OUR CO-FOUNDERS
Shaped by decades of experience in education and violence prevention, our co-founders’ vision and expertise are foundational to our kaupapa.
Elaine Dyer
A passionate advocate for peace, social justice, and violence prevention, Elaine develops programmes that build emotional resilience and strengthen the wellbeing of tamariki across Aotearoa.
A trained teacher, Elaine founded Action Education, which grew alongside Youthline counselling services, creating authentic, engaging, and effective youth programmes. She is a highly regarded trainer, facilitator, and sought-after speaker on violence prevention in New Zealand and around the world, having led alternatives to violence programmes in prisons and communities, developed professional training courses for facilitators, and authored international trainer manuals.
As CEO of Violence Free Waitakere for 14 years, Elaine initiated innovative campaigns and programmes across schools and communities in West Auckland. Since 2015, she has focused on programme development and teacher training.
Andrea O'Hagan
Drawing on extensive teaching experience spanning early childhood, primary, secondary, tertiary, and adult community settings—underpinned by a Master of Education specialising in neuroscience, cognition, and literacy—Andreas develops programs and trains educators across Aotearoa to implement effective learning strategies.
As a regional trainer with the Peace Foundation for 14 years, Andrea facilitated programmes that built skills in conflict resolution and mediation, and co-authored two manuals supporting peaceful communication within families and among teenagers.
As an NLP brain coach, Andrea introduced strategies to secondary students that helped cultivate positive behavioural change and improve learning outcomes, and has been a Waikato University Teaching Fellow since 2004, contributing to programme development and teacher training.
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