Our Board

John Ryall joined the board in 2019, and was appointed Chairperson in October 2023.

John was a child migrant from the UK and was sent to Castledare and Tardun.  He took part in National Service, then went on to study music and opera at the NSW Conservatorium. John sang with the Queensland Opera and St Stephen’s Cathedral Brisbane, and later continued studying at WAAPA and taught and sang at St Mary’s Cathedral Perth.

John has been actively involved with Tuart Place since 2008.

Since joining the FACT Board John has been actively involved in advocacy on behalf of care leavers, public speaking and using his lived experience to raise public awareness on issues affecting survivors.

Dale Lynch spent many years with a foster family after placements at St Joseph’s and Castledare.  He is of Aboriginal descent although was unaware of this until meeting his biological family in his early twenties.  Dale first came to 24 High Street in 2008 and has retained an ongoing connection since that time.  He is an Inspirational Speaker with the Heal for Life Foundation, and travelled to England in 2019 to present HfL training modules at Whitemoor maximum security prison.  Dale takes part in public awareness raising activities with Tuart Place, speaking powerfully at the WA Records Summit in 2017; at a ‘Make Redress Right’ briefing at Parliament House in 2018; and a Public Rally to ‘Save Tuart Place’ in 2022.   In 2019, Dale instigated Tuart Place’s submission to the Aged Care Royal Commission, which he co-authored with fellow Board member Margo O’Byrne.  Dale gave an outstanding presentation at the launch of the National Aged Care Roundtable’s website in April 2023, held at Parliament House in Brisbane.

Ross Stagno joined the Board in August 2018. He is a member of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, and has over 10 years of experience in tax and business service. He has a passion for working with small to medium business clients and lives by the mantra that being proactive is best practice. He also has experience as a treasurer with not for profit entities, assisting with corporate secretarial and governance issues.

Dr. Sue Bailey has lived all her life on Whadjuk Noongar Country. Her curiosity, dangerous as a toddler but transformative as an adult, led her to a PhD in social work which consolidated her belief in the importance of social and ecological justice. For over 25 years Sue has worked in academia, government, non-government, and community sectors where she has developed her skills in working alongside people using participatory approaches. She has a reputation as an educator, practitioner and researcher who is deeply engaged, inclusive and authentic – she lives the values she espouses. More recently Sue has turned her attention to the emerging and ever-evolving field of eco-social work. With an interest in supporting humans to reconnect with the natural systems they rely upon for life, she has been a collaborative leader in bringing eco-social work to the mainstream of social work understanding in WA.

Kevin Collins is a former Child Migrant and ex-resident of Castledare and Clontarf Boys Town. He worked forty years for Independent Wool Dumpers working his way up to being Operation Manager. Since retiring, Kevin enjoys helping other people; doing voluntary work at St Patrick’s with homeless people and Melville Cares with Seniors.

Mark was a State Ward for fourteen years, spending time at Bridgewater, Mofflyn and Warminda with various foster placements.

Since leaving state care Mark has worked in the Gas and Iron Ore industries, Finance, Ambulance Paramedic, Work Health & Safety.

Mark believes that giving back to the community through volunteering builds a strong fabric of support. Mark has volunteered as First Aid Officer, Bush Firefighter and is currently the President of the local cricket club.

Mark was a strong voice to have the Forgotten Australians Memorial returned to its location at Bulla Bardip Museum in Perth’s Cultural Precinct and has worked for the Department of Community Services which provides care to the current state wards.

LL.B/ BA / Grad Dip. Competition and Consumer Law

Mia is legally trained and was admitted to the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 2008.

She has varied professional experience using her legal skills and knowledge in both legal and quasi-legal roles in Western Australia and Melbourne.

This includes at a top-tier law firm, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, in-house counsel at an energy retailer and a statutory anti-corruption Commission.

More recently, while raising her young family, Mia has guided law graduates through their Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (PLT) as an Adjunct Lecturer at the College of Law in WA.

Ann McVeigh was five years young when she came to Perth, Western Australia as a child migrant in 1950. She was sent to St Joseph’s orphanage in Subiaco and was there for ten years. With the help of a school friend, she started a self-help group called ICAS (Institutional Child Abuse Society) at the WISH foundation in Claremont. She was also on the Committee for the child migration statue at Fremantle wharf, near the Maritime Museum.
When Tuart Place opened its doors, she was one of the first to turn up and helped to start up the singing group on a Monday which is still going. She is honoured to be serving on the Tuart Place Board representing all care-leavers including child migrants, Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

Margo spent six years of her childhood as a Ward of State in Queensland, in St Vincent’s Orphanage, St Patrick’s Convent Gympie, and with a foster family. She has written about her experience as a Forgotten Australian in a memoir, Left Unsaid.  Margo represents Tuart Place on the National Aged and Community Care Roundtable for Forgotten Australians and co-authored Tuart Place’s submission to the Aged Care Royal Commission.  She played a key role in developing the Aged Care Navigator position at Tuart Place and ran a training program for Care Leavers to help inform aged care services about the impact of institutional trauma.  Margo has more than 30 years’ experience as a facilitator and workplace coach in government, with not-for-profit groups, religious communities and the aged.  Margo has lived in Fremantle for more than 40 years and has strong connections with the local community.

Cevrina Reed experienced out-of-home care as a child at Parkerville Children’s Home and in Churches of Christ foster homes. She is a committed volunteer and a powerful advocate for care leavers. Cevrina is active in raising community awareness of care leaver issues and has given public presentations to Social Work students at the University of WA; to aged care service providers and managers; and to delegates at the 2016 WACOSS Annual Conference and the 2018 AASW Trauma Informed Symposium.  In 2017, Cevrina spoke at a Records Summit at Monash University in Melbourne, and in 2019 she presented a paper on redress at the SHCY biennial conference in Sydney.

Cevrina represented Tuart Place at the 2022 ‘National Enabling Better Aged and Community Care Forum’ in Brisbane, where her powerful audio-visual presentation on the impact of redress payments on aged care fees was screened.  Presentation available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjBl1wjV1DWFpbo3X0Zz-wA

In April 2023, Cevrina was co-Master of Ceremonies at the National Aged Care Roundtable’s online event for Care Experienced History Month.

Lyn Sherwood has a wealth of employment experience in both the public and private sectors of the West Australian economy, and her many roles as a teacher (primary, secondary and tertiary), HR consultant and executive career coach, managing director, Chief Executive Officer and Chief of Staff to a Minister of the Crown in the State Government and as a current small business owner. Lyn has been a member of several boards of varying sizes and functioning (Scitech, National Association of Women in Construction, the State Training Board, the State Supply Commission Board, SafeCare Inc and Just Manna Inc). For the last three decades Lyn has been on the Winston Churchill Fellowship Selection Committee (Education and Training).

Jacques obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Pretoria in South Africa as well as a further LLM (Research) from the University of Notre Dame Australia. He was admitted as an Advocate (Barrister) of the High Court of South Africa and has consulted on a number of projects since arriving in Australia. For the past eight years, Jacques has worked as a law lecturer at Notre Dame School of Law. In 2023, he obtained a Doctor of Laws (LLD) specialising in Employment law with a special interest in discrimination and redress. Jacques has further contributed to government submissions relating to health, safety and wellbeing and published on a variety of employment and discrimination issues.