Committee Support People

The following are people who play a major role in assisting the committee in a general advisory capacity.

  • Dr Rick Swindell AM

    Position: 
    Founder

    Rick is located in Brisbane, Queensland. He started his working life as a Physical Education and General Science teacher in New Zealand and continued his teaching career when he moved to Australia in 1971. Rick’s research has been in lifelong learning and positive ageing. He received an AM for services to education. His life took a turn for the better when he met Maggie in 1982. He started Brisbane U3A in 1986 and was a Founding Director of U3A Online in 1998. Rick was a senior lecturer with Griffith University before retiring in 2006. He is a past President of U3A Online and is actively involved in the success and direction of the organisation.

  • Tom Holloway

    Position: 
    International Adviser

    After 25 years with IBM Tom retired as Systems Engineer in 1990 and taught website design and setup at Warwickshire College and University of Coventry. Since then he has been active as a 'community worker' principally on making fund-raising videos and setting up websites for charities in the UK and in India.
    For eleven years he has edited the U3A Newsletter SIGNPOST, now online, and is Secretary/General of the WorldU3A Online Service website http://worldu3a.org
    He is also on the Advisory and Evaluation Board of TAO (Third Age Online), funded by Europe's Ambient Assisted Living Project.

  • Professor Anna Grabowska

    Position: 
    International Advisor

    Anna is located in Gdansk, Poland. She qualified with a Masters in Science in Applied Informatics in the UK (Leicester) and a Ph.D from Gdansk University of Technology where she was a lecturer and professor until 2007. Anna was a signature member of the Association of Academic E-learning. She enjoys skiing, walking, travelling and cycling.