The History Council is governed by an elected committee. Councillors are elected from the membership at the Annual General Meeting, and a number are nominated by corporate members. Two positions are elected to represent Aboriginal interests.
At the 2011 Annual General Meeting, the following members were elected:
President – Dr Lise Summers
Lise Summers has been a Councillor for over five years, and has a particular interest in archives, heritage and community and geographic history. She has been an active historical recreationist and has a PhD in history and philosophy of science from Melbourne University.
She was elected as President of the History Council at the AGM in August 2011.
Committee 2011 – 2012
Gail Barrow is a Nyungar woman with family links to the lands of the Koreng and Wudjari people of the south coast of Western Australia. Both her parents were teachers, with Gail’s father being the first Aboriginal teacher, and Principal, in Western Australia. Gail began teaching in the 1970s and has taught pre-primary and primary school students in the southwest, the Goldfields, the Kimberley and the metropolitan areas of Western Australia.
Since leaving the classroom, Gail has supported the work of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal staff of the WA Department of Education and Training (DoE), through staff training and professional learning programs; linked with community members across the state through workshops and seminars developed in collaboration with DoE staff; worked as a Personnel Consultant; represented the DoE on collaborative inter-agency projects; represented Western Australia on national teacher union committees; worked as the manager for Aboriginal Employment in the state Public Service; represented the Aboriginal community on the Curriculum Council of WA; chaired the Course Advisory Committee for the Aboriginal and Intercultural Studies course (Curriculum Council of WA); been a member of the academic staff at UWA and ECU; worked as a Senior Research Officer at the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, and been invited to provide an indigenous perspective to the development of Australian Curriculum materials (ACARA).
As Manager, Aboriginal Education in the Fremantle/Peel district Gail’s work focused on assisting schools to develop and implement Aboriginal students; Studies programs; create inclusive learning environments for Aboriginal students; develop understandings of Aboriginal cultures, histories and perspectives in contemporary society, through cultural competency workshops, and appreciate the role schools can pay in addressing racism in ways which build the abilities of all students to challenge racism and racist practices.
Glen Bennett is currently lecturing part-time in Education at ECU and doing consultancy work more broadly in the field of school education. He has a deep interest in and commitment to history in schools.
After teaching social studies and history in city and country high schools for 20 years, Glen worked more recently in the curriculum policy area in the Department of Education and Training. He led developments in social studies and history education in the Department as Learning Area Superintendent and in a range of other positions until 2006. His work involved him in key developments in Year 11 and 12 History over many years, including the recent History Course of Study, and he managed early work on the emerging Years K – 10 syllabuses. He has been a member of the HTAWA for 25 years.
Glen has served on the Committee of the History Council of Western Australia since 2005.
In 1998, Kerry Boyd started work at the Curriculum Council as the Curriculum Officer for Society and Environment. Her main focus now is as part of team responding to the development of Australian curriculum. Before working at the Council, Kerry taught in city schools and rural schools (Eastern goldfields, Murchison, Pilbara and central wheatbelt) and has been a curriculum officer in the Department of Education district offices. In all of these schools a focus of Kerry’s work has been to engage students in their personal history and that of their community. Kerry was elected to the History Council Committee at the AGM in 2011.
Ann Delroy has an Honours degree in History from Murdoch University and an M.Phil in Australian Studies from UWA. She is a curator and head of the History Department at theWesternAustralianMuseum. She has had a keen interest in shifting the focus of collecting and exhibition programs to better represent the diversity of lives and experiences inWestern Australia, to present a multidisciplinary approach to exhibitions, and to involve communities in the presentation of stories. Ann has curated many exhibitions over the years. She has recently worked on new exhibitions presenting the social, cultural and environmental histories of the Albany and Kalgoorlie regions for the Museum’s regional branches and is currently working toward an exhibition on the history of the Swan River Colony. Ann Delroy became a Councillor in 2010.
Dr Steve Errington retired in 2009 from Curtin University where he was Head of the Chemistry Department. He was born in Northam, grew up in Northcliffe, went to Perth Boys and Perth Modern Schools and is a UWA graduate. He has been a member of the Royal Western Australian Historical Society since 1963, a Councillor since 2006 and represents the Society on the National Trust (WA) Council. His history interests lie in WA colonial, chemistry and sport history. Steve joined the History Council Committee at the AGM in August 2011 as a corporate representative for the Royal Western Australian Historical Society.
Andrew Gill emigrated to Australia in 1969 as a “ten pound pom”, and has never regretted it! He escaped from Crawley High with a BA pass degree and minimal brain damage. For two years he worked in Adelaide polishing supermarket floors, cleaning offices and dunnies and occasionally smashing some crockery to relieve the boredom (It’s just another boring night in Adelaide!).
