Ann has one adult daughter, a granddaughter, and is Founder and Director of Community Transformations, Inc., a not-for-profit organization established in 2003. Located in Adelaide, South Australia, she brings the Parenting by Connection approach to parents, family support workers, parent educators and other professionals, and trains leaders to forward this work.
Ann has been delivering the approach since 1992, working with parents and professionals. Over this time, her work has entailed delivering Parenting by Connection to hundreds of groups of parents and professionals. Professionals range from family services staff, to childcare centre and pre-school staff. Ann's work has incorporated mentoring both parents and staff in using the approach with children.
Ann managed the 2006 Listening to Children Project that successfully implemented the approach in three childcare centres, and worked with centre directors and staff to also engage in a complementary research project on the implementation.
Ann's other roles have included counsellor and professional development consultant in the private, business, government and corporate sectors, delivering training on a range of topics. She has taught “The Art of Listening” to many groups and has been a senior social worker, working with people with ‘multiple, severe and complex needs' and a youth worker.
Ann has a BA Degree from the University of Adelaide, where she studied Biology, Philosophy, Psychology, History and Political Economy.
She began training in the Parenting by Connection approach in 1989 and first trained with Patty Wipfler, of Hand in Hand, in 1992. Since then, Ann has trained and collaborated with Patty at regular intervals from then until the present time in both Australia and in the United States of America.