Mandy joined Gidget Foundation Australia in 2019 as part of the Clinical Administration Team and supports the Westmead and Merrylands Gidget Houses and our Start Talking telehealth program.

Mandy has worked almost exclusively in the Western Suburbs of Sydney her working life where she grew up and has been privileged to have worked extensively with families in the early childhood learning and disability sector, primarily in supporting the running of a not-for-profit child and family resource centre and toy library.

Mandy continues to be passionate about toys, games, and play-based learning embedded in anti-oppressive and trauma-informed practice. She acknowledges that people are the experts on their own lives and has learned and continues to learn everything she knows through the relationships that are fostered by people sharing times in their lives and stories with her.

When Mandy isn’t excelling at long-distance daydreaming; lint rolling her three cats fur off her clothes; and taking as long as it would have to see a fourth child through primary and secondary school doing a Social Work degree, Mandy can be found in various stages of running, dancing, planking, passing a ball, boxing, in a child’s pose, staring at books, films, theatre stages, artworks and taking baths.