In 1979 he returned to the west where he was able to find work as a research assistant on a variety of projects which included the history of the WA Parliament, work in metal mines, the year 12 history syllabus, and the Industrial Workers of the World.
Since retiring, he has continued to research Parkhurst prison and its convicts and the Westralian Worker. He is deeply pessimistic about the current state of Western Australian history, academic or otherwise. He hopes that joining the History Council will give him some cause for optimism. Andrew was elected in 2011 as a corporate representative for the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History (WA).
Sue Graham-Taylor has a PhD in History from Murdoch University and works as an historian and researcher. Sue has undertaken historical research for government, industry and community, has published on aspects of Western Australian history and politics and curated museum exhibitions. 
She was employed at the Western Australian Museum as history curator for 7 years until August 2007 when she was appointed as the inaugural James Skyes Battye Memorial Fellow to research the history of the Swan River, in particular Perth Water. Sue is now employed as Special Projects Officer for the Claremont Museum, working on the history of Freshwater Bay.
Sue was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to conservation and history in January 2010. Sue was President of the History Council from 2007 to 2011 and has been involved on the Committee since 2003.
Sue Hart has a doctorate in Australian colonial history from the University of Western Australia. She has just been contracted to write a history of Curtin University of Technology, from 1987 onwards. In 2010 she completed a history of the Royal Life Saving Society of WA, following her history of the Welsh in Western Australia. She also tutors at Curtin University. Sue has been a teacher, recruitment consultant and freelance writer. She has had three non-fiction books published (under the name of Sue Hart-Byers), plus many articles. She has also presented at academic conferences in Australia and overseas. 
Sue has been a member of the History Council for several years, and was Secretary from 2008-2011. She was also on the committee organising the Australian Historians Association conference held inPerthin July 2010.
Ed Jaggard formerly lectured in history at Edith Cowan University and currently holds the position of Honorary Professor. His particular interests are the history of Australian beach culture in the twentieth century, and nineteenth century British electoral politics.
He edited and contributed to Between the Flags (2006), a centenary history of the Australian surf lifesaving movement, and has recently completed a commissioned biography of Reginald Pole Carew (1753-1835), a wealthy British landowner, traveller and politician.
Ed was elected to the Committee of the History Council of Western Australia in 2008 and in 2009 he became Vice-President.
Robert Mitchell received his BA (Honours) in History from the Royal Military College of Canada and his MA in International Relations and War Studies from Kings College (London) and the London School of Economics.
He has 40 years of senior management and executive experience in public and private practice and a wide range of published work in the area of defence policy, peace keeping, regimental heritage and volunteer practice, as well as extensive volunteer experience as editor, heritage guide and youth leader.
Robert served as the Treasury of the History Council of Western Australia from its inception in 2003 until 2008 and since then as a Councillor. He has stepped in as Treasurer temporarily for the financial year 2011-2012.
Noel Robertson has worked at the City of Perth 16 years where he has developed implemented and managed the City of Perth heritage program. Prior to this Noel worked for 6 years at the City of Swan and for 7 years with the Town Planning Department.
Noel sees the enormous potential that heritage culture and the arts can deliver to our society and he is committed to delivering this in a holistic, innovative and inclusive manner.
Noel was elected to the History Council Committee at the AGM in August 2011 as a representative of the City of Perth Heritage Unit.
Merredith Southee has an Honours Degree in History and a Diploma of Education from the University of Western Australia. She has taught History in government and private schools for nearly thirty years. During 2009 Merredith was employed by WestOne Services to write a 3B Unit in Modern History for the new TEE course of study. She is also a member of the examination panel for the 2010 and 2011 TEE. 
Working at the Maritime Museum in Fremantle during 2010 Merredith developed a new student program and teacher resource kit based on the Australian Curriculum. Merredith also wrote an online Year 5 Australian Curriculum educational program on the Swan River Colony for the National Trust of Australia (WA). She was employed by the Department of Education during 2011 writing Australian Curriculum teaching resources for Year 9 and 10 students of History. Merredith has written many articles for History teaching journals and contributed to academic publications on her thesis topic, “East Perth. A Social History 1884-1904″.
She has been an executive committee member of the History Teachers’ Association of WA since 2003. She has a keen interest in reconciliation issues and coordinated a reconciliation group at St Mark’s Anglican Community School for six years.
Merredith was elected to the Committee of the History Council as the representative for the History Teachers’ Association of WA in September 2007.