Speaker Profiles
We are delighted to share the first speaker announcement for ReimaginED25 in Melbourne. Scroll down to read more about their backgrounds, expertise, interests and current work. We look forward to them sharing their knowledge and expertise, and challenging us to think critically about the future of education.
Speakers
Professor Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Fahmy and Donna Attallah Chair in Humanistic Psychology; Director, USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education; Professor of Education, Psychology & Neuroscience, University of Southern California
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (Ed.D., Harvard University), Fahmy and Donna Attallah Professor of Humanistic Psychology, is a professor of education, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of Southern California and founding director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education (candle.usc.edu). Her work pairs in-depth qualitative interviews with longitudinal brain imaging and psychophysiological recording to reveal coordinated mental, neural, and bodily processes by which adolescents and their teachers build meaning—deliberating on the abstract, systems-level, and ethical implications of complex information, social situations, and identities. Her research underscores the active role youth play in their own brain and psychosocial development through the narratives they construct, and capacities teachers cultivate to support student belonging and deep learning. She conducts her work in partnership with expert educators and diverse youth from the lowSES communities where she works.
She writes and speaks extensively on the implications for redesigning schools around curiosity and civic reasoning to promote intellectual vibrance and thriving. She has received numerous awards for her research and impact on society, including from the AAAS, the PNAS editorial board, the AERA, APS, FABBS, IMBES, the US Army, and others. She served on the National Academies committee writing How People Learn II, as a distinguished scientist on the Aspen Institute’s National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, and was a Spencer Foundation midcareer fellow. Elected to the National Academy of Education in 2023.
Mary Helen will be joining the conference live from the USA.
Professor Melitta Hogarth
Associate Dean (Indigenous) and Principal Research Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne
Melitta Hogarth is a Kamilaroi woman and is the Associate Dean (Indigenous) and Principal Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education. Prior to entering academia, Melitta taught for almost 20 years in all three sectors of the Queensland education system specifically in Secondary education. Melitta’s interests are in education, equity and social justice. Her PhD titled “Addressing the rights of Indigenous peoples in education: A critical analysis of Indigenous education policy” was awarded the Faculty and University Awards as well as national awards from AARE. Melitta is currently the Project Director of the Signature Project, Ngarrngga, a nation building project seeking to bridge theory and praxis in the education system by showcasing Indigenous knowledge and providing opportunity for all Australian students to learn about the contributions and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Australian society.
Damon Gameau
Co-Founder, Regen Studios, Film Director, Speaker, Author
Damon Gameau is an Australian film director, speaker, and author.
After 10 years as an actor in which he appeared in several feature films and television shows, including receiving an AFI nomination for best supporting actor in the film Balibo, Damon turned to directing and activism.
As a director he wrote, directed, and performed the vocals for the 2011 winning Tropfest short film, Animal Beatbox.
In 2015 he released his first feature film ‘That Sugar Film’ which became the highest grossing Australian documentary across Australia and New Zealand of all time. It has received awards from across the world including the 2015 AACTA Award for Best Documentary. The accompanying book, ‘That Sugar Book’ was a best seller in Australia and has since been released in over 20 countries and 8 languages around the world. That Sugar Guide is his latest release. Damon completed the documentary ‘2040’ in 2019 with an accompanying book called ‘2040: a handbook for the regeneration’. The film now sits in the top 4 highest grossing documentaries at the Australian cinema. Damon was nominated for the 2020 NSW Australian of the Year for this work.
Damon then co-founded Regen Studios with Anna Kaplan where together they work with philanthropists and NGO’s to build comprehensive impact campaigns for the films to raise money for ecological solutions and awareness in classrooms, board rooms and in Parliaments around the world.
His recent projects were ‘Regenerating Australia’ and the soon to be released ‘Future Council’ feature documentary. Damon also spoke at TEDx Sydney and his talk ‘went viral’ when posted on the global TED platform.
Dr Dominique Hes
Chair of the Board of Greenfleet, MAICD, GIA(A)
Dominique Hes is an award-winning educator, researcher, and the author of seven books, with over 30 years of experience inspiring minds across universities, professional organisations, government, and communities.
Passionate about empowering people to shape a thriving future, Dominique’s work bridges disciplines to tackle the complex challenges facing our cities.
