Divonne Holmes à Court

Chairman of the Raising Children Network, founder of Smart Population Foundation and member of the New York Bar, Divonne Holmes à Court, is also the mother of two sets of twins — boys aged eleven and seven-year-old girls. She is an active supporter of translating early childhood and education research into innovative and accessible resources for parents, professionals and the broader community.

Originally from New York, Divonne established Smart Population Foundation (SPF) in 2002 to help prevent harm and neglect and improve long term outcomes for children in Australia, especially by making trusted, practical information more accessible through multi-media tools and resources.. SPF is a deductable gift recipient (DGR) charitable organisation on the Australian Harm Prevention Register.

In addition to its role in developing the Raising Children website, SPF produced the Raising Children DVD, a companion to the website and the world’s first national early intervention initiative of its kind.  The DVD is a comprehensive, interactive parenting resource distributed by the federal Government to all families in Australia at the birth of their child — over 300,000 copies are distributed each year by the Government via a Parent Pack through hospitals.

Divonne is a board director of the Cape York Partnership’s Australian Aboriginal Academy established by Noel Pearson to facilitate educational reform in the remote communities of Cape York, Queensland. She was a recent member of the Health Department’s Youth Mental Health Foundation HEADSPACE board and, along with her husband, Peter Holmes à Court, was the founding sponsor of the Australian Museum’s Eureka Prize for Science Teaching.

Growing up in Germany and living most of her life in New York, Divonne has a BA in psychology from Columbia College, Columbia University in New York,  and a law degree from Boston University School of Law.

In New York, Divonne was an associate with the law firm Winston & Strawn in New York, with a focus on corporate and securities law, and thereafter, in-house counsel to the Falconwood Financial Group, specialising in commodities and banking work.

Thereafter she produced television and live events as director of Back Row Productions. In 1995, she managed the website development of www.moviefone.com (777-FILM), a movie showtime and ticket selling website in the US.