Staff Profiles
Lee Jones
Service Manager and Physiotherapist
Lee has worked as a paediatric Physiotherapist for over 20 years. She worked at the Wellington Early Intervention Trust as a physiotherapist from 2009 to 2013 and was delighted to return in 2016 when the position of Service Manager came up.
She still works 1/2 day/week as a physiotherapist and manages the centre for the other 4 days.
She enjoys spending time with her partner and her 3 grown-up sons and reading, walking and swimming in the sea,
Deb Mckenzie
Physiotherapist
Deb started working at WEIT as a Paediatric Physiotherapist in 1992 one half day a week alongside working part time in a private physiotherapy practice. She had a 2 year break in 1998 when her third child was born and returned to work at WEIT in 2000 where she has continued to work 3 days a week.
In her spare time she enjoys tramping, walking her dog,skiing, playing tennis and golf and spending time with family and friends.
Flora Cochrane
Early Intervention Teacher
Flora began working at WEIT in 2014 as an ESW while completing her post-graduate diploma in Early Intervention Teaching. She then moved into a role as an Early Intervention Teacher and feels very lucky to work with such a great team in such a rewarding job.
Prior to this she worked as the Centre Manager at Mt Cook Preschool which she really enjoyed due to the diverse range of cultures. She also particularly enjoyed supporting the children with additional needs and it was this that led her to decide to do her training to become an Early Intervention Teacher.
Fiona Hearn
Fiona has worked at WEIT since 2006, after graduating from Victoria University with a Master of Music Therapy degree. She has a background in classical violin and also plays a number of other instruments including guitar, piano and ukulele. Over the years, she has also worked in community mental health with adults, at a specialist school, for a charity that supports families with a child with either complex health needs or terminal illness and in private practice. Additionally, she supervises music therapy students and other Registered Music Therapists.
Coco Kho
Coco Kho, 許鳳倩 is a New Zealand registered music therapist who was born and lived in Malaysia before she migrated to New Zealand. Coco is Malaysian Chinese and has been involved in the performing arts since she was little. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2005 from the University of Otago, Dunedin. From her passion in music, she initiated her music therapy training in 2009 at the New Zealand School of Music, Wellington, furthering her study to complete her Masters in music therapy at the end of 2010. Coco focused her therapeutic work with young children since she graduated, taking on the role as a part-time music therapist at Conductive Education for 3 years. Coco is currently employed as part of the multidisciplinary team at Wellington Early Intervention Trust since 2011.
Melinda Te Whaiti
Speech Language Therapist
Melinda has been working at WEIT since May 2020 and loves the place and the people. Previously she had worked at the Ministry of Education as a Speech and Language Therapist for 7 years, working with preschoolers, their families and teachers. Working with 0-5 year olds is the best and she feels very lucky to be working with this demographic - it's so much fun and a little unpredictable at times which ensures work life is never boring. When she is not at work you'll find her with her husband and three year old daughter; so probably at a park, a swimming pool or the library. When it's just her, she will likely be trying to sneak in some exercise, bake something or watch an episode of the latest series on the go.
Pip Cartmell
Speech Language Therapist
Pip joined the WEIT Team in 2021 as a Speech Language Therapist - Kaiwhakamiri i te reo.
She qualified as a SLT in UK, and has 20 years of experience learning alongside children, young people, their families & educators in both Aotearoa New Zealand and UK. Additional experiences that she has enjoyed as part of her SLT roles has included a secondment as the sole SLT in an Early Years Team, delivering training to colleagues, parents & educators, carrying out service evaluations and having the opportunity to develop her interest supporting children and young people who have a diagnosis of Down syndrome.
Kate Hanan
Early Intervention Teacher
Kate loves working with the children and families at WEIT on Fridays, and visiting children in their education settings on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She have been a part of the wonderful team here since 2020.
She works as a kindergarten teacher for the rest of the working week on the beautiful south coast, where she also lives. She has a background in psychology, social work and early childhood education within a variety of roles in Aotearoa New Zealand and the UK.
Wendy O’Styke
Early Intervention Teacher
Wendy has been an Early Childhood Intervention Teacher at WEIT for almost twenty years. Previously she taught in a private early childhood centre. She now teachers 2 ½ days each week at WEIT.
Leisure pursuits include the huge enjoyment with her two adult daughters and son distributing time among a growing number of grand-children, gardening, holding a book group monthly with friends, reading as much as possible and walking the family dog with her husband of many years on the rail trail where she lives.