With expertise in regenerative development, placemaking, biophilia, urban greenery, and sustainable solutions, she blends her deep knowledge in botany, engineering, architecture and governance with a commitment to collaboration and innovation. Whether chairing a board, consulting, researching, or teaching, Dominique brings an interdisciplinary approach that transforms ideas into actionable, impactful outcomes.
Dr Zak Stein
Writer, Educator, Futurist
Zak Stein is a writer, educator and futurist. He studied philosophy and religion at Hampshire College, and then educational neuroscience, human development, and the philosophy of education at Harvard University. Zak has published two books. Social Justice and Educational Measurement traces the history of standardized testing and its ethical implications. His second book, Education in a Time Between Worlds, expands the philosophical work to include grappling with the relations between schooling and technology more broadly. His work has appeared in a variety of journals including, American Psychologist, New Ideas in Psychology, Mind, Brain, and Education, Integral Review, and the Journal of Philosophy of Education.
Jan Owen AM HON DLITT
Co-Chair and Convenor, Learning Creates Australia; Chair, Cool Australia; Founder and Principal, Adaptability Q; Co-convenor, FoyerInvest Consortium
Jan has spent her career working at the intersection of individual, organisational and societal change as an entrepreneur, innovator and social sector leader. Her work includes: building and leading alliances; campaigns and advocacy on the rights of children and young people around the globe; strategy, innovation and leadership on the future of education, work and entrepreneurship; facilitating and building powerful strategic community, business, government and philanthropic investment and partnerships committed to our collective future as an inclusive, imaginative and courageous world.
Jan has been the recipient of many Awards acknowledging her commitment to unleashing the unlimited potential of children and young people and services to the Australian community.
Jan is Founder and Principal, AdaptabilityQ: working with innovative leaders and organisations on strategy, innovation & systems change; Co-Chair/Convenor, Learning Creates Australia; Co-Convenor, FoyerInvest Consortium; Chair, Cool Australia and Co-Founder, Be Well.
She is the co-author of Every Childhood Lasts a Lifetime (1996) and The Future Chasers (2014); and Host of the New Work Bites Podcast.
Jane Drake
Managing Director of Community Development, Center for Systems Awareness
Jane has spent three decades in education, dedicated to equipping educators and learners with the capacity to navigate complexity with compassion. She has led the design of educational frameworks and programs that break down silos, integrate systems thinking, and empower meaningful change, building a global network of thought partners along the way.
As Managing Director of the Center for Systems Awareness, Jane has worked alongside founders Peter Senge and Mette Boll to help establish the Center’s vision and global reach. The Center collaborates with the MIT Systems Awareness Lab to advance the Compassionate Systems Framework—an approach that cultivates fluency with complexity, deepens systems awareness, and fosters a more profound understanding of our own ways of knowing and being. Through capacity building, intentional practice, and community development, she helps embed this transformative framework into education worldwide, empowering individuals to see and shape the systems they inhabit.
Her work builds on her leadership at the International Baccalaureate, where she reimagined global program standards to reflect holistic, developmental approaches—enabling IB schools as partners in shaping “a better world through education”.
Dr Richard Owens FRSA
Director, Woodleigh Institute, Co-Founder and Convenor, ReimaginED, and Regional Lead - Australia, Center for Systems Awareness
Dr. Richard Owens is the Director of the Woodleigh Institute, a global innovation lab dedicated to understanding and enhancing transformative approaches to learning and leadership. The institute has a special interest in regenerative learning and the role it can play in building the capacity of young people to contribute to the thriving of people, places, and our planet.
Richard has over 30 years of experience in teaching, senior leadership, and innovation roles. He has previously served as a teacher, curriculum coordinator, university lecturer, Deputy Head, and Head of School, and was the founding director of an international centre for leadership and learning in Singapore. He has worked with teachers, school administrators, academics, system leaders, regional executives, and academics from Australia, Asia, North and South America, and Europe.
Richard is the Founder and Convenor of ReimaginED, a unique nomadic festival of learning in the Asia-Pacific region, dedicated to exploring and shaping the emerging futures of education. He is also the Regional Lead for the Center for Systems Awareness in Australia, a global, community-based organisation focused on compassionate systems change.
