Our Team
Holly Gooch
Founder & CEO
Holly has first hand experience of being a brilliant, neurodivergent teen and of parenting them. She gets it. Her mission in life is to create the opportunities for these kinds of learners that she wishes she and her family had had.
As a teacher, she has taught English, Humanities, Drama, Psychology and Theory of Knowledge, been a dean, a learning support coordinator, gifted education programme coordinator, careers advisor and health school teacher. She has qualifications in English and Psychology and a Masters in Educational Psychology. She has also completed a Certificate in Twice-exceptional Education from Bridges Graduate School in Los Angeles. She is working on a PhD about strengths of adults with ADHD.
Holly has become one of New Zealand’s foremost experts on twice-exceptionality. Prior to this, Holly was a playwright, a storyteller, a children’s writer, and a stand-up comedian.
Holly fundamentally believes young people are awesome.
Barney Groom
Navigator in pilot talent incubator
Barney is passionate about First Principles Thinking in education and has a knack for focusing on the person in front of him and identifying their needs. He has taught in several alternative education contexts and has had transformative effects in his positions there. Barney has talents that include music production, wood work, fishing, bushcraft, diving, entrepreneurship and personal training. He is especially keen on supporting young people to write and produce their own music. Barney values highly the use of practical hands-on work to help support academic and emotional learning.
Pauline Herbst
Navigator in pilot talent incubator
Pauline brings her skills and experience as an academic and a prolific creative to The Hyphen Project. She has a PhD in medical anthropology and as a science communicator loves to find entertaining and interesting ways to share science with people. Pauline is an experienced photographer, podcaster, lecturer, editor, researcher and freelance journalist. She has a particular interest in the creative arts and in ethics. Pauline has genuine excitement for young people’s ideas and values the importance of them being able to grow their professional network.
Katie Posner
Founder Assistant
Katie is a recent graduate of Victoria University Wellington with a degree in Educational Psychology with a minor in Sociology. She has a personal interest in neurodiversity and approached us at The Hyphen Project to offer her help. Now we can’t manage without her!
Isobel Bremner
Youth Spokesperson
Isobel Bremner and Holly met through New Zealand’s gifted children’s network. When Isobel heard about The Hyphen Project she saw the need for a talented, neurodivergent youth voice on the project. She also knew it was a great opportunity for her to turn her challenging experiences in navigating the mainstream education system into something positive for other young people in the situation she had been in. Isobel joined as a Trustee in 2024.
Isobel exemplifies the brilliance of twice-exceptional people. As a teen she represented New Zealand in the International Young Physicist’s Tournament. Since then she has mentored many young and talented physicists and been a judge for the tournament. Isobel recently completed an honours degree in Economics and now works as an analyst at an economics consultancy. The Hyphen Project benefits considerably from her insights with regards to practical aspects of the programme. Isobel also serves as a youth mentor, a guest speaker and workshop presenter in the talent incubator.
