Our Active Inclusion Consulting Team

The Active Inclusion Consulting Team consists of professionals from across industries and organisations, drawing on the consortium’s expertise and skills to deliver best practice advice and guidance to clients and stakeholder.

We gather and source consultants from across sectors, utilising the experiences and knowledge to support and provide organisations, groups and individuals with a holistic approach to inclusion and diversity in their communities.

Participant Advisory Group

The Participant Advisory Group (PAG) is comprised of six members with lived perspectives and experiences affecting people living with disability from the sport and recreation community in South Australia, with the aim to provide the necessary viewpoint and insight that is reflective of the needs and wants of those it is serving.

Gary Sutherland (Chair)

Gary has been actively involved in inclusive sport for over twenty years, and sport administration having held the position of President of the Woomera & District Football League and Roxby Downs Junior Basketball Association and committee member at Mitcham Football Club.

Currently, Gary is the coach of the Goodwood Saints Inclusive football team (for the past seven years) and a coach in Basketball SA’s Inclusive basketball program (for the past thirteen years). With an active son like Toby, Gary has been the coach of numerous junior and senior club teams and squads. Professionally Gary is involved in several Director and Executive roles within the Not for Profit space, based within Tertiary education sector.

Catherine Beinke

Catherine has played in the inclusive sport basketball competition at Pasadena for the past ten years, has represented SA in the sport since 2007 and became assistant manager of the gold medal winning SA Ivor Burge men’s basketball team in 2020.

She is also a keen netballer, having played for Contax Netball Club in the C6 Adelaide Metro Netball Competition (a netball competition for females with a disability or integration difficulty), for the past eight years. A well liked player amongst the netball fraternity, Catherine won the Contax club award in 2018.

Chantel Bongiovanni

For over ten years, Chantel has been heavily involved in various Powerchair sporting groups around Australia, as a local, state and national athlete and committee member and delegate. She has a strong interest in advocacy and is the student representative on UniSA’s Access and Inclusion Steering Group.

Chantel hopes to be a voice to sporting groups who might not otherwise get a voice on key issues that might impact the development and growth of sporting clubs for disability-related groups.

Outside of sport, Chantel is a PhD student researching inclusive policy in the lives of people with disability.

Scott Crowley

Scott has been active in disability sports for over eighteen years. He is a former athlete of the Australian Men’s wheelchair basketball team, as well as captaining the Adelaide Thunder wheelchair basketball team in the NWBL.  Scott was also member of the High Performance Triathlon Australia Team competing in numerous World Championships as well as the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Scott is also the Co-Founder of The Good Scout Travel Co (an inclusive travel platform for those with a physical disability) and currently works for the Paraplegic and Quadriplegic Association of South Australia in a Project Officer and Peer Support capacity.

Scott is an advocate for access and inclusion, whether it is through, sport, travel or community engagement. It is something he is passionate about.

Toby Sutherland

Sport is an essential part of Toby’s life, with a busy schedule of playing and coaching four times a week across basketball, football, futsal and soccer. He has represented SA at National competitions in AFL, basketball and soccer. Toby strives to be the best coach he can be, achieving a level one-basketball coach accreditation, having coached basketball in the Inclusive League for the past 4 years. Toby intends to attain his Level 1 AFL Coaching accreditation in 2020.

He is an ‘Athlete Leader’ with Special Olympics and excited to bring his experience to the Group.

Michael Zannis

Michael has an impressive history in the sporting arena as both an athlete and advocate. His on field success has included representing Athletics SA from 1990 – 1998, the SA Blind Cricket State Captain from 2016-17 and Vice-Captain and Acting Captain for the Australian Blind Cricket Team.

With a familiarity that extends past the playing surface, Michael has a plethora of experience on a number of boards and committees, such as Blind Cricket SA, Employee Representative on the Royal Society for the Blind Board of Directors, and a former committee member of Blind Cricket Australia and SACA Cricket Committee. He is one of the founding members of Blind Sporting Council Australia, and is the President of Blind Sports SA (a position which he has held since 2012).