We are pleased to announce that Dr Elizabeth Constable will be opening the 2011 Positive Schools Conference in WA
Hon. Dr Elizabeth Constable MLA DipEd, MA, MEd, PhD
Biography
Seventeen years after becoming the first woman to be elected to State Parliament as an Independent, Liz Constable has continued to scale new political heights.
By being appointed to the Cabinet of Premier Colin Barnett in 2008, Dr Constable became the first Independent to be appointed as a Minister of the Crown in Western Australia.
But Dr Constable’s new responsibilities mean more to her than historic precedents.
As Education Minister, Dr Constable is keen to make a difference in a field in which she has worked most of her life and feels passionately about.
And as Tourism Minister, she knows she has the unique opportunity to promote Western Australia – the State that adopted her more than 30 years ago.
Dr Constable was born in New South Wales and graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in history and psychology and a Masters degree in clinical psychology. She later received a Diploma in Education from the University of New England.
She worked as a vocational guidance officer and taught immigrant children from inner-suburban Sydney before moving to Massachusetts and completing a Masters degree in child development at Harvard University.
Dr Constable arrived in Perth in 1975. She lectured in education and educational psychology at The University of WA and, in 1985, was awarded a doctorate for her thesis on cognitive development in gifted children.
She was also the deputy principal of a major independent girls’ school for four years and was involved in the training of school psychologists at the UWA.
Dr Constable’s main objective as Education Minister is to provide a high-quality education to all young West Australians, no matter where they live.
She is particularly determined to improve educational services to regional and remote areas of the State and to increase general literacy and numeracy standards.
Her main aim as Tourism Minister is to create a strong and buoyant local tourism industry that can consistently attract interstate and international visitors, but also encourage West Australians to holiday at home.
