Biography
Olivia Andersen (nee Gemmell) was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at 8 months old. Specialist doctors told her parents that she would never speak or go to a mainstream school. Olivia’s parents immediately fitted her with hearing aids and enrolled her at The Shepherd Centre, an early intervention centre for deaf children in Sydney.
Olivia attended mainstream schools including Loreto Kirribilli where she completed her Higher School Certificate in 1998. She received itinerant teaching support from RIDBC in her senior school years and was awarded their 1999 Garfield and Norma Barwick Medal for her HSC achievements. She represented her school in many different team sports, gained the Gold Duke of Edinburgh and was the recipient of the School President’s Award for “Outstanding Participation and Contribution to School Activities”. On leaving school Olivia joined Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club and became the second deaf lifesaver in Australia at that time.
After graduating from the University of NSW with a BA in Design and working briefly for marie claire magazine, Olivia lived in London, UK, for three years and worked for a fashion / lifestyle magazine which included work assignments in New York and around England. During this time she backpacked throughout Europe, Central America and Africa.
After completing a Business course at RMIT University in Melbourne, Olivia was one of 25 of 500 applicants in the state to receive the Churchill Fellowship award at Government House. In mid 2008, she spent six weeks overseas attending and researching established mentoring organisations in the USA, United Kingdom and Scandinavia. Here she gained valuable, worthwhile experience from existing mentoring and leadership programs for adolescents with hearing impairment.
In September 2010, Olivia won the national AAMI / NEIS Small Business Award at the National NEIS Gala Awards Dinner in Cairns, Queensland in recognition of the founding and establishment of Hear For You.
Olivia and her husband Thomas have a baby daughter, Camilla, who was born in April 2010. In November of the same year, Olivia received her first cochlear implant through Sydney Cochlear Implant Centre. She made the decision because she wanted to be able to hear her baby daughter “talk”.
At 30 years of age, Olivia is motivated to help young deaf people achieve their life dreams and ambitions and to face the future with confidence and faith. It is for this reason she started Hear For You in 2007. She now works as a Managing Director of Hear For You.
Olivia's motto is: "With the right mind set, anything is possible!"
