Leveda Board Members

Sue Andrews has been involved in the disability field for over 29 years in various roles since the birth of her son Mark. Mark has moderate to severe Cerebral Palsy and Intellectual Disabilities and other conditions. Sue was on the Minister of Disabilities Advisory Board for 4 years, this experience saw Sue's input help shape some of the disability reforms at Government level.

Previous to this, Sue was a nurse and has a daughter who is a Special Education Teacher, enabling her to keep in touch with what happens in Education for students with disabilities.

Since the 90's Sue has been very involved with "Breaking down the Barriers" for people with disabilities. Other achievements include assisting Government involvement in recognising that people with disabilities should be able to attend regular school camps with support. Sue was also very proactive in getting the Moving on Programme established.

Sue strongly believes that all individuals with  a disability should be supported to live in the community with families receiving the support required to assist in caring for a family member with a disability.

Jim Young has been involved in the disability sector for over 30 years as a parent and carer.

Jim has a 32 year old daughter with an intellectual disability and a 17 year old son who has Cerebral Palsy.

Jim has been a Board Member for Leveda since 2001, and brings invaluable life skills and expereince as a carer and parent to the Leveda Board.

Jim ensures that Leveda is consistently striving for and maintaining best practice service.

Jane joined the board of Leveda in 2011. Jane has been involved in presenting issues from a parent or family perspective and lobbying to improve services for 27 years. She has been involved in parent support groups, representative committees, interview panels and school councils. She has been a member of the Board of Novita Children's Services since 1993, including as Chairperson for 5 years.

As a Librarian and Information officer at the Disability information and Resource Centre (DIRC) for seven years, Jane had the opportunity to be in daily contact with a diverse group of people with disability and their families, service providers, researchers and students. She currently works for the Seniors Information Service (SIS) as an Information Officer.

Jane is the mother of three adult children, her eldest child is 29 and was born with spastic quadriplegia, a total vision impairment and severe epilepsy. Jane is committed to seeing the general community accept people with a disability as full and valuable members of society.

Debbie is a speech pathologist with MBA and a PhD post-graduate qualifications. She has worked in the allied health area for 30 years as an academic, advisor, clinician, consultant, director, manager, project officer and researcher in the public, non-government, private and university sectors.

Her public sector experience has been in education, health, disability, mental health, and primary and population health. Her focus is individuals whose right to freedom of expression is compromised, consequent to communication, speech and language impairments.

Joining Leveda in 2011 Debbie brings over 10 years Board  experience with other entities to build the capacity of the community to ensure individuals with compromised communication, speech and language skills have a voice.

Barbara joined the Leveda Board in 2011 as a community representative, being a parent of a Leveda client.

She has been extensively involved in the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association of South Australia including as Chairperson and was instrumental in lobbying for and achieving supported accommodation for people living with Prader-Willi Syndrome.

With a nursing background, Barbara also holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and manages a small business in the arts area.

Jo joined the Leveda Board in 2011 as a professional representative with extensive Australian business and industry experience, including hospitality and tourism, government and investment facilitation.

She has worked in a range of industries, in large and small businesses, and in both the public and private sectors.

With strong experience in marketing and successful strategic planning for growth, she now brings these skills to her clients in her own consulting business.

In addition, she is a board director with over 10 years experience and a member of both the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Institute of Management (SA).

Will Spargo joined the Leveda Board in May 2012 as a Professional Representative. Will is an Associate in Kelly & Co.’s Employment and Workplace Relations team.  He has significant experience across all areas of law which relate to employment and the workplace. He has particular expertise in dealing with breach of contract claims, restraint of trade issues, unfair dismissal matters, industrial disputes, award compliance questions, discrimination and occupational health & safety.

Will has a Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice (Honours) and is a member of the Industrial Relations Society of South Australia.