Courtney was born in Renmark in 1982 to Susan & John Stephen. She studied at Nuriootpa High School, then received a Bachelor of Commerce from Deakin University. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and Fellow with Certified Practicing Accountants Australia. She began her community volunteer journey when she was just 15 years old, serving as secretary on the Nuriootpa Hockey Club committee alongside both her parents even though she was too young to sign the cheques!

This kicked off a lifelong love of contribution to the community. She has been recognised with life membership of 2 sporting clubs and her voluntary roles have included president, secretary, treasurer, umpire coordinator, committee member, coach and any others she could find!

A field hockey player, she has played over 400 senior games for Nuriootpa Hockey Club with no plans to stop soon (she believes her body may disagree). She led the Barossa Hockey Association artificial turf project, successfully applying for a grant that supported this $1.2M project for use by all clubs.

She was named Barossa Young Citizen of the Year in 2000 and a Barossa Young Ambassador in 2001 and is currently a Director of both Barossa Australia and Foundation Barossa.

She began her working career at Angaston Medical Centre, where she loved meeting everyone in the community and learning to spell all those Barossa names. Following her passion for working with people and leading teams, Courtney has worked for Pernod Ricard Winemakers for 20 years, starting as an executive assistant and then working her way through finance and operations leadership roles to now leading the Supply Chain Operations teams for Australia/New Zealand.

Courtney is married to Shaun Ribbons and is mum to Jett and Harper.