SPEAKERS
At Progress, 100+ speakers will host big conversations, share best practice skills and help us reimagine what’s possible together.
We will keep adding to this page as speakers confirm. Check back regularly.
JAMILA RIZVI
Progress Emcee |
Deputy Managing Director at Future Women
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Jamila is an experienced leader and social policy expert, best-selling author, opinion columnist and broadcaster. As Deputy Managing Director at FW, Jamila champions gender equality through professional development, storytelling and advocacy.
A published author for adults and children, Jamila’s most recent book is Broken Brains, co-authored with Rosie Waterland and published by Penguin Random House. She is a columnist for the Nine newspapers and host of several popular podcasts.
Jamila was previously Editor in Chief at Mamamia Women’s Network, and advised the Rudd and Gillard Governments on gender, early childhood education, media and employment participation.
In 2024 Jamila was named as one of 25 Emerging Global Workplace Culture Creators, she won the Women and Leadership Australia Award in 2020 and has been included in the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence. Jamila is an ambassador for PLAN International and the Royal Melbourne Hospital Neuroscience Foundation.
SIOBHÁN O’DONOGHUE (Ireland)
Executive Director
Uplift
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Siobhán (she/her) is an Irish based community organiser, campaigner, leader and storyteller. Her experience spans decades of grassroots, local, national and global struggles for justice and equality. She is the founding Director of Uplift, Ireland's largest people powered campaigning community, connected to 7% of the population.
Prior to this Siobhan was Director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland where she led several successful campaigns including rights for domestic workers, criminalisation of forced labour, protections for people undocumented. She has held a wide array of leadership roles across civil society including as lead negotiator in social partnership agreements in the late ‘90s.
She currently serves on the board of the global network, Online Progressive Engagement Network [OPEN], is the Chairperson of the Hope & Courage Collective, Ireland's leading civil society space countering extremism, founder of CorpWatch, a new space for action for collective action on corporate power and co-founder of the Democracy Hub.
CRYSTAL SIMEONI
(Kenya)
Executive Director
The Nawi Collective
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Crystal Simeoni is a Pan-African feminist activist and Director of Nawi – the Afrifem Collective (The Nawi Collective).
She works at the intersection of the technical and the colloquial, of critique and imagination, of knowledge and practice, of language and of the creation of community. She curates the work of the Nawi collective who, in community with other African feminists and organizations, work on analyzing, influencing and reimagining macro level economic policies and narratives.
In her understanding, in her critique and her imagining of a different way, her work is always at the service of life.
ASH SARKAR (UK)
Journalist, political commentator, activist and author of ‘Minority Rule’
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Ash Sarkar is a British journalist, political commentator and activist. She is Senior Editor at Novara Media, where her work explores the intersection of politics, popular culture and social justice. Her writing has been published in The Guardian, The Independent and HuffPost UK, and she is a regular voice on UK broadcast media, appearing on programs like Question Time, Good Morning Britain and BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze.
Ash also lectures at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, contributing to critical conversations about media, power and resistance.
Her debut book, Minority Rule, examines how identity politics became a defining force in the 2010s, both a vehicle for liberation and a target of backlash, in the context of deepening economic inequality.
DOM KELLY (USA)
Founder, President and CEO
New Disabled South
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Dom Kelly (he/they) is the Founder, President & CEO of New Disabled South. A lifelong disability advocate and organizer, Dom has been building progressive infrastructure in the U.S. South since 2009. He’s a celebrated movement leader, organizer, speaker, and writer, as well as a former touring musician who has recorded and performed with artists like Indigo Girls, The Bangles, Toad the Wet Sprocket, and more. Born with cerebral palsy, Dom began advocating for disability rights at age four. He previously worked as a senior advisor on Stacey Abrams’ gubernatorial campaign and at her organization Fair Fight Action. He holds multiple degrees, including a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania and is completing a Doctor of Public Health degree at The George Washington University. Dom is a 2025 Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity, a 2024 Rockwood Fellow, and a 2023 J.M. Kaplan Innovation Prize winner. His writing has been published in Teen Vogue, The Hill, Mondoweiss, and more. He’s been featured on NPR, Sky News, Forbes, and TODAY.com. He lives in Atlanta with his wife and daughter.
