Our presenters

Monique moved to NZ from the Netherlands, 11 years ago with her family. She has a background in psychology, working with adults with ADHD and ASD, and has a passion for creative mindfulness, colouring, zentangle®, crochet and running her own Easy Now mindfulness business.

Making it easy for people to increase their wellbeing in a practical and down-to-earth way is hugely rewarding for her.

In her teaching, Monique aims to make a happy space for all students to thrive and reach their goals. She has a NZ Adult Teaching diploma and has been teaching her own mindfulness, crochet, creative mindfulness course for over 8 years.

She facilitates a monthly colouring session for adults at a local cafe and also volunteers where she can, as "giving back to the community creates happiness!". Her secret hobby is yarnbombing.

Monique loves to spend time with her family and walk her dog, and winds down in the evening with her crochet.

Find her zentangle and crochet on the website, https://www.instagram.com/easynowmindfulness/ and Facebook page

Nataliya Stepura is an international fashion designer, master dressmaker, and owner of Natalia’s Fashion Studio in Lower Hutt. With over 25 years of practice in Ukraine and New Zealand, she specializes in bespoke dressmaking, custom patternmaking, and innovative garment construction.

Teaching Philosophy & Expertise

Nataliya brings a creative, hands-on approach to community education, inspiring students to tackle challenging projects and express their individual style. Her technical range spans the complete garment life cycle—from initial sketch and patternmaking to industrial machine construction. She is exceptionally skilled in:

• Diverse Materials: Wovens, knits, leather, vinyl, and non-woven fabrics.
• Mixed Techniques: Traditional draping and flat patternmaking combined with modern tech like laser cutting, 3D printing, and virtual garment visualization.
• Creative Problem-Solving: Finding optimal, non-standard solutions for complex fits and custom design challenges.

Highlights & Achievements

• New Zealand Fashion Week: Created and presented two complete menswear and womenswear collections for Miromoda (2019 & 2021).
• Product Innovation: Collaborated with Beautiful Audio as a product designer, developing custom magnetic headphone covers.
• Community & Culture: Co-created Dobre Fashion alongside textile designer Mitchell Manuel, showcasing works at local and international cultural events.

Nataliya welcomes students of all levels looking to build solid foundations, master complex materials, or bring their own unique wardrobe ideas to life.

Olivia has developed wide-ranging expertise in design and facilitation of people-centered events, amounting to over 250+ hours of public speaking. This includes workplace inductions, peer-to-peer mental wellbeing training, data analytics, a public education event with the Wellington Museum, and crafternoons with friends. She also loves learning so is always studying something (currently a Certificate of Creativity). Olivia’s main mission is to encourage people to create things that make them feel more at home in themselves.

See more @recipeforbelonging on Instagram and Substack.

Paddy Plunket has been getting joy from Improv since 2020, and is a regular trainer for the Wellington Improvisation Troupe. She was WIT's creative director for the last two years and has produced and performed in a number of improv shows. 

Paul and Mary-Ellen Gadd have a long history in Financial Advisory Services. 

Mary-Ellen has a Post Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning and Business Studies.  She has run training sessions throughout New Zealand, and currently teaches other financial mentors through FinCap.  She was also a lecturer at Victoria University while working towards her PHD.

Paul was a Global Partner at one of the top global Accounting and Consulting Firms, and has taught and lectured both locally and overseas. Paul has also taught at Victoria University.

 They both now give their time and experience to others through volunteering and teaching.  Mary-Ellen is a volunteer Financial Mentor – helping individuals and families through their financial difficulties.  Paul is a volunteer Business Mentor – helping small to medium sized businesses. 

They continue to run their own businesses and manage their own investment portfolio.

They both managed to retire before they were 45, and enjoy helping others increase their financial literacy, enabling them to also plan for, and enjoy their retirement.

 Disclaimer:  The tutors are not financial advisors.  No investments, products nor specific recommendations will be provided.  A step by step planning process will be taught by working through a case study.   Any product names or websites used in examples and explanations to help participants understand financial concepts and the planning process are used for clarity only. They are not given as any type of recommendation.

Full-time ceramic artist for 9 years, Peter has been teaching pottery courses for the past four years.  His practice tends towards architectural and geometric forms, and his work is represented by Mitchell Studios, Khandallah and Artspace in Petone.

Poppy has a background in recruitment, marketing, and teaching. Being a contractor herself, she is actively involved in the recruiting market and always has her finger on the pulse of the candidate market.

 In her career mentoring, Poppy uses an approach of empowering candidates, and effectively demonstrates how to ‘put yourself in the recruiters’ shoes.’ This technique saw her set up over 300 graduating students for career success.

 Her qualifications include a Masters degree in Political Science, and a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in Political Science and International Relations. She currently works in the public sector in a project coordination and management role, and identifies her top three skills as relationship management, networking, and match-making candidates to their suitable roles.

Although the son of a beekeeper, Richard only took up beekeeping when he inherited some beehives, started tidying them up and and got hooked. A hobbyist beekeeper now for nearly 20 years, Richard still has beehives in his backyard and still finds bees fascinating.

An adult educator by profession, Richard is Past President of the Wellington Bee Club.  His other interests include maintaining a suburban garden and enjoying walks in the bush.

Richard Alexander Hoffman is an American poet from San Antonio, Texas.

Richard has studied writing and poetry for over 30 years under some of the most influential writers of today including Naomi Shihab Nye, Yusef Komunyakaa, Mark Doty, Li-Young Lee, Chuck Palaniuk, Margaret Attwood, Grace Paley, Irvine Welsh, and Wole Soyinka.

In 2006 he was named Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellow of Northwood University for his “contributions to American poetry” and for developing and naming the poetic form known as Parallax Poetry.

He currently resides in Wellington, New Zealand with his wife and two sons.