Dave Secomb
Elementary Principal, Yokohama International School
For the past 20 years David has worked in International schools throughout Australia, Asia and Europe. He is excited to join Yokohama International School in its centenary year and has most recently held Principal positions at Tokyo International School, in Japan, and the International School of Zug and Luzern, in Switzerland.
David is a Workshop leader, Evaluation leader, School Consultant for the IB, and is also a Compassionate Systems Master Practitioner. A lifelong learner, David's doctoral research investigated the intersection of policy discourse, teacher interpretation, and student experiences of mathematical inquiry. As an educator, David is passionate about helping every learner find and nurture what is most important to them, as well as helping them recognize how their gifts can benefit a community of learners. He enjoys Aussie Rules football, tinkering on the piano and, despite growing up in Australia, has an irrational fear of spiders.
Jessamy Gee
Founder and Director, Think in Color
As one of Australia’s leading Graphic Recorders, Melbourne-based Jessamy Gee has developed a unique skill set in listening, synthesising, capturing and communicating information visually. She is the Founder and Director of Think in Colour, Founder and President of Graphic Recorders Australia, author of GR's Best Mate and co-author of The World of Visual Practice. In 2018, Jessamy was the keynote speaker at the inaugural VizConf in Melbourne. In 2020, she became the first Australian Director to serve on the Board of the International Forum of Visual Practitioners (IFVP). In 2021, Jessamy took over the role of Chapter Host for Creative Mornings Melbourne.
Since launching Think in Colour in 2011, Jessamy has become internationally renowned for her work, and has serviced a diverse range of clients all around Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Europe across the corporate, community, education and government sectors.
Jessamy has captured talks by some of Australia’s leading minds including former President of the Human Rights Commission Gillian Triggs, former Greens leader Bob Brown, advertising personality Todd Sampson, actor Madga Szubanski, academic and presenter Waleed Aly, Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel and former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon, as well as revered international thinkers such as futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil, and originator of lateral thinking, Edward de Bono.
In 2019, Jessamy was invited to Strasbourg by the Council of Europe to graphically record their annual Octopus Conference on Cybercrime - an international event hosting close to 500 delegates from around the world, translated in three languages - showcasing Graphic Recording on the world stage.
Kankawa Nagarra
Gooniyandi, Walmatjarri and Bunuba Elder from the Wangkatjunka Community, Musician and Whole Systems Awareness practitioner
Kankawa was given the name: Olive Bent by the Mission when she was 8 yrs but prefers her birth name be used. She is a translator of her traditional languages, an award-winning musician, poet, artist, and storyteller. Her deep cultural knowledge, passed down through generations, informs her awareness of systemic breakdowns and the need for transformation. Kankawa emphasises that the first step is through a new way of listening and sensing—not with only with our ears but with a spiritual connection to the earth and all living beings. She reminds us that her people are inherently spiritual, and this perspective holds the key to understanding what it means to be human and to listen from the place where we can collaborate meaningfully. Many of us, she observes, have lost this connection. We have all been traumatised on some level and due to our disconnection from 'country' we need to heal.
For Kankawa, true healing begins with reconnecting to this inner place so we can develop the capacity to heal ourselves, the earth and all living beings. She believes that efforts like Reconciliation, Closing the Gap, and the Referendum have failed because people only listen with their “Ears on their Heads.” She critiques that this kind of listening leads to superficial approaches of organizations that focus on “spot fires” rather than addressing the root causes of systemic issues.
Kankawa calls for a new approach, one that reconnects us to our true selves as human beings on this Earth. She advocates for meeting each other “human to human,” not through thinking but through deep listening, which she calls Birlirr in Walmatjarri and we describe as “Ears of the Heart,” involves listening from this place of inner knowing, beyond the superficial. Kankawa also believes that music, poetry, and storytelling can ignite imagination and inspire collective change.
Louka Parry
Founder and CEO, The Learning Future, and Founding Executive, Karanga
Louka Parry is a learning strategist, education futurist and social entrepreneur working at the global forefront with schools, systems and organisations to help them adapt for the future. As a school teacher, he was promoted to Principal at 27 years old and was named Inspirational Public Secondary Teacher of the Year for South Australia. Now as Founder and CEO of The Learning Future, he works internationally (in English and Spanish) to support positive change with a focus on innovation, future skills, leadership, wellbeing, technology and organisational culture.