KASSIE HARTENDORP (NZ)
Director
ActionStation Aotearoa
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Kassie Hartendorp (she/her) is a Māori community organiser based in Aotearoa (New Zealand). She is currently the Director for people-powered campaigning organisation, ActionStation. Her team campaigned to stop the Treaty Principles Bill which broke historical records for Treaty justice. She's passionate about building movements for indigenous rights and economic justice.
HUGH DE KRETSER
President of the Australian Human Rights Commission
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Hugh de Kretser commenced his five-year term as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission on 30 July 2024. For more than two decades, Hugh has played a critical role advancing human rights in Australia.
Before joining the Commission, he was the CEO of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the first formal truth-telling process into historical and ongoing injustices experienced by First Nations people in Victoria. He previously worked as the Executive Director of the Human Rights Law Centre and the Executive Officer of the Victorian Federation of Community Legal Centres.
Hugh has also served as a Commissioner of the Victorian Law Reform Commission and a Director of the Sentencing Advisory Council. He has held a range of not-for-profit board, governance and advisory positions including for Flourish Australia, the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations, knowmore and the National Association of Community Legal Centres. He has worked as a community lawyer, managing the Brimbank Melton Community Legal Centre and started his legal career advising companies on employment and anti-discrimination law.
PROFESSOR JACKIE HUGGINS AM
Historian, advocate and Elder in Residence, Australian Progress/Common Threads
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Professor Jackie Huggins AM FAHA is Bidjara and BirriGubba Juru. She is currently Director of Indigenous Research, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences, University of Queensland, Herston campus, Brisbane. She recently completed a role as Honorary Professor, Centre for Deep History, Australian National University. Her other roles include POU Atlantic Fellows Social Equity (Melbourne University); Director, National Centre for Reconciliation, Truth and Justice (Federation University Victoria); Co-Chair, National Apology Foundation; Elder in Residence, Australia Progress; Steering Committee Member for Passing the Message Stick and Common Threads; and Elder in Residence, Australian Broadcasting Commission. Professor Huggins is in demand as a speaker, mentor, writer, advisor with over four decades experience in community, academia, government and non-government sectors
KATHERINE TREBECK
Economic Change Program Director,
The Next Economy
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Katherine’s (she/her) roles include writer-at-large and co-director of the Compassion in Financial Services hub at the University of Edinburgh and Economic Change Programme Director at The Next Economy.
She is a member of the Club of Rome and co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and WEAll Scotland. She is Distinguished Visitor at ANU’s Planetary Health Hothouse and was 2024 thinker-in-residence at the Australian Health Promotion Association.
GABRIELLA ZUTRAU (USA)
Digital Strategy Advisor - MoveOn, Zohran for NYC; Content Creator
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Gabriella Zutrau is a Digital strategy Advisor to campaigns and organizations, like MoveOn and Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign. She specializes in organic social media, and has a background in community organizing, and she is best known for her social chatbot infrastructure builds.
In a very different lane, she is also a content creator in the pet niche, reaching millions of people every month through her dog’s accounts, @ednatherunt. Gabbi uses Edna's accounts as a lab where she experiments with new digital tools and tactics that she's interested in.
VIKTOR MAK (AUSTRIA)
Co-Director, European Center for Digital Action
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Viktor Mák is a Hungarian-American digital strategist and campaign director based in Vienna, working at the intersection of technology, organizing and democracy in Europe. He served as Digital Director for Jambor András, who won a parliamentary seat against Viktor Orbán’s regime, and later as Campaign Director for the teachers’ movement Tanítanék, which helped win a 50% pay raise for 100,000 teachers in Hungary.
