Our Leadership
About GAVE’s Executive & Steering Committees
The Executive Committee comprises of the Past Chair, Current Chair, and Chair-Elect of our GAVE organisation.
Members of the Executive Committee serve (up to) a three-year term, occupying one year in each role, for the facilitation of continuity, collaboration, and communication in our leadership structures.
Our Steering Committee is made up of the Executive Committee and the Chair from each of the seven Standing Committee (see below). We strive to meet on a regular basis (i.e., monthly or bi-monthly) to advance values and values-based education through GAVE’s global networks and platforms.
Nazreen Dasoo
Past GAVE Chair (2025)
Nazreen is an Associate Professor who heads the Department for Education and Curriculum Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of Johannesburg. She also holds a UNESCO Chair in Values Education – Learning to Live Together.
Thomas W. Nielsen
Current GAVE Chair (2025)
Thomas is an Associate Professor in Education at the University of Canberra, Australia. He has served in several of the Australian Government funded values and
wellbeing education projects (395 schools) from 2004 to 2010. He currently also serves as a Director of the International Beliefs and Values Institute (IBAVI) Australian branch.
About GAVE’s Standing Committees
Here at GAVE we respect, study, and engage with all manner of values-based systems and structures from around the world in a non-partisan, secular manner.
Our work is achieved through seven Standing Committees for: Research, Education, Advancement, Policy, Communication, Membership, and Conference.
Together, we endeavour to ensure that what we do is carried out with credibility, objectivity, integrity, quality, and excellence when it comes to bringing our organisational mission, vision, and values to life.
Any member of GAVE may volunteer to participate in one or more of our Standing Committees by contacting the current Chair of said Committee/s. Please see below for further information on the exciting work carried out by each of our different Committees and don’t hesitate to contact us if you’d like to become involved!
Research Committee
The GAVE Research Committee aims to support and coordinate the development, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of high-quality values-based education research globally.
The Committee endeavours to do so in a way that is multidisciplinary, culturally and ecologically valid, and reflexive.
Research activities may include, but are not restricted to:
- Research development, facilitation, and review;
- Grant development and support;
- Assessment and measurement;
- Contributing to peer-review processes and open-access journals
… as they relate to investigating the impact of values-based education and its processes on learning, development, caregiving, collaboration, and wellbeing across diverse populations.
Jennifer Ma
GAVE Research Committee Chair
Jennifer Ma is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, the University of Canberra, Australia. Her research areas of expertise and interest include: exploring the role of social processes (e.g., connectedness and belonging) on mental health and wellbeing outcomes; suicide prevention; positive psychology, values, and wellbeing education; theory development, testing and refinement; and intervention and evaluation research. For an overview of current, published research, please visit her profile on Researchgate.
Education Committee
The Education Committee aims to develop, initiate, support, evaluate, and summarise various educational courses, programs, and initiatives that are designed to illustrate, exemplify, and/or advance values-based education as a paradigm, model, and method.
The Committee is also tasked with overseeing any professional development, certification, or curricular / program review processes that GAVE may wish to provide.
Currently, the Education and Policy Committees hold joint meetings to advance GAVE’s mission, vision, and values across both of these vital portfolios.
Christopher Duncan
GAVE Education Committee Chair (Acting)
Chris has more than twenty years’ experience leading independent schools in Australia. From 2015 until joining the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA) as its CEO in January 2023, Chris was Head of Governance at the New South Wales (NSW) Association of Independent Schools. Prior to those appointments Chris was a Junior School Head in Sydney. He completed his PhD in 2021 on developing the concept of ‘value-embedded learning’ by applying dynamic systems theory and adopting electroencephalogram research methodologies.
Advancement Committee
Information about the work of this committee will be posted soon.
Policy Committee
The purpose of GAVE’s Policy Committee is to identify, develop, promote, and coordinate policies to advance values-based education, nationally, regionally and/or globally, working to connect with policy makers and/or relevant organisations, groups, and initiatives towards shared goals.
Charles Fowler
GAVE Policy Committee Chair
Charles brings his wealth of experience in the values and values-based education space, also holding roles as:
- Chair of the Human Values Foundation, a UK charity which uses positive values to promote young people’s social and emotional development;
- Director of the UK Values Alliance;
- A project partner of the Collaborating Centre for Values-based Practice for Health and Social Care at Oxford University;
- A delegate at the Values20 (V20) Group which engages G20 leaders in values-based policy-making; and
- Global Coordinator for World Values Day.
Communication Committee
Information about the work of this committee will be posted soon.
Membership Committee
The Membership Committee is dedicated to cultivating a diverse and dedicated community of individuals and organisations (e.g., scholars, educators, practitioners, students, leaders, policy-makers, and citizens) committed to upholding GAVE’s mission and vision to create and sustain a vibrant movement and forum for the advancement of high quality values-based education programs, policies, and initiatives around the world.
The purpose of the Membership Committee is to strategically and inclusively manage GAVE’s membership, ensuring representation from a wide spectrum of sectors, perspectives, and cultures.
Through thoughtful selection and engagement (e.g., annual surveys, ongoing dialogue, solicitation of input, targeted outreach), the Membership Committee aims to build a cohesive and dynamic alliance/global network that exemplifies and expresses the values of ‘credibility, care, communication, depth, and awareness’ and works collaboratively to address shared goals towards the promotion of positive societal impact, locally and globally.
The Membership Committee will:
- Identify priorities of interest to GAVE and its members through regular and appropriate means and methods (e.g., annual surveys, ongoing dialogue, solicitation of input);
- Maintain an active and current list of members;
- With approval from the Steering Committee, develop criteria for reviewing and approving GAVE members;
- Oversee processes by which current and prospective members may be invited, supported, and encouraged to participate in GAVE activities.
Conference Committee
The Conference Committee serves GAVE by being mindful of resource, timing, and logistical issues, and seeking to create synergies wherever possible (e.g. by partnering with allied organisations and initiatives). Specifically, the Conference Committee works to organise and coordinate regular convenings that are of demonstrable interest to current and prospective GAVE members.
Throughout all of the papers, discussions, and presentations on topics central to GAVE’s mission, our Committee’s litmus test for measuring success will be the questions:
- “Does this coming together touch the ‘hearts’ of the participants, as well as their ‘heads’?” and
- “Will it help in laying the foundation for systems of education which promote more selflessness, caring, integrity, compassion and sustainability than we have in the world today?”
Ron Toomey
GAVE Conference Committee Chair
Ron is an Emeritus Professor from the College of Arts, Business, Law, Education and IT at Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Over a long career he has held positions in education as:
- a secondary school teacher;
- a State Education authority curriculum developer;
- an educational administrator within the Victorian Higher School Certificate (HSC) examinations’ authority;
- a university academic in a number of Australian education faculties;
- the Foundation Head of the College of Education at Victoria University (VU);
- an Adjunct Professor at LaTrobe, Australian Catholic University, and the University of Newcastle.
His grant-funded research has addressed themes around curriculum; learning and teaching; the usage of information and communication technology in education; linking industry and education; access and equity in education; and teacher preparation and professional development.