Mrs Lesley Stanley, of Tauranga, MNZM for services to education and the support of children
Lesley Stanley is a psychologist. After joining the Special Education Service Early Intervention Team in Tauranga, she discovered “The Incredible Years” (IY) programme, developed in the United States. She trained as a facilitator and began delivering the programme to Tauranga parents. She encouraged Special Education to train more staff to deliver the programme, undertook further training herself, and co-established the Tauranga IY Guardian Group. More than 20,000 parents and 13,000 teachers across New Zealand have since had access to IY programmes. Mrs Stanley joined the Positive Behaviour for Learning Action Plan as national Practice Leader for IY and trained the national workforce to deliver the IY Teacher programme.