Louka also serves as a Founding Executive of Karanga: The Global Alliance for Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills that seeks to inspire and equip practitioners, policy makers and researchers from across the world to promote quality and equitable Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills through initiatives that connect, coordinate, and drive action. A rapid learner, he holds two Masters degrees, speaks five languages, has visited over 80 countries and recently completed a fellowship at Stanford’s d.school. You’ll normally find him nerding out on ideas, running trails, playing music and generally exploring with a rather insatiable and problematic curiosity.
Dr Ellen Heyting
Professional Learning Facilitator, Melbourne Metrics, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne
Ellen is a passionate and experienced educator, researcher, and facilitator who works at Melbourne Metrics within the Faculty of Education at The University of Melbourne. She has over a decade of teaching and leadership experience in K-12 IB World Schools in Melbourne, Beijing, Singapore and Helsinki, and is a member of the IB Educator Network (IBEN). She holds a PhD in Education from Monash University, a Master's degree in Education and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Psychology and Media & Communication from the University of Melbourne, and a Graduate Certificate of Higher Education from Deakin University. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), a credential that recognises her commitment to excellence in teaching and learning in higher education. Ellen's research interests include international school teacher identity, the assessment of complex competencies, the International Baccalaureate and agency in learning. Ellen believes that education can be a force to unite people for peace, justice, and a sustainable future, and strives to empower teachers and learners to develop the competencies they need to thrive at school and beyond.
Angela Pollock
Director of Research-Practice Partnerships, Melbourne Metrics, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne
Angela is Director of Research-Practice Partnerships at Melbourne Metrics, based within the Faculty of Education at The University of Melbourne. Her work is driven by a commitment to equity-aligned reform and to strengthening the relationship between research, practice, and system transformation. She co-leads nationally significant initiatives—including New Metrics for Success and Matching for Success—that are advancing the assessment and credentialing of complex competencies in ways that more accurately capture the breadth of what young people know, can do, and contribute. Her expertise lies in forging enduring partnerships between researchers, schools, and sectors, and in creating the conditions through which innovations in assessment and recognition can take hold. She has more than two decades of experience across the education sector, including principal-class roles in schools, and brings particular expertise in learner transitions and assessment reform. She holds a Master of School Leadership (Monash University), a Diploma of Education (RMIT), and a Bachelor of Creative Arts (The University of Melbourne). Her work is underpinned by the belief that assessment and recognition, when reimagined, can be a powerful lever for meaningful and lasting transformation in schools.
David Baker
Principal, Woodleigh School
David Baker is the Principal at Woodleigh School. He has over 30 years of education experience. He has previously served at Gippsland Grammar as Principal, Mentone Grammar as Deputy Principal, Peninsula Grammar as Head of Senior School and Head of Middle School, and Wesley College as a VCE/IB Physics teacher.
David is deeply committed to coeducation, is an impressive strategic thinker and has a strong understanding of personalised, student centred approaches to learning. He believes students and staff thrive in a school where they have a sense of belonging and connectedness.
Heather Lawrence
Co-designer, Ears of the Heart Project
Heather has been passionate about the unrealised potential of educational settings for over 40 years. Her background in early years education led her to work in diverse settings Nationally and Internationally, over 30 years in Tertiary settings, Adult Education in Community and Education Sectors. Heather taught and researched at University of Melbourne until 2012, and has continued to work with, teach and mentor Educators through Conferences, Seminars, in small groups. Importantly her wish is collaboration with others, to create life serving learning opportunities in trans-contextual ways, based on compassion, care and love.
Heather’s intention was always to bring an 'Awareness' of the complex issues that drive the behaviours of children, youth and young adults and the influences of systems of Education, Health, Economy, Politics on their social experiences in families and Communities. This was highlighted when she began to collaborate with Kankawa Nagarra, where she faced the hard truths of the effects, of multiple and often opposing theories over time, along with ever changing drivers of Political and Economic Policies, on the lives of children, youth, young adults and their families in the Kimberley. More hard truths were faced with the awareness that these circumstances are not unique in Indigenous Communities. This led to deeper Research in Strategic Foresight, Systems Change and Learning Journeys of her own Inner dimensions.
