DSA) since 1985.
  • DSA President from 1999 - 2003
  • DSA DEAFLYMPICS Delegate (International Deaf Sports Committee) Congress since 1983.
  • Participated in both summer (1985, 1989, 1993, 1997 and 2001) and winter (1983, 1987, 1995, 1999 and 2003) Deaflympics as both an official (Chef de Mission or Assistant Team Manager) and a DSA delegate.

David was also heavily involved in Melbourne's bid and securing of the Deaflympics 2005. Reflective of M2005 he was granted a two-year leave of absence from VicDeaf to take on a full time role as Group Manager of Sports and Venues for the Melbourne 2005 Deaflympics Organising Committee (M2005). His main responsibilities at M2005 were to organise Sport competitions and venues. This involved the coordination of venue hire agreements with all sporting venues and competition agreements with State Sports Organizations to run the 15 sport competitions, including sport medicine support for athletes and drug testing and daily Games time results posted on the website.

As a Vice President and Treasurer, David is focusing on the stability of DSA and seeking to ensure the Deaf and hard of hearing athletes achieve their goals with a professional approach.  Also wish to and extending DSA programs for its members/community.

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Director

Phil Harper
PhD.
e - phil.harper@deafsports.org.au

Phil joined the DSA Board in January 2008. His portfolio responsibilities are 'Governance' and '2009 Taipei Deaflympics.' He has a long interest in deaf sports being a participant at past Australian Deaf Games (tennis and basketball) and plays basketball with the Eastern Grizzlies. He enjoys running having completed the Melbourne marathon and 2 half marathons and bushwalking. His new ambition is to work on reducing his golf handicap and is a member of the Victorian Deaf Golf Club. His latest craze is AFL Super Rules playing with the 0ver 45's 'Gummysharks'!

His current employment position is with the Australian Communication Exchange as their Community Liaison Manager. He is a current member of the Victorian Government's Victorian Disability Advisory Council and World Federation of the Deaf Expert Panel in Technology; a former Director of the Melbourne 2005 Deaflympics Board; former Manager of the Victorian Council of Deaf People; founding member and life member of Deaf Australia; and a Churchill Fellow in 1983.

In 2008, he completed a PhD thesis at Deakin University researching the topic of "Videocommunication over the Internet use by Deaf people in the workplace".

He is married to Carla Anderson and has 4 children.

Over the past 10 months, Phil in his role on the DSA Board, has facilitated the development of a 5 year Strategic Business Plan; co-ordinated the 2009 Taipei Australian Deaflympic teams selection process; assisted with fundraising program development and contacts with government.

Phil is keen to see DSA become strategically stronger and smarter, an increase in staff numbers and funding base;  have a strong membership base and relationship and a high level national and international sports and youth talent co-ordination program.

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Director

Richard Pearce
BSc (Physics), MBA
e - richard.pearce@deafsports.org.au

Coming from an active family of 3 brothers, sport has been a passionate and constant thread throughout Richard’s life – he is sure that he was born with a pair of runners on !  Originally from the UK, Richard has lived in Australia for the last 12 years and now calls Australia home.

As a former Deaflympic Gold medallist in Athletics (New Zealand 1989) and having competed in many National and International competitions, Richard has first-hand experience of what it takes to be a successful elite athlete.  He knows what it is like to try and juggle daily training sessions, a full-time job, and even study at the same time !

With 20 years experience as a Consultant and IT Architect with muliti-national companies, Richard is currently working for IBM Global Services.  In his spare time he keeps fit by playing squash, golf, and soccer, and enjoys spending time with his partner Rebecca, and his 3 children.

As a Director of DSA, Richard aims to use his skills and experience to benefit the deaf community.  His goal is to improve the participation and performance of deaf people in sports by developing the quality and frequency of opportunities offered by DSA.

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Director

Pete Folan

e - pete.folan@deafsports.org.au

Sport connects individuals and develops communities.

Being elected onto the Board in January 2008, Peter had a hand in developing the first DSA sports Summit in August 2008.

Peter has many years experience in the Deaf community with developing programs that capture the immagination and committment of deaf or hard of hearing individuals to pursue the dream through recreation, sports or the arts in Victoria.

In Deaf sports, Peter established the Victorian Secondary Schools sports carnival in 2007 for students in the private, public and catholic education setting. Day to day Peter organizes sports clinics and camps throughout Victoria.

Peter brings over 15 years skill related experience in the areas of sports, arts and recreation event management, fundraising and advocacy.

With the DSA portfolios of Member Relations and Youth Sports Development, Peter is committed to seeing all aspects of deaf sport from participation, competition and volunteerism grow and to be celebrated locally, nationally and internationally.

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Director

Paul Baulch

e - paul.baulch@deafsports.org.au

Paul is a self employed consultant specialising in the area of Risk Management and  Occupational Health & Safety with a background in both the public and private sector.

In his past two roles, prior to commencing a sabbatical, he held General Manager roles with Telstra and Coles Myer, later Coles Group.

In each of these roles Paul has focussed on the leadership elements necessary to achieve sustainable  improvement.

His experience with Telstra and Coles Myer allied to his 10 years as a Risk Management consultant with one of Australia's leading consultancies ideally positions to advise a diverse group of professions and industries.

He is currently an Associate of the Melbourne School of Business and a Board Member of The Children's Promise Trust.

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Director

Sonia Heath

e - sonia.heath@deafsports.org.au

Sonia is extremely passionate about sport and has developed a strong understanding of the industry as an athlete, a journalist and a media adviser.

Sonia has won several Australian Rowing Championships gold medals, one World Championship gold (women’s coxed eight) and a World Championship silver (women’s quad scull). The highlight of her career was representing Australia in the women’s double scull at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Sonia has worked as a television journalist, a radio presenter, a sports media adviser at the AIS and ACT Academy of Sport, and a federal political media adviser. Sonia is currently a media adviser in Victorian State politics.

Joining the Board of Directors of Deaf Sports Australia in 2009, Sonia’s role includes providing strategic communications advice and developing and facilitating a new Communications Plan to help grow DSA’s profile.

Having a deaf sister has provided Sonia with a strong understanding of the deaf community. She believes deaf athletes deserve greater recognition and government funding support.

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