Our Committee
Bec Stewart
Bec is the current President of HMA. She was born into a hearing-impaired family with a hearing-impaired father, older brother and extended family members. She was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at 3 and received hearing aids at 5 years old. Due to the progressive nature of Bec’s hearing loss she received a cochlear implant at 25 years old and continues to wear a hearing aid in the other ear.
Growing up with so many hearing-impaired role models Bec developed a passion for social justice and the power of self-education in managing hearing loss. Bec was featured in an episode about deafness on the ABC TV show ‘You Can’t Ask That’ and was interviewed on Triple J about her experiences.
Bec has been working and volunteering with Hear For You in various roles since 2013, helping teenagers with hearing loss to build their confidence and develop skills to thrive in a hearing world.
Bec also assists her dad, Andrew Stewart, in his company Hearing Connections as the Communications Officer. Bec has a talent for writing about the struggles that can come with hearing loss, and recently started a blog to provide a resource for people to learn more about the challenges navigated by deaf or hearing impaired people living in a hearing world.
Simone Punch
Simone is the current HMA Vice President. She was born severely deaf and her experiences growing up wearing hearing aids and accessing hearing services has informed her work in the field of audiology and her personal passion for advocacy and inclusion.
Simone holds postgraduate qualifications in audiology and public health management. She has more than 20 years of experience in the field Audiology both in Australia and the UK. Simone has experience in adult and paediatric hearing aid fitting and rehabilitation and clinical leadership. She has a particular interest in infant fitting and paediatric audiology and has presented on topics in this area at national and international audiology conferences and seminars.
She is currently a Clinical Coach and Paediatric Audiologist at Hearing Australia. In addition to this role Simone is an adjunct lecturer for the Masters of Disabilty Studies degree at Macquarie University, and a member of Parents of Deaf Children (PODC)’s professional advisory panel.
For the last 5 years Simone has regularly travelled to Samoa as part of a team providing volunteer audiology services to children. In her free time outside of work Simone enjoys the company of friends and family, travel, and exploring the vibrant food, visual arts, and cultural offerings within her home city of Sydney.
Louise Collingridge
Louise is the current Secretary for HMA. She qualified as a speech pathologist and audiologist in South Africa, where she spent the first half of her career developing audiology services in disadvantaged communities whilst holding a position at the University of Cape Town. Amongst the projects she undertook were to establish audiology services in schools for the deaf in very disadvantaged areas, an adult literacy program in the Deaf community and establishing an audiology clinic that was owned and managed by the Deaf community.
On coming to Australia, Louise worked as a specialist audiologist at Australian Hearing and then as the audiology clinic manager at Macquarie University, where she completed a PhD. She has over 35 years of experience in the audiology field and currently takes on contractual work as a qualitative researcher in health. Louise is deeply committed to improving both professional recognition for the audiology field and appropriate funding models for those who are Deaf or hard of hearing.
In her free time outside of work Louise enjoys reading, the arts, and travel. She particularly loves exploring the variety and beauty of the Australian countryside.
Raymond Ong
Ray is one of the current Hearing Matters Australia (HMA) Committee members. He has been helping HMA with general office administration duties and the Hearing Aid Bank as a volunteer since 16th April 2021. He also currently works in the healthcare industry. He has a strong passion in helping people so joining HMA enables him to continue his passion in a different way.
Ray was born hearing impaired using hearing aids in both ears until he was 12 years of age when his hearing impairment deteriorated. In the mid 80’s, he then became one of the first five successful candidates to participate in the Cochlear Implant program in Perth, Western Australia. He has now been a Cochlear Implant recipient for over 30 years. The cochlear implant technology has advanced so much over the years, enabling him to better manage his hearing impairment. Without the cochlear implants, he is profoundly deaf.
In his free time, Ray enjoys travel, astronomy, reading books, watching concerts and plays, watching movies, photography, going on hikes and drives. He also loves steam locomotives and will go out watching them, if not being a passenger.
Christian Carter
HMA Committee Member Christian does not hold office bearing positions, but serve on the HMA committee assisting with all aspects of committee decisions and responsibilities. Christian was one of two children born into a hearing family with a severe-to-profound hearing loss. Both he and his younger sister get by with hearing aids and lip reading.
From an early age Christian has been a vocal advocate for social justice and has a strong interest in community building. His interest in the power of play to build connection and a sense of belonging led to a community partnership with the King Cross Markets, where – for a number of years – he ran a non-for-profit games event that brought Potts Point residents from all walks of life together to play board games for a gold coin donation. The initiative raised thousands of dollars for local homeless charities Rough Edges and the Wayside Chapel.
Professionally, Christian has worked across multiple industries in a diverse array of service and administration roles, from public relations to banking and local government. He currently owns and operates a commercial outdoor games hire business servicing private and corporate clients all over Sydney.
Christian believes in the importance of being connected to others who have a shared lived experience of disability. He’s passionate about inclusion and providing pathways for others to access suitable support to achieve their goals. In his spare time, he enjoys skateboarding, building bicycles, playing backgammon and exploring interesting new places with his two young sons.