Heather has learned that 'Awareness' on its own was not enough for Teachers, Students and families to participate in ecosystems in Schools they would love to be a part of. She began to hold the question, “How can conditions be created and nurtured for educators and parents and students and the wider Organisations, Governments and others help each other to flourish, together". This question continues for Heather, Kankawa and Ears of the Heart journeymen as they continue learning journey of Indigenous Wisdoms with diverse Spiritual Perspectives with Awareness Based and Compassionate Systems Change methods that deliberately pay attention to the "wildfires" that continue to burn and affect the lives of so many in these times.
Cameron Paterson
Director of Learning, Wesley College
Cameron is Director of Learning at Wesley College, Melbourne, and was previously Director of Learning & Teaching at Shore School in Sydney. He has an academic background that includes master’s degrees in history, educational philosophy, educational administration, and a Master’s in Learning and Teaching from Harvard University. He also works for Harvard’s Project Zero. His accomplishments have been recognised with awards for teaching, leadership, and innovation including the Dr Paul Brock medal for being a ‘point of light’ for teachers, students and the wider education community. Cameron is the co-editor of Cultivating Cultures of Thinking in Australian Schools and Flip the System Australia.
Jessica Taylor
Founder of ThriveWellCo and The Wellbeing Farmer
Jessica is a regenerative leader, wellbeing strategist, and passionate advocate for thriving communities. She works in partnership with schools, organisations, and communities to create compassionate, regenerative systems of wellbeing.
With a career as dynamic as her vision, Jessica has collaborated with esteemed institutions such as the UAE Prime Minister’s Office and the Singapore Ministry of Education. She also worked with the Geelong Cats AFL, developing wellbeing initiatives for players, staff, and the wider community.
A true systems thinker, Jessica’s superpower lies in transforming complex challenges into thriving ecosystems. As Senior Executive Director of Wellbeing, she led a comprehensive wellbeing strategy for over 2,000 people, demonstrating that wellbeing is not just an individual responsibility—it’s a collective one.
Jessica is currently a sessional Lecturer and Doctorate candidate at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science & Faculty of Education. Her research focuses on reframing responsibility for wellbeing and exploring the interdependent nature of wellbeing to cultivate conditions for all to flourish.
Kate Major & Micah Wilkins
Kate is Deputy Principal and Micah is Head of Learning Design and Strategy, Mount Scopus Memorial College
Kate Major is Deputy Principal at Mount Scopus Memorial College. Kate, originally a Secondary Science Teacher, developed a passion and then her expertise in Student Wellbeing. She has held a variety of school leadership roles including Head of Faculty, Head of Year and Director of Student Wellbeing.
Kate is also on the School Board for the Avenue School Senior Secondary Specialist School which provides an alternative education for young people who have an experience of anxiety disorders.
Kate knows that relationships are bedrock of learning. She sees the role of educators as supporting each other to create dynamic learning environments; working together to cultivate vibrant and secure spaces where young people are encouraged to explore, question, think and grow.
Micah Wilkins is the Head of Learning Design & Strategy at Mount Scopus Memorial College. He has specialist teaching experience in Geography, History and Extended Investigation. He has a particular interest in the transformative potential of education through the alignment of values, systems, and people, and the importance of intelligent and empathetic leadership in achieving this. Micah has served in leadership positions across multiple schools in Melbourne, with particular responsibility for learning innovation and design, digital learning, strategic planning and staff professional learning and engagement.
Melanie Brown
Curriculum Leader, Methodist Ladies’ College
Melanie Brown is a curriculum leader and coordinator at Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne. With a focus on coherence, creativity, and connection across programmes, Melanie works to make learning more student-driven and meaningful in both structure and spirit. With deep experience in the International Baccalaureate, Melanie’s work centres on pedagogical leadership: helping teachers see the bigger picture, align practice with purpose, and make educational values visible in day-to-day teaching and learning. She is active in professional networks and works to grow conditions where both staff and students thrive.
