SPEAKERS
Tracey Spicer
Author, journalist and broadcaster
Keynote Address
Tracey Spicer is an author, journalist and broadcaster who has anchored programs for ABC TV, Network Ten, Channel 9, Sky News and Radio 2UE.
Renowned for the courage of her convictions, passion for social justice, and commitment to equality, she also has a wicked sense of humour.
Currently, she works as a columnist for Fairfax, presentation trainer for Outspoken Women and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and media trainer at Spicer Communications. She appears regularly as a commentator on ABC TV and Channel 9.
Tracey has written, produced and presented documentaries for NGOs in Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Papua New Guinea, and India, and the National Breast Cancer Foundation in Australia. She is an Ambassador for ActionAid, World Vision, NSW Cancer Council, QUT’s Learning Potential Fund and SISTER2sister, and Patron of the Pancreatic Cancer Alliance.
The 50-year-old is the co-founder and national convenor of Women in Media, a nationwide mentoring and networking group, backed by the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Her first book, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, became a bestseller within weeks of publication in April 2017.
JoAnna Ferrari
The Transition Specialist
Keynote Address
JoAnna Ferrari is The Transition Specialist. Joanna has transitioned and reinvented herself over 21 times during her life. She has transitioned from child to entrepreneur at 15, from sciences to entertainment and model at 21, from sales to executive at 34, from executive to international speaker/author at 38, moving her life from Chicago to Australia culminating in her most significant transition in 2013 from male to female. It was during this transition JoAnna had to draw on all her courage, beliefs, survival instincts and fortitude as she went from broke and depressed back to trusted executive coach, author and speaker.
JoAnna is not only savvy about transitions and performance coaching, she is a wickedly sassy storyteller. Her stories are funny, bold inspiring adventures of personal experiences that are provocative and memorable. More importantly, they move an audience to feel and embrace, not just hear her message. She calls this “The JoAnna Ferrari Experience”.
JoAnna lives by an idea that many people only give lip service to “You can be, do and have anything you wholeheartedly put your attention to”. But to truly live this way, you must be willing to explore, experiment and express yourself in brave new ways. This single idea has been the key in her reinventing herself and in transforming businesses, teams and individual clients.
Kate Ellis MP
Federal Member for Adelaide
Keynote Address
Kate Ellis is currently the Federal Member for Adelaide. Kate recently stepped down from the Shadow Ministry after announcing that she will not run for the seat of Adelaide at the next Federal Election, although she continues to represent the people of Adelaide and maintain her role as the Federal Member for Adelaide until then. On 9 October 2004, Kate made history as the youngest woman ever elected to the Australian House of Representatives, after winning the seat of Adelaide.
When the Labor Government was elected in 2007, Kate became Australia’s youngest ever Federal Minister. Kate held various positions, including Minister for Sport, Minister for the Status of Women and Minister for Employment Participation and Early Childhood. In 2013 Kate became Shadow Minister for Education and later the Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Development and Shadow Minister for TAFE and Vocational Education.
As Minister for Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood and Youth, Kate introduced the National Quality Framework – quality standards for early childhood education and care services - in recognition of the critical role early education plays in supporting children’s development. As Minister for the Status of Women, Kate released Australia’s first ever National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010-2022).
In 2017 Kate was appointed to the Adelaide Football Club Board and in 2018 she became an Ambassador for the Childhood Cancer Association.
Sanja Jovanovic
Owner and Speaker Coach
Talent Academy
Conference MC
Sanja is an experienced and engaging communicator with a rich background in performing arts and theatre. From her ballet experience to musical theatre, she has spent over 20 years on stage in some theatrical capacity. More recently, her qualifications in business management, as well as a wide range of entrepreneurial courses and mentor programs, has been the launchpad for her venture, Talent Academy.
Sanja delivers a public speaking program to equip individuals with the skills to communicate more effectively and engage audiences. Whether it’s a stage anxiety or simply that the message isn’t cutting through, effective communication is a vital skill for any business professional. Her company, Talent Academy, brings a 10 module coaching program to various groups across Adelaide in a meaningful and engaging way.
Sanja brings extensive stage and theatre experience to her craft as she has improved the communication skills of senior engineers at ASC through to investors in China and more recently she has joined the team at TEDx Adelaide as the Speaker Coach.
Michelle Phillips
Chief Executive Officer
YWCA Australia
YWCA Australia Welcome
Michelle is the first CEO of the newly merged YWCA Australia, as 8 YWCA’s from across Australia became one on 1st June 2018. Michelle joins the YWCA after six years at Marie Stopes International (MSI) in leadership roles including Country Director of Cambodia and most recently Country Director of South Africa, leading the delivery of a broad range of essential women’s health services and programs empowering women and girls across Asia and Africa.
