Press kit

About VATE

The Victorian Association for the Teaching of English is a not-for-profit professional body established to promote the interests of English education and to allow English educators in Victoria to exchange ideas.

VATE brings together teachers in government, Catholic and independent schools, as well as tertiary educators and pre-service teachers.

Need a Comment?

VATE’s president is Jo O'Mara. For all media enquiries regarding VATE, please contact Kate Gillespie
Executive Education Officer eeo@vate.org.au (03) 9411 8500

Bio: Asssociate Professor Jo O'Mara


Joanne O’Mara is an experienced secondary English teacher (14 years) who has chaired and taught in Secondary English Curriculum Inquiry at Deakin since 2001. She has been actively involved with VATE for many years, as Council member, member of various committees, Conference Convenor and Vice President. Recent projects include Sustaining the secondary English teaching profession/al in uncertain times, Improving the outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students Project, and Reimagining literacy education: Being literate in the twenty-first century. Her latest publications are Reading as Community: Solace, pleasures and becoming during the COVID-19 pandemic and Expert writers on how to achieve narrative immersion in digital games.