Viktor is Co-Director of the European Center for Digital Action (ECDA), a pan-European hub that supports progressive parties, NGOs and movements to build large-scale digital organising programs, fundraising, and campaigning infrastructure across multiple countries.
He has also worked on the Harris campaign in the United States, bringing back lessons on distributed organising, narrative, and volunteer programs.
Across all these roles, Viktor focuses on combining strong narrative, organising and data-driven digital strategy to help progressive forces win and hold power in increasingly hostile political environments.
NOORULAIN MASOOD (PAKISTAN)
Founder, Center for Social Innovation in Developing Countries | Lead Trainer, Leading Change Network
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Noorulain is Founder and CEO of CSIDC, a Global South organisation that specialises in providing training and facilitation services to enhance the practice of leadership and organising in campaigns, particularly those in the climate, energy, and gender spaces.
After getting a Master's degree in International Development from Harvard University in 2009 as a Fulbright scholar, Noor has trained and coached over 1,500 campaigners and social justice leaders across South Asia, East Asia, Australia, Africa, and the United States.
She first taught with Professor Marshall Ganz at Harvard in 2012, and since has been teaching and leading teams in the instruction of Marshall Ganz’s Organizing and Heifetz’s Adaptive Leadership with Harvard University, LCN, and other institutions. Prior to founding CSIDC, Noor ran a rural leadership program; led a 1.2M USD non-profit called Teach For Pakistan; worked in the poverty and equity practice at the World Bank headquarters; and supported the Pakistan Mission in United Nations General Assembly proceedings.
NGARRA MURRAY
Co-Chair, First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria
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Ngarra Murray is a proud Wamba Wamba, Yorta Yorta, Dhudhuroa and Dja Dja Wurrung woman who grew up in Shepparton, and is Co-Chair of the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria (the Assembly). She has significant cultural and familial connections to many parts of Victoria and NSW. Living and working on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Country, Ngarra represents the diverse Aboriginal Communities of the Metropolitan region.
As the elected Co-Chair, Ngarra is a spokesperson for the Assembly. Her role is to elevate the voices and priorities of Community members on the journey to Treaties in Victoria. She is committed to meeting with all Traditional Owner groups and spending time ‘talking Treaty’ with communities to foster nation-building and consensus-building throughout her term.
Ngarra is passionate about community mobilisation, the inalienable power of sovereignty and lore, and Treaties in our near future. Before commencing her full-time leadership role at the Assembly, Ngarra was the Executive Lead of the First Peoples’ Program at Oxfam Australia.Un her role, Ngarra worked across local, national and global alliances and led a team working across multiple national priorities; including building constituency for change, policy and influencing activities and the Oxfam Straight Talk program. Ngarra played a critical role in the success of the Straight Talk program, supporting hundreds of First Nations women to engage with political systems and forge important connections globally. Ngarra has made immense contributions to Oxfam Australia and devoted more than ten years of service to the organisation.
Ngarra has held a range of positions at The University of Melbourne, City of Melbourne, Co-Health and Museum Victoria. Ngarra was previously a Member of the National NAIDOC Committee and Member of Creative Victoria’s First Peoples Direction Circle. She is an Alumni of the Fellowship for Indigenous Leadership.
GIRIDHARAN SIVARAMAN
Race Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission
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Giridharan Sivaraman commenced as Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner in March 2024. Prior to becoming Commissioner, he was Principal Lawyer with Maurice Blackburn where he led the firm’s Queensland Employment Law department. He also held the position of Chair of Multicultural Australia from 2021-2024 and was a member of the Queensland Multicultural Advisory Council from 2019-2024, where he was an advocate for the rights of victims of racial vilification.
