Profile
Estee Stephenson is an educational leader with more than 15 years’ experience across gifted education, learning support, literacy and curriculum innovation. She is currently Director of Learning (Academic Progress) at St Andrew’s Cathedral School, Sydney, where she leads Senior School approaches to academic progress and gifted education.
Stephenson’s career has centred on designing evidence-informed programs and approaches that translate student data into innovative approaches with demonstrated success. Her work has included the implementation of universal ability screening, intervention and progress-monitoring processes, gifted education identification and provisions, literacy improvement, and a Years 7–12 Learning Skills program grounded in research on self-regulated learning and cognitive science. She works across curriculum, pastoral care and learning support to strengthen both student outcomes and professional practice.
Stephenson has presented at national and international conferences on gifted education, assessment, differentiation, self-regulated learning and twice exceptionality, and has published in TEACH Journal of Christian Education.
She holds master’s degrees in gifted education and special education and has submitted her Doctor of Education at UNSW, which is currently under examination. Her doctoral research investigates gifted program evaluation practices in Australian independent schools.
Sydney Square, 474 Kent St, Sydney, NSW 2000
90095487
estephenson@sacs.nsw.edu.au
au.linkedin.com/in/estee-stephenson-883083174
sacs.nsw.edu.au/
Estee Stephenson
Director of Learning (Academic Progress)
St Andrew’s Cathedral School
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Bio
Milestones
2012–2015
2019–2020
2021–2023
2022–2025
2026–Present
Completed a Master of Special Education with Excellence and worked as a specialist teacher with Autism Spectrum Australia, developing programs later used across other Aspect schools
2012–2015
Appointed Head of Gifted Education at St Andrew’s Cathedral School and completed a Master of Gifted Education with Excellence, receiving Dean’s List recognition at UNSW
2019–2020
Led or co-led initiatives in literacy, gifted identification and universal ability screening, with this work subsequently presented at national and international education conferences
2021–2023
Designed and implemented the Years 7–12 Learning Skills program, co-led Visible Literacy and contributed to approaches on generative AI while undertaking doctoral research at UNSW
2022–2025
Appointed Director of Learning (Academic Progress), leading Academic Progress, Learning Skills and Gifted Education. Submitted a Doctor of Education at UNSW, which is currently under examination
2026–Present
Milestones
“I know this seems pretty simple, but [my philosophy] is always doing what’s right for clients and not what is best for me”
Collin Bruce,
Dominion Lending Centres
“I had to crawl my way out of debt and build up my mortgage business. I never forget that feeling, and I try to never take a new lead for granted. Every deal counts”
Collin Bruce,
Dominion Lending Centres
The professional philosophy that underpins all of it is strikingly basic – and Bruce knows it. “I know this seems pretty simple,” he says, “but always doing what’s right for clients and not what is best for me. I never have to worry about something coming back to me from a previous client.”
He has helped clients through years-long credit rehabilitation without earning a cent along the way. He has never placed a client in a product he wasn’t prepared to fully stand behind. The result is a practice built on trust generating its own momentum: repeat business and referrals that arrive without prompting, from clients who know the difference between a broker who serves them and one who services a transaction.
In Alberta, where Bruce has built a particularly strong market presence, his name is amplified by a heavy advertising campaign across television and radio – channels he values not simply for reach but for credibility. The ads, he notes, help legitimize him in a market where clients are choosing who to trust with some of the largest financial decisions of their lives. Alongside that visibility, he has cultivated deep relationships with builders and financial planners, creating a diversified pipeline of leads that insulates the business against the inevitable swings of the rate cycle.
The operational side of the business has evolved with equal deliberateness. The appointment of a dedicated ‘Director of Wow’ – a role conceived to ensure every client interaction exceeds expectation – and the adoption of Dominion Lending Centres’ Gold Rush CRM platform have together driven a meaningful uplift in repeat client business over the past year.
The present year of 2026 brings its own complexities. With clients emerging from a period of historically low rates and confronting sharply higher mortgage costs, Bruce has tilted his focus toward refinancing – helping existing borrowers navigate a transition that, for many, has been genuinely painful. He is also investing in AI tools to sharpen lead generation and streamline internal processes, a measured embrace of technology from someone who has never confused efficiency with the thing it is meant to serve.