Maria McCarthy

Background

About Maria McCarthy

Maria was MD of her own architectural commercial and domestic lighting company. After five years in this role, Maria’s special skills in management, negotiation and liaison along with her great love of film, theatre and art took her into the television and film areas where she worked for many years with great success. As a result of a serious car accident in 1997 Maria created the “Living With Trauma, Injury and Illness” program. She has spoken extensively on national radio and television about the program and her work featured in many local and national print media. Her writings have been published and in 2005, Maria co-authored an article for US psychology journal Affilia - McCarthy, M. and Weber Z.(2005)'When Bodies Need Voices: Sharing Stories of Survival'. Affilia 20, 3, 368-372. Maria has also worked on the public speaking circuit both locally and internationally and continued with this work until late 2001 before returning full time to lighting on a consultancy basis and ESL teaching. During her convalescence Maria intermittently produced events, such as CityEdge2, an International Urban Design and Architectural Conference, in association with the City of Melbourne. Maria started writing a book about her accident and the re-building of her life. After months of rehabilitation she returned to jogging (including three 14kms City to Surf fun runs in Sydney), and has returned to most sports. In keeping with her strong interest in film, theatre and art, Maria is a member of the National Gallery of Victoria, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Australian Film Institute. She has also competed in many fun runs, long distance swims (summer and winter) and triathlons and was a volunteer at the Association for the Blind as an on-air reader with 3RPH (Radio for the Print Handicapped). Currently, Maria is studying at the University of Melbourne (Bachelor of Arts) majoring in Linguistics and Art History. She is also a Commonwealth-authorised Civil Celebrant.