Commissioner Sivaraman was born in India and migrated to Australia as a child. His anti-discrimination legal and advocacy work is based on his strong passion for human rights, as well as his moral conviction to speak truth to power and fight for the rights of the marginalised, oppressed, and vilified.
GEORGIE DENT
CEO, The Parenthood
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Georgie Dent is the CEO of The Parenthood, Australia’s leading parent advocacy organisation representing over 80,000 parents, carers and supporters.
She is a best-selling author, former lawyer and prominent advocate for children, families, gender equity and mental health. The Parenthood champions paid parental leave, access to quality early childhood education and care and family-friendly workplaces.
She is a mum of three and lives in Sydney with her husband & co-partner in chaos.
DR JILL GALLAGHER AO
CEO, Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO)
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Jill is a proud Gunditjmara woman from Western Victoria who has spent more than 27 years advancing Aboriginal health and wellbeing through her work with VACCHO.
As a respected Aboriginal leader, Jill has dedicated her life to advocating for Community. She was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2009 awarded the Order of Australia in 2013 and inducted into the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll in 2015.From 2017 to 2019, Jill served as Victoria’s first Treaty Advancement Commissioner and led the establishment of the First Peoples' Assembly of Victoria.
CHRIS COOPER
Co-Founder, Research + Action
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Cooper is a founder, social impact campaign director, and advocacy strategist. He has 15+ years of experience co-designing and implementing social impact programs and campaigns across six continents, working at the intersections of disinformation, climate, democracy, responsible tech, and public health.
He is co-founder of Research+Action (R+A) – which builds networked strategic infrastructure for understanding emergent fossil fuel narratives and tactics, and acting to outmanoeuvre them. R+A partners with diverse stakeholders across Latin America, Asia and Africa - providing intelligence, capacity building and support to advance just transitions.
He is a member of Climate Integrity's Expert Panel, and a board member of Sweltering Cities. Previously, he was co-founder and executive director of Reset.Tech Australia, and Head of APAC at Purpose.
JACQUELINE KING
General Secretary, Queensland Council of Unions
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Jacqueline is the General Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, the state peak body for unions representing 400,000 union members.
Jacqueline has worked across a range of unions since her early 20s, in organiser, research, industrial, policy and education roles, as well as having been a senior advisor to Labor Governments, and established and ran industry training organisations in the power, electrical and construction sectors.
She has a particular passion for women's rights and work health and safety and in her role with the QCU has overseen a number of campaigns around psychosocial hazards, gender equity, mental health, sexual harassment and reproductive leave initiatives.
She holds a First Class Honours Law Degree and a Master of Business Administration along with several other qualifications.
JOE TODD (UK)
Founder, Movement Research Unit
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Joe Todd is a founder, organiser and writer. He was Head of Communications at the campaign group Momentum during the 2017 and 2019 UK General Elections, helping build a nationwide grassroots movement and organise tens of thousands of activists to knock on hundreds of thousands of doors.
He is part of the Social Practice, a collective founded by Bernie Sanders organisers, which support unions, candidates and campaigns to organise at scale.
He also helped found The World Transformed, Europe's largest festival of politics; Common Knowledge, a worker coop that designs digital tools for grassroots activists and The Movement Research Unit, a network of 650 researchers who support 80 grassroots groups a year.
He researches and writes on progressive parties for the Rosa Luxembourg Stifung, Novara Media and on Substack. He is the co-host of the Life of the Party podcast.
ELENA YI-CHING
Director, Research + Action
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Elena Yi-Ching Ho is the Co-founder and Director at the Research + Action, an NGO dedicated to countering climate disinformation. She is also pursuing her PhD in Communication and Media Studies at Queensland University of Technology.
Her research interests include political communication, information integrity, and social media. She has extensive experience examining issues such as climate change, democracy, and human rights.
SAM LEWIS
President, The Flying Bats Football Club
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Sam Lewis (she/they) is the President of The Flying Bats Football Club, the biggest and longest-running LGBTQIA+ women's and non-binary soccer club in Australia.
