Our key people at a national level

Our governance team, called the National Executive Committee (NEC) is elected by DPA members.

Members of the Committee live in all parts of New Zealand. They have a wealth of experience dealing with disability issues and they play a very active part in our organisation.

The NEC is led by the President. To ensure the team has a depth of experience, the presidential term is four years, although the actual term as president is for two years: This means that at any one time, there is an elected President and a President-Elect or an Immediate Past-President.

Our national office is located in Wellington.

The National Executive Committee

Joanne Dacombe

President - Kapiti

Joanne is married with two adult children, one of whom is autistic. Joanne is also autistic and hearing impaired. She spent 21 years working at the Reserve Bank and around 9 years working in a local school in admin.

Joanne serves on a number of boards as well as having served on the Ministry of Health Disability Support Services Consumer Consortium. She was active in System Transformation working groups around autism, safeguarding and networking.

Read Joanne Dacombe's bio

Nathan Bond

Immediate Past President - Upper Hutt

Nathan worked as a monitor, data analyst and assistant project coordinator between 2010-2013 for the DPO Coalition and represented NZ at the 2011 Asia-Pacific DRPI training in Thailand helping to train the next wave of monitors.

Nathan has been on the Disability Support Advisory Committee for both the Capital and Coast DHB and Hutt Valley DHB for about 5 years.

Recently Nathan has been involved with My Life My Way a collaborative of disabled people focused on increasing the accessibility of public transport and making events in the Hutt Valley accessible.

Read Nathan Bond's bio

Committee

Kera Sherwood-O'Regan

Christchurch

Kera Sherwood-O'Regan (Kāi Tahu) is an Indigenous and disabled climate justice and community advocate from Te Waipounamu.

She is the Co-founder of Activate, an Indigenous and disabled-led social impact agency specialising in ethical campaigning and narratives for social change.

Kera has a background in political science and public health, and is deeply involved in the United Nations climate change and human rights arenas. Attending the UNFCCC Conferences each year, she works within the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change for better inclusion of Indigenous people and recognition of Indigenous rights; and is a founding member of the SustainedAbility Disability and Climate Network, which facilitates greater inclusion of disabled people and our representative organisations on climate change issues, especially calling for the UNFCCC to recognise a Disability Constituency where we can have our voices heard.

She founded Fibromyalgia Aotearoa NZ, an initiative bringing visibility and support to people living with this chronic illness, and is passionate about Neurodiversity and the rights of tākata hauā and takatāpui - disabled Māori and queer communities.

She hopes to bring her governance, strategic communications, and community engagement experience to DPA to serve our vision of an equitable society where all disabled people can direct our own lives and thrive in community.

Read Kera Sherwood-O'Regan's bio

Henrietta Bollinger

Wellington

Henrietta (Etta) comes from a new generation of disabled community advocates.

Etta is committed to ensuring DPA’s long history is honoured while bringing a new generation into the kaupapa and listening to their vision for an inclusive future.

They have particular experience in improving the accessibility of education, arts and our democratic process.

Read Henrietta Bollinger's bio

Jason Boberg

Christchurch

Jason Boberg is a proudly disabled advocate and social entrepreneur based in Ōtautahi Christchurch.

The co-founder of the SustainedAbility Disability & Climate Network, Jason has advocated for disability inclusive climate action at the UNCRPD and the UNFCCC, particularly campaigning for a formal Disability Constituency to bring disabled people together and promote disability rights within the UNFCCC.

As the founder of social impact agency, Activate Agency, he brings a critical disability rights lens to his work, providing training, policy advice, and media to NGOs and government. He has also served as co-chair on the Auckland Council’s Disability Advisory Panel.

Jason is a Climate Reality Leader and Founding Trustee of the Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter. His publications include contributing the disability chapter to Climate Aotearoa, edited by The Right Honourable Helen Clark.

Read Jason Boberg's bio

Ollie Goulden

Hamilton

Ollie is a proud disabled man, a wheelchair user, an animal lover, a nature lover, and passionate about disability rights. Ollie lives in Hamilton.

Ollie is passionate that all New Zealanders, regardless of whether they are disabled or not, should be able to live the lives they want.

In 2019-2020 he worked for DPA as the Kaituitui in Wellington. This job was his first exposure to the world of Disability Rights and has taken him on an exciting, and at times difficult journey.

His time as a DPA Kaituitui gave him an in depth understanding of documents such as UNCRPD and the social model of disability. He made connections with council staff in Wellington, teaching him how councils work. In his current role he works a lot with councils where he advocates to make systemic change for disabled people.

In his work life he has facilitated a lot of training on topics such as ableism, human rights, and language of disability.

Having recently moved to Hamilton, he has been welcomed into the community with open arms, showing him the power of community - that if we all work together, each doing what we can, using our own strengths and interests, we can achieve great things.

Read Ollie Goulden's bio

David King

Dunedin

David feels that the knowledge he has acquired from living with a learning disability and achieving what he has can be used to help others achieve their goals. David lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin.

David is open minded to different ideas. He has a good knowledge of the disability sector and working with people with various disabilities, and has a good knowledge of the UNCRPD.

He is President of DPA Dunedin, Vice President of the Southern Region of People First, part of the Enabling Good Lives Leadership team, and has been a member of the Dunedin City Council's Disabilities Issues Advisory Group for over three years.

David is also involved in various disability awareness training activities with different organisations such as Dunedin City Council.

David love to help others to improve their life.

Read David King's bio

The National Secretariat

DPA’s operational team is the National Secretariat. Although our national office is in Wellington, our team members are scattered throughout the country from Auckland to Dunedin.