http://www.thepunch.com.au/author-bios/dr-lisa-o-brien/ Dr Lisa O’Brien joined The Smith Family as CEO in February 2011. Lisa has had over 20 years experience in a diverse range of senior management roles in the health care, community services, bio-medical and information technology sectors. As a result, she brings to The Smith Family strong commercial acumen and stakeholder management expertise, as well as extensive experience in people and organisational management in relevant sectors.  She also brings a high level of passion for the work of The Smith Family. Lisa is a Medical Practitioner registered in New South Wales, a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and she holds a Masters of Business Administration and a Masters of Human Resource Management and Coaching. Formerly Lisa was the Chief Executive Officer of the Skin and Cancer Foundation Australia. This not-for-profit Foundation provides specialist dermatology and dermatopathology services and has a charitable mission to further teaching, training and research in dermatology. In 1999, Lisa played an instrumental role in successfully founding Lou’s Place, a drop in centre providing respite and support for women in need. She was part of a small group who set up the operations of the Centre, including establishing services for the women, securing funding from individuals as well as the corporate and community sectors and developing the volunteering strategy. en Copyright 2012 The Punch penberthyd@newsltd.com.au penberthyd@newsltd.com.au Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Sat, 26 May 2012 20:00:40 +0000 Politics, opinion, world news, sports news, latest news, views, Barack Obama, Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Nathan Rees, Malcolm Turnbull, Peter Garrett, Barnaby Joyce, Australian, federal politics, opinion polls, election, The Punch, thepunch, punch ExpressionEngine 1.6.7 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 15 http://www.thepunch.com.au/images/punch-logo-rss.png http://www.thepunch.com.au/ 144 70 Politics, political opinion, world news, sports news and the latest news and views updated live, daily on The Punch - Australia's best conversation. Search The Punch keywords http://www.thepunch.com.au/search/ http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/writing-the-wrongs-of-literacy-in-australia/ Literacy is a right to which every Australian child is entitled, so it’s pertinent to consider on International Literacy Day (today, September 8) why some Australian students are still failing to achieve a minimum standard of literacy. A comparison of Australia’s performance against other OECD countries would appear to demonstrate that Australian students are on the whole performing well at school. However, a closer look reveals students from low-income families are tending to fall behind their peers. A higher proportion of socio-economically disadvantaged students in Australia are failing to achieve minimum standards in reading, writing, spelling and grammar, with the result that by 15 years of age Australian students from the lowest socioeconomic group in Australia are in general performing almost three years below that of students from the highest socio-economic group in reading. feedback@thepunch.com.au (Dr Lisa O Brien) Article http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/writing-the-wrongs-of-literacy-in-australia/#comments http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/writing-the-wrongs-of-literacy-in-australia/#item6670 Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:45:54 +0000 Dr Lisa O Brien | Author bios | The Punch