She is also a women's football journalist, podcaster, and advocate, having covered all levels of the game from grassroots through to World Cups for organisations including the Guardian, ABC, ESPN, and SBS.
AROHA NISBETT
Advocacy Campaigns Manager, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT
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Aroha is Advocacy Campaigns Manager at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT, where she believes communications can do more than inform, they can transform systems and lives.
With extensive experience in advocacy and strategic communications, she leads campaigns that centre lived experience and turn insights into action, from co-designing initiatives with community members to creating sensory campaigns and driving national collaborations.
Her work blends creativity with strategy to influence policy and shift perceptions. Aroha experiments with new techniques (from AI prototypes to inclusive storytelling) to make inclusion tangible and measurable. She is passionate about building campaigns that resonate, inspire, and deliver meaningful impact.
SAFFRON ZOMER
Executive Director, Australian Democracy Network
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Saffron is a lawyer, campaigner and political strategist with more than a decade of experience leading law reform campaigns. Prior to the Australian Democracy Network, Saffron was Government Relations Manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation. She spent several years living and working in the US, where she held a range of campaign and government relations roles.
In 2017, Saffron co-founded and led the Hands Off Our Charities Alliance which secured critical changes to 2017 Electoral Act amendments to protect the rights of civil society organisations to engage in advocacy.
EL GIBBS
Disability advocate
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El Gibbs is a person with disability with over fifteen years of experience in policy, strategy, and advocacy for the rights of people with disability. She has worked as a sought-after consultant in policy, communications, and strategy, and has held senior roles at various national disability representative organisations. Additionally, El is an award-winning writer, regularly published on NDIS and disability issues in leading publications. El lives on unceded Wiradjuri country, in regional NSW.
El has most recently been the CEO of the Disability Advocacy Network Australia. El also is a member of the Jobs and Skills Australia Ministerial Advisory Board.
JO SCARD
Founder + Chief Executive Officer,
Fifty Acres
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As the Founder and CEO of Fifty Acres, Jo offers 20 years’ experience in communications and a wealth of knowledge in public relations and project management. Standing as one of Australia’s most highly sought-after strategic advisors, Jo has a proven reputation in the field across corporate and political advisory and journalism.
A trained lawyer and respected former journalist in the UK and Australia, Jo has worked with ITV, Associated Press, Seven Network, SBS, ABC and Fairfax, and previously acted as a senior adviser in the Rudd and Gillard governments as well as the British Labour Party.
GAUTAM RAJU
Global Director, Policy and Advocacy, Movember
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Gautam is the Global Director, Policy & Advocacy at Movember. Gautam has over 14 years experience leading a number of public campaigns and advocacy strategies across Europe, Kenya, India, and the US on youth policy, health, democracy and digital rights. Most recently at Purpose, Gautam led the United Nations Secretary General campaigning response to combat misinformation on COVID-19 which has reached over 1 billion people. He is also Chair of the Board for Australian Democracy Network.
At Oxfam International, as Head of Digital Campaigns he headed the digital worldwide influencing strategy – an ambitious agenda to build the digital campaigning capacity of Oxfam and partners. There, he took on campaigns from Europe, Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Asia, working with in-country teams, partners, and coalitions to mobilize around issues on land, climate change, inequality, and humanitarian crises. Under Gautam’s leadership, the digital worldwide influencing strategy has mobilized of 2.5 million supporters around the world and built tools and resources that were accessible to over 2,000 partners. Before joining Oxfam, Gautam co-founded OurSay.org – an independent organization started by a team of young people passionate about harnessing the power of social media to revitalize critical participation in democracy. He has also worked on public policy and external relations for Teach For Australia and in the Australian public service.
Gautam was Visiting Fellow at Oxford University (2022) and has a Master’s in International Development and a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting) and Arts (Advanced Chinese Mandarin). In his spare time, Gautam loves to cook, travel and play the bass guitar. He is a native of Melbourne, Australia and has lived in Shanghai, New Delhi and London.