Simon Carver
Leader of Learning - Art and Design; Diversity, Inclusion, and Equality Coordinator, Carey Baptist Grammar School
Simon Carver is a passionate co-creator of creative learning experiences, instructional designer and is driven by research and active student agency. He is the coordinator of Diversity, Inclusion and Equality programs at Carey Baptist Grammar school and leads the Art & Design learning area in the Middle and Senior schools. He has undertaken leadership and consultation roles in public art works and was a panel member of the Arts Advisory panel for the City of Yarra for many years. In 2024 Simon undertook a research-focused Sabbatical year, driven by a proposition to challenge current education system design through the theoretical lens of Intersectionality. Making authentic connections with schools in the USA, UK and Spain was a highlight of his year abroad. This research has informed his current work in Facilitating and leading the Gender & Sexuality Interschool student Symposium hosted by Carey – “How far to Equality? “He is an advocate of experiential based learning programs and project-based partnerships and believes pedagogy is shaped by a thirst for active citizenship, agency and compassionate systems. Ultimately, this alignment supports robust System design and the nourishment of students and colleagues in Contemporary Education..
Tom Linnell
Lecturer and Researcher, University of South Australia
Tom Linnell is a lecturer and researcher in education for sustainability at the University of South Australia. With a decade of experience as an educator and sustainability practitioner, his research explores how education communities can empower learners to become global citizens equipped with the knowledge, skills, and values to address the world’s most pressing challenges. A 2022 Churchill Fellow and recipient of the George Alexander Scholarship, Tom was also recognised as South Australian Climate Change Leader of the Year for his contributions to sustainability education. He draws on global best practices to support educators in embedding circular economy principles and fostering impactful change within schools and communities. Hailing from Boandik Country (Mount Gambier, SA), Tom is passionate about place-based learning and regenerative education. As a father of two, he is deeply invested in creating a future where young people are inspired and equipped to lead in a changing world.
Charlotte Ruddy
Assistant Head of Junior School, Dulwich College
Charlotte has been involved with Compassionate Systems since attending the introduction workshop in Jakarta in 2019. She also attended the ‘How to Hold Space Workshop’, run by the Centre of Systems Awareness in November 2022. After being inspired by the use of different systems tools and their positive impact, both on a personal level and on learning, Charlotte explores how best to implement this within an educational context with both students and adults. Charlotte has led several introductory workshops with a range of educators from classroom teachers, counsellors, department leaders and Heads of School in both Singapore and overseas. She is excited to work with these individuals to build systems tools into classroom practice within different year groups and amongst different staff communities. Charlotte wants to empower staff and students with the confidence to enable everyone to voice their opinions about what is important to them and fight for what is morally right.
Jacob Martin
Deputy Head of College, Dulwich College
In August 2019, Jacob moved to Singapore with his wife, who coordinates the College’s IB Career Programme, and his two children, ages 13 and 11. There he took up a new role as Deputy Head of College where Compassionate Systems development is his primary focus, giving students the skills to save the world for us! It is his strong hope to not only develop the programme at Dulwich College, but also create a hub of schools in Singapore and South East Asia. Jacob is a master practitioner from the 2019 Centre for Systems Awareness cohort and works closely with Charlotte Ruddy a fellow master practitioner from the 2020 cohort.
Miraz Indira
Miraz grew up close to nature but attempted to ‘civilize’ himself with higher education and a few years as a corporate lawyer. Through the good fortune of an existential crisis, he wound up in the Amazon jungle, where he remembered something about belonging to the world again, and, with his wife, Skye, facilitated healing retreats under the tutelage of their Shipibo teachers for several years. Along the way, he trained in psycho-therapeutic modalities, as well as breathwork and bodywork. Miraz now lives on Wurundjeri country in Melbourne, Australia – where he apprentices himself to the deep ecological movement arising in response to the convergent crises of the modern industrial growth culture. He has been mentored by John Seed in offering "Experiential Deep Ecology" / "Work that Reconnects" workshops and regularly collaborates with fellow practitioners in both online and in-person contexts.
Skye Cielita Flor
Skye is a mother, a facilitator of Experiential Deep Ecology (WTR), a co-facilitator of a year-long course by Josh Schrei called ‘The Mythic Body’, a facilitator of various study groups on practical animism and grief work, a nature connection mentor, folk herbalist, traditionally trained plant medicine ritualist in the Shipibo tradition, a naturalist and someone who spends a lot of time outdoors, in ritual or in focused practice on the land.
