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ABOUT US

behind any great innovation are the minds that make it possible, and the people willing to WORK hard to Enact change.

Meet the team, a collective of education experts who are the driving force behind Western’s Education Innovation. A powerhouse of innovation with learning designers, UX designers, developers, media creators and researchers.

The Postgraduate Transformation program is one of six strategic transformation initiatives at Western Sydney University. The Transformation initiatives collectively aim to create a more digitally enabled University with the capability to provide students with a richly interactive and personalised learning experience whoever they are and wherever they are located. Find out more: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/transformation-program

PGx’s reputation is forged by creativity, a passion for pedagogical excellence and a collaborative ethos. Every challenge is seen as an opportunity to collaborate and partner with like-minded organisations and industry-leaders, to ultimately transform postgraduate learning.

Learn more about the team behind the scenes at Education Innovation and reach out if you can see any synergies and opportunities to partner.

Contact the team: pgx@westernsydney.edu.au

MEET THE TEAM

Cherie Diaz

Executive Director, Education Innovation
Cherie, our fearless leader, joined Western with a wealth of leadership experience across vocational, higher education and non-accredited educational institutions. Previously, as Managing Director (Australia) at OpenLearning, Cherie helped grow the platform into a truly lifelong learning space motivating and empowering more than 3 million learners across 165 countries and 200+ education providers globally. In addition to her role at Western, Cherie is a Non-Executive Director of the Digital Skills Organisation and MEGT. Cherie brings a burning passion for education innovation and microcredentials, that will help transform Western’s postgraduate offerings, driven by learner centricity, outcomes, and industry partnerships. In her downtime, Cherie enjoys exploring new things to do – be those events, exhibitions, movies, places to eat.

Iona Reid

Education Program Manager
Working in higher education for more than 24 years, Iona has wealth of expertise in learning and teaching, design and development, governance and business operations, and student experience, services, and support. With a unique combination of curriculum, research, strategic and operational leadership, and project management skills, Iona is the perfect Program Manager for PGx, capably steering the ship into exciting (and uncharted) educational oceans Outside of work, Iona enjoys camping, gaming, reading, and her keen interest in all things science makes her an invaluable member of any trivia team.

Andrew Komoder

Senior Learning Experience Designer
Andrew is PGx’s expert in all things design, with over 25 years as a Graphic designer, User-Experience (UX) designer and Learning Experience (LX) designer. Andrew has a passion for creating innovative and engaging activities for learners, that leverage technology and motivational game-based learning principles. Andrew is well-researched in this field, having decades of gaming experience ranging from the Atari 2600 to the PlayStation 5. Andrew’s impressive portfolio of work has received international recognition including a LearnX Award, ACODE Innovation in TEL Award and an International Serious Play Award, making him a leader in the LX field. Arguably even more impressive than this, is Andrew’s very healthy collection of heavy metal and rock guitars.

George Karliychuk

Program Manager
George has been working in the technology-enabled learning space at Western since 2010. In 2000, he graduated with Masters in Linguistics. His early fascination with technology led him to studying programming. In 2001, he got certified as a Sun Microsystems Java Programmer. George worked on numerous outsourcing software development projects as part of a dedicated team based in Ukraine. SagaSoft’s client base was distributed mostly around North America and Europe. In 2005, George made Australia home and worked in different roles in the tertiary sector, namely, supporting academics at the ANU and WSU. He is also passionate about democratising access to high-quality education through microcredentials. His current interests focus on advancing skills with games development in C# in different gaming engines with all aspects of 3D animation (e.g. modelling, rigging, texturing, rendering, etc). George is also an avid sustainability advocate and a backyard beekeeper.

Yasmine Tolentino

Digital Learning Designer
Yas has worked for over 10 years in the higher education sector in change management and learning design. As a Practice Adoption Advisor, Yas helped integrate Western’s new University-wide Student Management System with large-scale digital and face-to-face campaigns. As a Learning Designer, Yas has worked closely with academics and experts, and transformed hundreds of courses and thousands of online learning activities with modern technology and engaging pedagogy. Yas is deeply passionate about learning design, teaching her children Tagalog words, and buying house plants (that her husband ends up caring for).

Montant Middleton

Senior Project Officer
With over 10 years of experience in stakeholder engagement, Montana is a Senior Project Officer within the Education Innovation Team at Western Sydney University. In her role, she collaborates with subject matter experts from the university, industry, and government to conceptualise microcredentials and is passionate about developing products that are fit for market. Since joining the team, she has supported the development, approval, project management, and marketing of 24 projects, with 10 more currently in pipeline. Previously, Montana was the Student Engagement Coordinator at UNSW, where she engaged with stakeholders from all Schools, developed programs supporting students from diverse backgrounds, and managed Orientation for the university’s largest faculties (Engineering, Business School, and Arts, Design & Architecture). Her work in this area earned her the Pro Vice-Chancellor Education & Student Experience Hero Award for Leadership & Effort in 2020. In her free time, she enjoys mountain biking, building Lego, and visiting her family in New Zealand.

Emily Collins

Digital Learning Designer
Emily is PGx’s ‘triple threat’… ready at any moment to bust out some incredible singing, dancing, or learning design. With a Bachelor in Computational Design, and a Masters in Teaching, Emily brings a wealth of expertise in UX/UI design and digital content creation. Emily is skilled and passionate about leveraging technology to improve both learning outcomes, and immersing learners with differentiated learning experiences. Emily has an equally impressive dancing career, performing around the world, and with a Cert IV and Diploma in Dance, she continues to teach dance as a side-passion

Gewargis Davidoff

Digital Learning Designer
Gewargis is a storyteller with a passion for the arts. From a young age, he expressed his creativity through drawing, often imagining fantasy worlds and characters during his math classes. As he grew older, Gewargis pursued his passion and found his calling in directing and production. Today, Gewargis is known for his innovative use of technology to create immersive experiences for education and entertainment. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and hosting feasts for family and friends. Since 2018, Gewargis has worked on a diverse range of creative projects across Western Sydney University, spanning animation, video, narration, and design. Gewargis is excited to bring his experience to the role of Learning Designer.

We co-design beautiful learning experiences that are technology rich, learner centred and develop the skills for tomorrow’s workforce.

Learn more about the team behind the scenes at Education Innovation and reach out to connect with opportunities to partner. Contact the team: pgx@westernsydney.edu.au