TOM MACLACHLAN
Filmmaker and Founder,
ChopChop
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For the past 20 years, I’ve helped purpose-driven organisations tell stories that move people to act. I’ve founded three video production companies dedicated to the for-purpose sector, partnering with nonprofits, advocacy groups and governments to raise money, shift public opinion, and win campaigns.
Today, I’m the founder of ChopChop, an Australian video service built for comms and marketing teams who need high-quality, on-brand videos without the cost, delays or complexity of traditional production. ChopChop streamlines more than 300 steps of filmmaking into a simple system so organisations can turn important ideas into persuasive, accessible videos in minutes of their time.
My career began as a playwright and journalist before turning to filmmaking to make complex stories simple. Across hundreds of campaigns, I’ve learned that anyone trying to make a difference has a story worth telling. My job is to help tell it clearly, creatively, and with impact.
ROBYN GULLIVER
Co-founder, Advocacy Research Network | Founder, Influence Tracker and Environmental Movement Research Hub
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Dr Robyn Gulliver (she/her)is an activist academic whose research focuses on the antecedents and consequences of environmental and pro-democracy activism. She aims to bridge the gap between research and resistance by developing a predictive tool enabling advocates to identify the specific tactics and pathways that have the highest chance of achieving their goals.
Robyn is also co-founder of the Advocacy Research Network, and founder of Influence Tracker and Environmental Movement Research Hub. She is the lead author of several key texts, including The Advocates, Civil Resistance against Climate Change, and The Psychology of Effective Activism. Outside her academic role, Robyn is a multi-award-winning environmentalist and writer who has served with numerous local and national environmental organisations.
LEANNE MINSHULL
Co-Chief Executive Officer, The Australia Institute
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Cooper is a founder, social impact campaign director, and advocacy strategist. He has 15+ years of experience co-designing and implementing social impact programs and campaigns across six continents, working at the intersections of disinformation, climate, democracy, responsible tech, and public health.
He is co-founder of Research+Action (R+A) – which builds networked strategic infrastructure for understanding emergent fossil fuel narratives and tactics, and acting to outmanoeuvre them. R+A partners with diverse stakeholders across Latin America, Asia and Africa - providing intelligence, capacity building and support to advance just transitions.
He is a member of Climate Integrity's Expert Panel, and a board member of Sweltering Cities. Previously, he was co-founder and executive director of Reset.Tech Australia, and Head of APAC at Purpose.
JOANNE SUTTON
National Communications Coordinator, Electrical Trades Union
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Jacqueline is the General Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, the state peak body for unions representing 400,000 union members.
Jacqueline has worked across a range of unions since her early 20s, in organiser, research, industrial, policy and education roles, as well as having been a senior advisor to Labor Governments, and established and ran industry training organisations in the power, electrical and construction sectors.
She has a particular passion for women's rights and work health and safety and in her role with the QCU has overseen a number of campaigns around psychosocial hazards, gender equity, mental health, sexual harassment and reproductive leave initiatives.
She holds a First Class Honours Law Degree and a Master of Business Administration along with several other qualifications.
ALEXANDRA JONES
Co-Founder, Friends of Really Excellent Dentistry (FRED)
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Dr Alexandra Jones is a dental practitioner, scientist and educator with more than 30 years’ experience working to improve oral health outcomes across Australia.
She is the Co-Founder and Board Chair of Friends of Really Excellent Dentistry (FRED), a national health promotion charity and advocacy body focused on prevention, health equity, and reaching communities that are systemically excluded from traditional models of care.
Alex’s career spans clinical practice, molecular biology research, and rural and remote service delivery, including with the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She has deep expertise in the biological and social drivers of oral disease, and is a strong advocate for integrating oral health into Australia’s broader health reform agenda.
