Leadership
Committee Members
In Memoriam
Susan Salthouse AM (1949 - 2020)
Sue was an active member of the WAVE Committee for 20 years, joining WAVE immediately following attendance at a WAVE National Conference in Canberra in 2000. From 2000 until her untimely death July 20, 2020 Sue brought her passion and voice to the work of WAVE advocating for the rights of women in adult and vocational education.
Following her introduction to WAVE Sue quickly took up the role of ACT Representative on the WAVE National Executive. She added a valuable dimension to the work of WAVE deepening the understanding and connections of gender and disability in the Australian education sector. Sue held strong to her belief in the value of education and training in supporting women, particularly women with a disability, to obtain decent work.
Sue’s commitment to WAVE led to her attending many conferences, events and meetings across Australia on behalf of WAVE while also contributing to many of WAVE’s submissions to government. One strong memory held by those who knew Sue was of her sitting around the campfire in Alice Springs with local indigenous women at a WAVE National Executive gathering.
WAVE benefited greatly from Sue’s positive outlook and humour, political perspectives and what seemed to be endless energy and commitment to getting things done to improve the lives of women in adult and vocational education.
Sue was a dedicated advocate for gender and disability issues and WAVE sought to remember her legacy through programs run in memory of Sue in the years following her death - Salthouse Sistas and the Susan Salthouse Research Grant.
Salthouse Sistas
WAVE established Salthouse Sistas in 2021, it was an initiative that sought to create networking opportunities and a supportive environment in which young women living with disabilities could build workplace confidence and increase their opportunities for employment. The initiative was led by a volunteer project officer Tayla Taseff.
Tayla brought to the network her lived experience with disability and knowledge of the struggles that young people with a disability face in this journey. She felt that by bringing young people with a disability together and networking with employers, they could remove the barriers to employment that women with a disability faced when entering the workforce.
After a year supporting networking events, Tayla and the WAVE Committee made the decision to close the network due to financial constraints that limited the opportunities to engage effectively with employers. While Salthouse Sistas did not run for long Tayla’s contribution to this network and the memory of Sue had a lasting impact on those involved.
Susan Salthouse Research Grant
The Susan Salthouse Research Grant was established by WAVE in 2020 in memory of Sue, this grant supported individual researchers focused on advancing research in the themes closest to Sue’s focus in life – equity and inclusion for women and girls living with a disability within the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector.
The grant was managed by WAVE and awarded annually at the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference.
The first grant was awarded to Annemaree Gibson and Annie Carney from Box Hill Institute (BHI) to assist in preparing a paper for publication on a BHI program which helped build teacher capability to support learners of all abilities. Read more.
The 2022 grant was awarded to Karen Hall from Swinburne University. The award was made for the research she undertook and paper she presented at the 2022 AVETRA Conference: Exploring the knowledge, skills, and attributes required for enrolled nurses to work with consumers experiencing mental health issues. The grant will assist Karen in further developing her paper to prepare it for publication.
The final grant, made in 2023, went to Ms Reshmy Radhamony of Federation University. The award was made to support future research that was proposed in her paper Nursing Education to Enhance Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) Community Access to Mental Health Services: A Scoping Review. The scoping review concluded that there was a need “for more research focussing on enhancing MHNs’ (Mental Health Nurses’) cultural competency. Additional research is required to evaluate educational interventions’ impact on improving cultural competence attributes on specific practitioner behaviours and the effects on health care and health care outcomes." WAVE considered this piece of research and its implications worthy of promotion within the VET and adult education research community and awarded the grant to support further research.