Beyond Words runs by the generosity of our volunteers and has no employees. Since 2023, we have two part-time contractors supporting our operations.
Our Biographers
Our growing number of biographers, currently around sixty, devote time and effort to capture and celebrate the stories of people in aged care and see it as a privilege to enter and record the lives and stories of our elders.
The quality and quantity of our biographies requires organisation, training, funds, support, liaison with aged care residences, and so on. We achieve this through the voluntary efforts and diverse talents of our biographers who, as the organisation rebuilds, (see History) have taken on the following roles:
Our Board
Richard Hill – Chair
A biographer with Beyond Words since 2016, Richard joined the Board at the end of 2020. Before retirement, Richard worked in the review, planning and improvement of community organisations both as a consultant and manager in Quality Improvement Community Services Accreditation (QICSA). He also worked in training, university teaching, and for many years with local governments designing and managing youth policy and services.
Karina Jagoe – Acting Secretary
Karina’s involvement with Beyond Words extends back to the early days when she first consulted on early organisational strategy, and more recently as Beyond Words Program Manager and Project Officer engaging with Aged Care Residences, and our wonderful team of volunteers.
With a passion for the ageing sector and extensive professional experience in change management, communications and business operations, Karina brings a depth of experience and a deep understanding of Beyond Words to her role as Director and Board Secretary.
Keith Bishop – Acting Treasurer
Keith joined Beyond Words in 2026. More details are coming soon.
Austin Paterson
Austin joined Beyond Words in 2022. He has a keen interest in aged care, community health, community development and philanthropy. He has held various senior positions in these fields in Melbourne, Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula.
Nigel McQuitty
Nigel joined Beyond Words as a biographer in 2019 and now works in the editorial team that ensures our biographies are high-quality publications. Originally from New Zealand, he has worked for the last twenty-four years in publishing in Taiwan, Singapore, and now Melbourne.
Paul Ackerman
Paul joined Beyond Words as a biographer in 2025 and joined the board in 2026. He worked as a Human Resources executive for over thirty years working mostly for a global management consulting firm.
Paul is a keen historian (having majored in history at university) and feels it is important that we capture the stories of ordinary people as a way of bringing to life the history of recent generations.
Duncan McGann
Duncan joined Beyond Words as a biographer in 2022 and has since become a passionate advocate for the benefits our program brings – not only to our storytellers, but also to our volunteers.
As a former History/English teacher, he brings his professional and biography experience together to coordinate our training program and run biography training for our volunteers. Duncan also assists in our assessment team. He joined the board in 2026.
Public Officer – To be advised
Our Patrons
Jenny Kearney, OAM is the creator of the original biography service under Eastern Palliative Care. For 20 years she was previously Executive Director of Open Doors, a community-based counselling and education program.
Dr Brenda Niall, AO is the award-winning author of nine biographies including the accounts of the Boyd family and True North, her portrait of the Durack sisters. She supports Beyond Words because biographies tell us that individuals matter and celebrate their lives.
Operations Team
Sarah Finlay is our Volunteer Coordinator. She coordinates the biography program and supports the volunteers.
Nigel McQuitty leads a team of editors who ensure we publish quality biographies.
Caroline Trubridge is our Information Officer and works closely with the rest of the team and ensures effective use of IT, setting up systems to support our processes and manage our online presence through this website and social media.
Training for new biographers is a rigorous three day program. Richard, Duncan, Ken, Julie and Nigel form the training team to share the load and improve the program.
Julie organises the Forum where biographers share and learn from each other’s experience. We aim to constantly improve our skills and support each other.
Members of the Board work as a fundraising subcommittee with expert help from Lyn, We have a plan to rebuild our finances, establish a sustainable funding base for our current program, and enable future expansion.