Michelle has over 25 years business experience with a 15 year senior executive track record delivering commercial results with social impact with national and international professional experience in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Caribbean, Indonesia, Nepal, Cambodia and South Africa.
With experience working across a number of sectors including hotels and airlines in the Caribbean, teaching teenagers in remote Nepal how to use condoms, helping women access safe abortion and contraception services in Asia and Africa and setting up Australia’s highly successful women’s football league Michelle is motivated by improving social outcomes, particularly for women and girls.
Sheenagh Edwards
Partner in Audit & Assurance
Grant Thornton
Breakout Session Workshop - Letter to My Younger Self
Sheenagh Edwards is a Partner in Audit and Assurance at Grant Thornton, and in 2012 proudly became the first female Partner in the Adelaide office. She holds a degree in Law (LLB Hons), is a Professional Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and New Zealand.
Sheenagh has been involved in a diverse portfolio of clients, including listed public companies, large proprietary companies and the not-for-profit sector in both Australia and the UK. Her career has predominantly focused around Audit & Assurance but she has also been involved in corporate finance and advisory work along the way.
Andrea Michaels
Managing Director
NDA Law
Breakout Session Workshop - Letter to My Younger Self
Andrea Michaels is the Managing Director of NDA Law and has an extensive practice in tax and superannuation law, commercial law and estate planning. She provides advice for a diverse range of clients ranging from family businesses to not for profit organisations. Andrea is the Treasurer of the Law Society of South Australia and Chair of its Commercial Law Committee, Chair of the Family Business Australia Adviser Subcommittee (SA), a member of numerous committees and roundtables throughout Australia and sits on various boards.
For the past four consecutive years, Andrea has been recognised by Best Lawyers in Australia in the areas of Taxation Law, Wealth Management and Succession Planning. In 2017 she was a finalist in the Women in Law Awards, and the Telstra Business Womens’ Awards in the Entrepreneur category.
Deborah Miller
Professional Non-Executive Board Member
Breakout Session Workshop - Letter to My Younger Self
Deborah Miller is a professional Non-Executive Board Director. She is accounting qualified and holds an MBA from Adelaide University and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Deborah’s Board portfolio covers technology, health services, professional services, retail, environmental and not for profit organisations.
After a successful career in finance, she decided to forgo a long-term partner career to back her own business concept. This brought together risk and leadership to create a successful national technology business which, after 15 years, she exited 5 years ago.
Deborah’s expertise with sales and marketing strategy help companies to increase revenue and market share. She is familiar with methodologies and process to take new products to market as well as strategy around customer retention.
Her strong sporting background has equipped her with team skills, communication skills and leadership.Deborah’s interests and passions include children’s welfare, women’s rights, animal welfare and is an active volunteer at Lifeline.
Penny Lello
Director
Deepening Change
Breakout Session Workshop - Meditation tools for Leadership
Penny has worked in London and Melbourne bringing to life some the biggest hi-tech launches for Hutchison Whampoa ‘3’, General Electric (GE), ITV, and Vodafone. She returned to South Australia in 2008 and continued roles from leading PMOs, Program Delivery and complex Change, for Elders Ltd, Westpac, News Limited, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Treasury and Finance, SA Heath just to name a few.
Penny serves in Boardrooms and Executive Committees nationally and within South Australia: Australian Medical Council (Prevocational Committee), Royal Adelaide Hospital (CALHN Allied Health Clinical Governance Committee), Women’s and Children’s Hospital Network (multiple positions) and SAMHRI (ROSA) and MACASA (NFP multicultural in-home food delivery service and social support).
The journey on razor’s edge of business has fed her passion on why transforming culture to enable staff to thrive is vital. Penny leads Deepening Change and is a certified Meditation Teacher and has trained with Davidji, Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle.
Sue-Ann Charlton
General Manager Customer Relations
SA Power Networks
Breakout Session Workshop - Learning From Difference
Sue-Ann joined SA Power Networks in June 2017, following 2 years in the role of Chief Customer Officer and Executive Director Service SA, for the Department of the Premier and Cabinet, South Australia.
Prior to that, she spent 5 years in executive roles within the Westpac Group including Head of Service Excellence for BT Financial Group and Regional General Manager for Westpac Retail Bank. This was preceded by 12 years with global consulting firm, Mercer, developing best practice customer experience initiatives that were adopted globally.
In her current role, Sue-Ann leads customer experience for SA Power Networks. In a highly regulated, complex and rapidly changing industry, there are significant challenges in engaging customers and delivering excellence in customer service - however, this is essential for the network of the future.
