Irene’s professional life began as a teacher. She has taught in primary and secondary schools and has specialist skills in special education. Irene’s last teaching position was at Penleigh & Essendon Grammar as Special Education and Curriculum Development teacher responsible for the development of all school curriculum initiatives and changes.

Irene has authored a range of school text books: Countdown Maths (Macmillan); Maths Challenges (Oxford University Press); Maths Matters (Macmillan); Teaching and Assessing Maths through Open-ended Activities (Pearson) and Using Rubrics to assess Open-ended Maths Tasks (Hawker Brownlow).

In 1993 Irene was appointed as Sales & Marketing Primary Manager at Longman (now Pearson). In 1999 she moved to Oxford University Press as Primary Publisher where she was responsible for the strategic planning, development and publication of primary educational resources, in particular literacy and numeracy to meet specific curriculum documents. It was also at Oxford that Irene became Schools Publisher for Papua New Guinea.

In 2014 Irene became a Director of Bilum Books. In addition to publishing educational resources that meet the specific requirements of the PNG Department of Education Syllabuses and Teacher Guides, Irene is involved in the running of literacy workshops. These workshops train teachers how to use Bilum Books resources and develop teachers’ understanding of how to teach English in the classroom.