At FRED, Alex leads work that uses digital tools, community partnerships and evidence-based prevention to reduce avoidable disease and strengthen systems so everyone can enjoy good oral health and the many benefits it brings.
EMMA BACON
Founder and Executive Director, Sweltering Cities
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Jacqueline is the General Secretary of the Queensland Council of Unions, the state peak body for unions representing 400,000 union members.
Jacqueline has worked across a range of unions since her early 20s, in organiser, research, industrial, policy and education roles, as well as having been a senior advisor to Labor Governments, and established and ran industry training organisations in the power, electrical and construction sectors.
She has a particular passion for women's rights and work health and safety and in her role with the QCU has overseen a number of campaigns around psychosocial hazards, gender equity, mental health, sexual harassment and reproductive leave initiatives.
She holds a First Class Honours Law Degree and a Master of Business Administration along with several other qualifications.
WIL STRACKE
Assistant Secretary, Victorian Trades Hall Council
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Wil Stracke is the Assistant Secretary of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, the peak body for unions in Victoria, and a long-term campaigner for women’s and queer rights. She was previously an Associate Solicitor at Slater & Gordon before commencing as an organiser with the Australian Services Union where she worked with members on workplace and industry wide industrial campaigns. She was the Lead Organiser in Victoria for the ASU national ‘Equal Pay’ campaign that achieved wage justice for underpaid, predominantly women workers in the community services sector.
In 2017, Wil coordinated the Victorian field campaign for the ‘Yes’ campaign for marriage equality.
In her role at Trades Hall, Wil leads the ongoing work of the Victorian trade union movement in addressing the challenges faced by working women as well as the union movement’s work in occupational health and safety. Wil’s work was acknowledged with the 2018 John Cummins Award for Victorian Unionist of the Year and the Jennie George Award in 2024 for outstanding contribution by a woman to the Australian union movement.
JESSICA BIRCH
Advovate/Lived Experience Advisor
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Jessica is a national advocate and speaker living with FASD.
Since her late diagnosis, she has turned her attention to awareness building and education around this complex injury, to create a better understanding of the prevalence and consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure in Australia; She believes awareness and action is key to slow the rate of FASD in our communities.
Over 6 years Jessica has been involved in a number of projects and has appeared in a variety of news, radio and television interviews; Notably, she successfully campaigned alongside Australia’s peak bodies for clear pregnancy warning labels on all alcohol products within Australia, and currently works as a lived experience advisor as part of FARE's National FASD Program.
Jessica regularly consults with researchers, health professionals and decision makers, and sits on several expert and community advisory boards, including those for NOFASD, FARE and the FASD HUB.
ALISTAIR SISSON
Research Fellow, Macquarie University
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Alistair is a researcher whose work spans housing, planning and urban development.
His research has particularly focused on issues in public and private rental housing – issues which he regularly discusses in media and public events as well as academic publications.
As a research fellow in the Macquarie University Housing and Urban Research Centre, he has collaborated with the Tenants' Union of NSW, Shelter NSW, OFFICE and Action for Public Housing, and sits on the Shelter NSW Members Working Group. His current project examines how politics and policy is being reshaped by the housing crisis.
IKA TRIJSBURG
Director of Urban Analytics, ANU Institute for Infrastructure in Society
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Ika Trijsburg draws on diverse sector expertise to address complex challenges to democracy. She leads the Disinformation in the City global research project, and was lead author of the world first Disinformation in the City Response Playbook in 2024. Ika is Director of Urban Analytics at the ANU Institute for Infrastructure in Society in the Crawford School for Public Policy and Head of Democracy and Diplomacy at Municipal Association of Victoria.
She also holds positions with the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Initiative for Peacebuilding at the University of Melbourne. She has provided guidance on disinformation response to key actors globally including cities, national governments, international networks and UN agencies.
This is only the beginning! More speaker announcements coming soon.