Sue-Ann holds a Master of Education, Bachelor of Business and a Diploma of Financial Planning.
Joanne Chua
Social Change Enabler
Breakout Session Workshop - Experience different: utilising inspiration to create change.
After graduating in 2015 from Kanthari, an international institute for social entrepreneur and leadership in India Joanne describes herself as someone who lives spontaneously out of her trusty back-pack. Whether it is traveling solo from refugee camp in Africa to the heart of Europe, from the long train ride in India, to jungle tracking in South Asia her passion for empowering others is ever present.
Through her broad range of work and volunteer activities Joanne has made significant contributions to many groups and organisations with which she is associated. As a qualified vocational trainer her open presentation style allows participants to gain valuable insights into the world of an independent woman traveller and international social change-maker. Currently Joanne travels extensively freely sharing her experiences with other women in an honest and refreshing manner so that they can find the confidence to safely follow their dreams wherever they may lead.
Lisa Warner
Aboriginal Women's Leadership Coordinator
YWCA Australia
Breakout Session Workshop - The 5 C's Create a Collective
Lisa Warner is a descendant of the Anangu Yankunytjatjara/Pitjantjatjara people. Lisa is employed at the YWCA Australia as a program coordinator of the Aboriginal women’s Leadership Program, working alongside Aboriginal women in communities providing inspiring leadership development workshops for Aboriginal women; workshops are tailored to suit the individual needs of the communities.
Lisa is interested in program design and evaluation looking to design meaningful evaluations to evaluate program impact. She has placed a cultural lens on realist evaluation and logic models to guide her practice and has shared her way of working with co-workers as a way of strengthening their cultural evaluation capacity.
Brigid Coombe
South Australia Abortion Action Coalition
Breakout Session Workshop - Reproductive Justice, Campaigning for Abortion Law Repeal
Brigid is a Registered Nurse and holds a Master of Nursing Science in Community Health and Primary Care. Women’s sexual and reproductive health has been a principle interest and concern in Brigid’s work and activism since an early consciousness raising in the 1980s at the frontline of services at the Family Planning Association in the NT. The practical feminists who ran and provided services in Darwin inspired Brigid to always aim to meet the needs of women in the everyday context of their lives. This meant understanding women’s position in society and providing services to fit women not making them fit services – a simple goal Brigid pursues to this day.
Brigid has held various positions in family planning, women’s health and abortion services in Darwin, Sydney and Adelaide and has a strong interest in the development of the role of nurses in the provision of these services. In her role as Director of the Pregnancy Advisory Centre, TQEH, Brigid was frequently frustrated and angered by the impact of SA abortion laws on women and abortion providers and decided to take a path away from direct service provision to pursue a more activist approach. Brigid is a member of the Women’s Health Special Interest Group of the Public Health Association of Australia, a Board director of SHINE SA and co-convenor of the SA Abortion Action Coalition.
Catherine Kevin
South Australia Abortion Action Coalition
Breakout Session Workshop - Reproductive Justice, Campaigning for Abortion Law Repeal
Catherine Kevin is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Flinders University. She has a PhD in History from the University of Sydney and publishes on the histories of pregnancy and miscarriage, Australian feminism, refugee women and reproductive coercion, Indigenous-settler relations and domestic violence.
Catherine has a long standing interest in the history of reproductive politics in Australia and has been involved in feminist activism for better access to abortion in South Australia since 2012.
Hannah Wandle
Founder, CEO
Country to Canberra
Breakout Session Workshop
Hannah Wandel is a social entrepreneur and gender equality advocate, who has empowered thousands of young women across Australia to reach their leadership potential. Hannah is the Founder and CEO of national non-profit organisation Country to Canberra, where in 2018 alone, she is voluntarily travelling over 30,000 km with her team to reach over 3,500 girls in 80 bush communities to drive change.
With her work heralded by the likes of the Prime Minister, Hannah’s advocacy efforts have seen her named one of Australia's '100 Women of Influence' by the Australian Financial Review/Westpac, win a Layne Beachley Aim for the Stars Scholarship, and win the prestigious National Emerging Leader Award at the Australian Leadership Excellence Awards. She is a global advocate, being selected to speak at the United Nations in New York at the 2018 Commission for the Status of Women, chosen as a keynote speaker at TEDxYouth@Canberra, and recently showcased on the ABC TV series Women’s Work.
Committed to public service, Hannah has achieved all of this as a volunteer, while also working as an apolitical policy adviser. Hannah is also a Board Director at YWCA Canberra, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and is the youngest-ever Director of the National Rural Women’s Coalition – Australia’s peak body for regional women.
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