Board of Directors
Blair Gilbert (Chairperson)
Chérie Harris (Vice Chairperson)
Nicki Turner
Thomas Coysh
Stephanie Rigter
Phil Warin
Jessica Parkin
Team
HELEN JOHNSON
GENERAL MANAGER
Helen’s role as General Manager is focused on the growth and development of blind and low vision sport opportunities throughout Aotearoa. This includes supporting national, regional and club level sport organisations to ensure their sport is accessible to participants with a vision impairment. Helen also connects with a range of organisations to support their members to engage in quality sport opportunities.
Helen has been involved in sport as an active sports person and in sport management roles for the majority of her career since graduating. Helen brings experience from her roles at the International Paralympic Committee, Paralympics New Zealand and as a sport consultant working with various National Sport Organisations. To get in touch with Helen, you can email her on helen@blindsport.kiwi
JEMMA DRAKE COMMUNITY AND PROGRAMMES LEAD
In this newly formed role Jemma is responsible for a number of key Blind Sport New Zealand community projects & programmes. These are focused on ensuring blind, deafblind and low vision New Zealanders can engage in quality sport and active recreation in their local community. Every day is different, and you’ll find Jemma leading upskilling workshops, promoting our Accessible Sport Kits, connecting a vision impaired individual with a local club or supporting our partners at events.
Jemma has been a long standing advocate for sport and inclusion, and her event management and programme experience from hospitality and Special Olympics New Zealand spans over 10 years. Talk to Jemma by emailing or calling - em: jemma@blindsport.kiwi ph: 022 599 3961
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KYLE MACFADYEN
ADMINISTRATOR
Providing part-time admin support to the team, Kyle brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience from the not for profit, education, and disability sectors. Having worked mostly in client-facing roles, Kyle understands the value of clear communication and how efficient processes help an organisation to support the best outcomes for service users.
Having enjoyed various sports throughout his life, Kyle has a keen appreciation of the wide-ranging benefits sport can bring to the quality of life and is passionate about all sections of society having access to these benefits. Kyle can be reached at admin@blindsport.kiwi.
CONTACT US
The team’s full contact details can be found here: blindsport.kiwi/contact-us