Benjamin Quilliam lives in Alice Springs with his wife and 4 children. Growing up in Senegal, Benj experienced home schooling and boarding school as his family lived in a remote village. As an adult Benjamin has also experienced the ups and downs of Distance Education.
Benj has had a variety of education and work experience, including electrical engineering, photography, counselling, theological education, working with youth and children in church contexts, roofing labour and dairy farming.
Benj now works as a Bush Chaplain with Frontier Services, an arm of the Uniting Church in Australia. In his four years in this role he has been active in advocacy, events for children, and supporting families of School of the Air. He has previously been Public Officer of the Alice Springs Branch of the ICPA, and regularly helps with fundraisers and other ICPA events. Recently he was in a task group reviewing and updating the Branch Grants, and this year he has become the Branch Bursary Secretary.
Following in the footsteps of John Flynn (founder of Frontier Services), Benjamin has a keen interest in technology and how it can be used to mitigate the effects of distance and isolation. He follows the ICPA technology portfolios, submits motions in this area and looks for emerging technologies to introduce people to. Recently he has educated himself on live streaming equipment and apps and has written some policies around videoconferencing. He put these new skills to good use at the 2021 NT State ICPA Conference held in Alice Springs in March.
This year Benj will be doing some governance work with both the Uniting Church Northern Synod and the ICPA NT Alice Springs Branch.