Skye is passionate about; reclaiming interconnected animist / pan-psychist perception and deep-time Gaian awareness; ritually re-entering the conversation with other-than-human, ancestral and place-based relationships; bioregional grassroots folk herbalism and food foraging; reclaiming mythopoetic imagination, myth telling, song weaving and soulful dreaming capacities; Insects! And wild native orchids! And mushroom season!
Everything she does, is in service to the non-linear, emergent movement toward cultural renewal and ecological healing, and ultimately, the collective liberation from the painful delusion of a Self that sees itself as separate and superior to the rest of life on Earth.
Dr Jennifer Sze
Lecturer, University of Melbourne
Dr Jennifer Sze is a Lecturer in Learning Intervention at the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Education and a passionate advocate for special education. With extensive experience across primary, secondary, and tertiary settings, she specialises in supporting students with dyslexia and dyscalculia. As an active member of the Australian Dyslexia Association and Dyscalculia Association United Kingdom, Dr Sze offers invaluable insights. Her PhD research on boys' writing has paved the way for future studies on girls' literacy and STEMM engagement. Recognised with the ACEL New Voice and NextGen Scholarships in 2023, she is a rising leader in inclusive and innovative education.
Alex Soulsby
Founder and Creative Director, Artist Residency Thailand
Alex Soulsby is a creative education specialist whose work explores the benefits of arts, culture, and community engagement. With over two decades of experience, he has worked across formal and informal education sectors, including leading national campaigns in the UK alongside the late Sir Ken Robinson. As the founder and Creative Director of Artist Residency Thailand, Soulsby has developed a program that integrates artists, philosophers and creative thinkers into the lifeblood of schools and formal educational settings.
Alex has written widely about the benefits of an 'arts-centralised' learning and the positive outcomes this has for young people, school-faculty, including articles in the Times Education Supplement (TES) and the Royal Society of the Arts. His recent publication "MAGIC-T and Page 73," in the International Journal of Art & Design Education, unpacks the work of the Artist Residency Thailand program, the integration of 'outside voices' into curricula and how approaches that have emerged from this work align with UNESCO's recommendations for future education. He is fundamentally passionate about reimagining education systems that nurture creativity, empathy, and collaboration. His work to date has been recognised through his fellowship with the Royal Society of Arts and his involvement in a range of international educational initiatives.
Ben Lawless
Educator, Author, Teacher
Ben Lawless is a multi-award winning educator, author, researcher and game designer. He has worked at the University of Melbourne's Assessment and Evaluation Research Centre for over fifteen years, learning about developmental learning theory under Patrick Griffin. He brought developmental rubric pedagogy to his successful textbook series "Good Humanities" and has sold over 120,000 books. He has written units of work for the National Museum and presented widely on history pedagogy, game-based learning and assessment. He has won a number of awards, including Hume's Graduate Teacher of the Year and being a finalist for ResourceSmart teacher of the year. He has created a number of international political simulation games putting students in the role of world leaders to solve various political, environmental and social challenges, one of which was in the Top 10 for Australia for the HundrED prize. As a writer, he has written first person POV historical narratives for topics from ancient and medieval history, keynote addresses, world history summaries as part of his textbook series, and a variety of other curriculum resources freely available on his website.
Mignon Weckert
Educational Leadership Director LESNW
Mignon Weckert is the Educational Leadership Director for Lutheran Education South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Her role in the organization is equipping leaders for the emerging future, with a focus on growing awareness-based practices, systems thinking and systems awareness, nurturing individual and collective leadership practice to enable all learners within schools to flourish. The current focus of her work includes exploring the conditions which enable a compassionate approach to regenerative systems change.
Mignon had developed a wealth of experience and expertise as a teacher, curriculum and executive leader in schools and learning organizations in Australia, Singapore and throughout Asia Pacific. She has previously served as the regional manager for the IB PYP for Asia Pacific. Mignon completed the Master Practitioner Course through the Centre for Systems Awareness in July 2024 and is currently on the Advisory committee for the Compassionate Systems Collective in Australia.
