Catherine Trezona – National Manager 

Catherine is charged with providing quality, evidence-based and timely information to autistic people and the professionals and family/whānau who support them. Catherine is responsible for both the strategic and operational management of Altogether Autism, which is delivered in partnership with Life Unlimited and Parent to Parent.

Catherine joined Altogether Autism as a researcher in 2014 after completing a Master’s degree in health psychology, and moved into a managerial role in 2015. She is one of the programme developers and lead facilitators for PRISM, our specialist autism workforce development series. She brings a passion and commitment to building community and is a strong advocate of seeking and supporting an authentic autistic voice to ensure Altogether Autism is built on the principle and practice of ‘nothing about us without us.’

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Jenny Gibbs – Clinical Psychologist

Jenny Gibbs is a Clinical Psychologist who has worked at the Child Development Centre at Waikato Hospital for the past 25 years. She has a small private practice of quirky kids and their families.  Jenny has a strong interest in autism and autism spectrum conditions.  Jenny has been the consultant clinical psychologist for  Altogether Autism for the past two years and was previously a member of the Altogether Autism Professional Expert Group.

In 2009, Jenny was a member of a reference group which gave input into the development of a training toolkit on ASD assessment, diagnosis and clinical management for Paediatricians, Psychiatrists, and Psychologists. She was subsequently invited to co-present this training to these professional groups.

Julie Peake – Researcher

Julie was raised having children with a range of health and disability needs spending time in her family home.   After travelling and working overseas Julie returned to New Zealand and commenced tertiary study as an adult student.  While studying Julie supported adults with autism as they transitioned into community settings.

She graduated with an Honours (First Class) degree majoring in psychology and sociology in 1998 and then went on to complete studies in social work, adult education, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Social Service Supervision (with Distinction).

Julie is currently completing her Masters of Professional Practice, is a registered social worker with the New Zealand Social Workers Registration Board and a member of the professional body Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers.  She has more than 20 years social work practice experience.

Rebecca Armstrong – Researcher

Rebecca is a  researcher for Altogether Autism and Parent to Parent. Rebecca researches complex requests and consults with the Professional Expert Group (PEG). She also writes for the Altogether Autism Journal and is involved in the PRISM Professional Development Series. Rebecca completed a masters degree in Applied Psychology at the University of Waikato in 2015. Rebecca has worked with children with autism, in the school and home environment, since 2013.

Mary Anne Gill – Editor, Altogether Autism Journal

Mary Anne is communications manager at Life Unlimited Charitable Trust and edits our Altogether Autism Journal. She was an award-winning journalist for many years at INL publications (now Stuff NZ) and owned her own newspaper and printing company. In 2007 she was appointed communications director at Waikato District Health Board leading many national initiatives around social media, printing, shared services and communications. Since joining Life Unlimited and taking over as editor of the Journal, Mary Anne has overseen development of the Altogether Autism website so it now includes individual articles from the Journal and an increase in “lived experience” pieces. Contact her on 021 705 213 or