PRACTICE MANAGER AND EARLY INTERVENTION EDUCATOR

Claudia has been with PEDAL Early Intervention since 2016. She has always worked in or alongside children's services and loves the sense of community that comes from working with children and families. She is a parent of three kids and in her spare time enjoys swimming, playing netball and puffing her way around the parkrun course.

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST

Merilyn has over 30 years of experience working as a speech pathologist in a variety of settings. She has worked with children in community health, early intervention and private practice as well as children and adults with intellectual disability through ADHC. She gained valuable experience working in London in a specialist hospital clinic for children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS). In her private practice she has specialised in dyslexia and CAS.  Merilyn’s passion is helping people find ‘their voice’ and she gets very excited when her clients start being able to understand and communicate using signing and visuals and we can start speaking the same language. Merilyn is a Key Word Sign presenter and loves running workshops to teach others how to assist people through signing.  Outside of work she loves knitting, spending time with her grandchildren and family, and having coffee with friends.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Olivia graduated from The University of Newcastle with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy in 2019. In Olivia’s first role as an OT, she enjoyed working with a wide range of children aged 0-18 and developed a special interest in early intervention. Olivia has a passion for collaborating with families and providing opportunities for development through play. Olivia’s favourite thing about working at PEDAL is the opportunity to get to know each child’s strengths and provide individualised support as part of a team around each child. In her spare time Olivia enjoys reading, cooking and spending time with friends and family.

SPEECH PATHOLOGIST

Katrina graduated from Charles Sturt University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Health Science (Speech Pathology). Since then, Katrina worked with and learned from both paediatric and adult clients primarily in disability settings in Sydney before landing her dream job in early intervention in Armidale. Katrina is passionate about supporting clients and families using a strengths-based and collaborative approach and gets a thrill seeing clients, parents and carers learning and using new communication or feeding skills out in the community. Her special interests include Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC), nurturing Gestalt Language Processors (GLP) and neurodiverse affirming practice and supporting mealtimes using a responsive feeding framework. In her spare time, Katrina enjoys attempting to play soccer and netball, reading, tackling furniture restoration projects and spending time with her family.

PAEDIATRIC PHYSIOTHERAPIST

Suzie’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Physiotherapy; Master of Physiotherapy (Paediatrics), APA Titled Member Paediatrics, Bachelor of Education (Hons) Human Movement. Suzie has over 30 years’ experience as a Physiotherapist, 25 years working as a paediatric physiotherapist in public and private sector including The Spastic Centre of NSW, MontroseAccess QLD, ADHC and NT Health. I currently work part-time with NSW Health and part-time at PEDAL. Suzie has a special interest in family centred practice, transdisciplinary models of care, hydrotherapy and developmental assessments/intervention. She enjoys and values a team based approach to service delivery and delivering services to enable children to develop their strengths. Suzie likes a physical challenge! Give her a mountain to climb or a river to paddle and she will try and tackle it!

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Rashmi graduated from Australian Catholic University with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours) in 2021. Though she has experience working with individuals across the lifespan, Rashmi has found her true calling in paediatrics! Rashmi has a passion for strengths-based practice and enjoys collaborating with families, teachers and other disciplines to create individualised support for her clients. Rashmi’s favourite thing about working at PEDAL is having the opportunity to connect with a child and their family and supporting them to reach their fullest potential! Having recently moved to Armidale from Sydney, Rashmi is enjoying exploring the New England countryside and in her spare time enjoys day trips out to nearby towns.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Janine is a Paediatric Occupational Therapist who graduated with Honours from Newcastle University in 2000. She has had a range of OT experience, working in both hospital and community settings in metropolitan, regional and remote Australia, UK and India. One of her career highlights was spending two years in India where she worked in a local orphanage and hospital and helped to start a clinic for autistic children. Her special interest area is working with neurodiverse children and their families to help everyone gain a better understanding of each other. She loves the joy and spontaneity children bring to this world and is grateful she gets to spend her time at work with them. A fun fact is that she worked for six months in the Philippines for the Survivor America TV series.

