Astrid Wootton – General Manager
Astrid is a writer, artist and curator with experience in leadership roles in galleries and arts administration. She also has experience in ministerial advising, and in the mental health sector, where she supported people with mental illness to tell their own unique stories. Astrid has a Cert IV in Visual Arts (Ceramics), A BA (Hons) in Art History and Classical Studies, and a PhD in Art History from the University of Melbourne.

Kate Gross – Co-founder, Communications and Fundraising Officer
Kate received an AMP Foundation grant in late 2015, enabling her to spend 2016 on the development of The Story Island Project. From 2006–2015, she was a writer/editor at the Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, an organisation that provided information and resources to the Australian youth sector. She has a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Teaching.

Amy Rayner – Volunteer Coordinator
Amy hails from Portland, Maine, in the USA. She holds a BFA from the Maine College of Art, and has worked at the Portland Museum of Art, where she managed the Museum's constituent database and membership renewals. Amy has also worked as a volunteer at The Telling Room in Portland, Maine, a literary creative arts organisation with mission and values very similar to Story Island's.

Bonni Que – Story Leader
Bonni has a background in creative arts and health, with a strong focus on social justice and community development programs. As well as maintaining her own creative practice in writing, music and visual art, Bonni has experience working as an arts facilitator within a range of diverse environments and demographics both across Australia and internationally. She is a strong believer in the power of creative expression as a means of nurturing imagination and cultivating social, cognitive, and emotional development.

Leigh Rigozzi – Consulting illustrator
Leigh is an artist based in Hobart/nipaluna. He produces illustrations, design, and graphic storytelling content for various Story Island programs. He also assists the story leader in selected workshops. He has a Masters in Visual Art from Sydney College of the Arts.

Carmel Hobbs – Chair
Carmel is a social scientist with a background in public health and development studies. She is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Trauma-Informed Practice Lab in the School of Education at UTAS. Her recent work has focused on sharing the stories of young people, particularly those who have experienced intimate partner abuse in their relationships as teenagers. Carmel is also an adjunct Lecturer in the School of Psychology and Public Health at La Trobe University, and a board member with Youth Network of Tasmania.  

Bruce Clapham – Deputy Chair
As a Digital Marketer and Copy Writer, Bruce is a 21st-century storyteller. In his role as Chief Storyteller with Parachute Digital, Bruce has had the privilege to work with many fantastic charities who are doing incredible work in a variety of fields, including Save The Children NZ, Camp Quality, The Starlight Foundation, National Breast Cancer Foundation, The Garvan Institute, Vision Australia, IHC, The Lost Dogs Home and The Nature Conservancy. Bruce is currently the Fundraising Manager for R U OK?

Alice Grubb – Secretary
Alice is a local legal practitioner; before that she dabbled in teaching and hospitality. Daily, Alice deals with clients who instruct her to help communicate their stories. Alice is a lover of language and story. She sees the power of language every day and believes everyone deserves to be able to tell their story.

Heather Chong – Treasurer and Public Officer
Heather is an accountant by background which, she says, is why she usually ends up as Treasurer. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Chartered Accountants of England and Wales. and sits on a number of boards. Her day job is Deputy Mayor of Clarence City Council.

Khaled Damag – General Member
Khaled is a graduate of the University of Tasmania, with a Business degree majoring in Finance and Business Economics. He is a writer and skilled bilingual communicator, and has served on Amnesty International Australia’s Youth Advisory Group. Khaled is currently a research and policy officer at RACT, working on advocacy projects in areas such as road safety, mobility and sustainability.

Lisa Fletcher – General Member
Lisa is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Graduate Research at the University of Tasmania. An English academic for over 20 years, Lisa traces her deep belief in the transformative power of stories for children to attending a wonderful workshop with writers and illustrators at Werribee Library when she was in primary school. Her current research examines contemporary literary culture and industry, with a focus on the place of novels in the 21st Century. Lisa's most recent book (with Elizabeth Leane), Space, Place and Bestsellers: Moving Books, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2024 and includes a case study of independent booksellers in Tasmania.

Naomi Marsh – General Member
Naomi has experience in working within the Tasmanian and Australian public and community sectors. Currently, she works in the Department for Education, Children and Young People (Tasmania), supporting projects that strengthen child safeguarding. Naomi is excited by the work of the Story Island Project – it aligns with her passion for empowering young people to recognise that their ideas and voices are valued and have the power to create positive change in their communities.

Holly Stewart – General Member
As a principal at a large public secondary school in Hobart, Holly is passionate about arts and literacy education for young people in Tasmania. In her work as an educational leader throughout schools in Tasmania and Victoria, including being a founding leader of a trauma informed school situated in Victoria’s youth justice centres, Holly has seen the power of young people having the tools to tell their story, as well as the importance of mentorship to strengthening confidence, building social capital and broadening support networks for young people.