FAMILY SUPPORT WORKER

Elisa has recently completed a Bachelor of Community Services and is passionate about supporting and empowering children and families. She has a strong interest in trauma informed practice. She is a single mum to four beautiful teenage boys and has a background in hospitality and catering. In 2019 she decided on a career change and found the courage to undertake full time study for three and a half years! She feels very fortunate to have found her dream job at PEDAL. She loves cooking and feeding the people she loves as well as indulging her passion for horse riding.

EARLY INTERVENTION EDUCATOR

Having originally trained as a primary teacher, Cathy realised that she really enjoyed her part-time job in a preschool and retrained as an early childhood teacher. Preschoolers are fascinating to Cathy and she values being part of their learning while they explore their world. Her passion is for each child to feel that they belong, and she likes to use songs, music and a sense of fun to play beside them as we learn together. Play is a powerful tool is helping children discover their strengths. In her spare time she enjoys being outside, hanging out with her chickens... hoping they don't break into the veggie garden!

STUDENT WORK PLACE TRAINEE

Ruby enjoyed her work experience at PEDAL and has since commenced a school-based traineeship. Ruby works alongside the occupational therapists, speech pathologists and educators, supporting each child and the therapist. Ruby is gaining experience in assisting to facilitate small groups. She has a particular interest in the way speech pathologists support each child's learning and watching their progress. Ruby has been part of the Armidale Physical Culture Club since the age of 2 and is now an assistant teacher for kids from the age of 4-12. She loves seeing children improve throughout their time with the Physie Club.

SECTOR CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAM

Angela began her career in Early Childhood Services and completed her Bachelor of Education (Primary) in 2017. She has worked predominantly with children from Preschool to Year Two and loves working in neurodiverse classrooms. Her passion is working with families, allied health professionals and education teams to support the child’s full engagement in the curriculum and play environment. Angela’s role with the Sector Capacity Building program is to support staff in community preschools to implement inclusive education practices and enhance ongoing inclusion readiness. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her three adult children, reading, gardening and walks with her dogs.

OFFICE ADMINISTRATOR

Bio coming soon.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST

Annabelle is an aspiring occupational therapist who is enthusiastic about working to support her local community. Annabelle graduated with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours) from the University of Newcastle in 2022. Annabelle believes in providing individualised intervention to each child and family based on their unique strengths and interests. Annabelle is interested in providing support to children with sensory processing difficulties and has gained experience volunteering for at multiple organisations, including Sense Rugby and Camp Jabiru. In her spare time, Annabelle enjoys music, arts and crafts, and exploring the beautiful upper Hunter. Annabelle is passionate about collaborating with a supportive team at PEDAL to collectively enhance clients lives through our holistic occupational therapy practice.

ADMINISTRATION/RECEPTION

Gaylene has over 30 years experience working in reception and administration. She enjoys welcoming children and their families as they arrive for therapy sessions. Gaylene has a keen eye to nurture plants as well as people.

SPEECH PATHOLOGY ALLIED HEALTH ASSISTANT

Pam graduated from Cumberland College of Health Sciences in 1994 as a Speech Pathologist, then worked in the disability sector in Armidale (primarily in early intervention and school therapy) before taking a break to raise her own kids. She then worked in an administrative role for a number of years until her kids had just about left home, then jumped at the opportunity to work as an Allied Health Assistant at PEDAL, which enables her to use her past Speech Pathology skills as well as working with young kids which she loves. In her spare time Pam enjoys reading, working in the garden, and cooking(and sampling!) delicious baking.

BOOKKEEPER

Wendy is a local lady, from the Armidale region and has spent the best part of her life in bookkeeping, payroll and financial services, for various industries and social and community care sectors.

Wendy holds a Cert IV Alcohol & Other Drugs Works, which formed part of her role with Drug Arm Australasia, based in Bundaberg, Qld, current First Aid Certificate and various other attainments for the Social Welfare, Community based sectors. i.e. spending nearly 14 years in the Aged Care sector in NSW, under Commonwealth Home Care Program.

We welcome Wendy to Pedal, she is no stranger to our office (with about 7 years remote assistance offsite for Pedal in her bookkeeping role). Wendy has a good understanding of Pedal's ethos, values and the outcomes for the children, who attend sessions here at Pedal, so please say hello to her, if you spot her at the front desk.