M-R 2020

Madeline Di Nonno is the Chief Executive Officer of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Di Nonno leads the Institute's strategic direction, research, education, advocacy, financial and operational activities.

Di Nonno brings thirty years of successful international executive leadership experience in entertainment, non-profit, digital and consumer packaged goods industries.

Michael Jeh is a former first-class cricketer and Oxford Blue who is now heavily involved in running education programs around gender violence prevention. His clients include professional sporting teams, schools, universities, corporates and prisons.

He is passionate about empowering good men to take ownership of this important issue and is unafraid to challenge men to be the solution rather than the problem. He is the father of teenagers, lives in Brisbane and in his spare time, he is a wildlife ranger in Africa where he takes clients on exciting walking safaris.

Michelle Law is a writer working across film, TV, theatre and print. She is the co-author of the comedy book Sh*t Asian Mothers Say and has had her writing anthologised in books like Best Australian Comedy Writing and Women of Letters. Some of the publications she has written for include the Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie magazine, and the Griffith Review.

As a screenwriter, she has won an Australian Writers’ Guild AWGIE award for her interactive media work, and her films have screened on the ABC as well as at festivals locally and abroad (St Kilda Film Festival, Flickerfest, LA Shorts Fest, BAPFF).

She has been a recipient of the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award and was a runner up in the Qantas SOYA Written Word category.

Her debut stage play Single Asian Female was performed at La Boite Theatre Company in 2017 to sold out audiences. It will have a second run at Belvoir St Theatre in 2018. Homecoming Queens, a web series that she co-created, co-wrote and stars in will air on SBS in 2018.

Mikhara Ramsing is an award winning social entrepreneur from Brisbane, Australia. She runs Miks Chai, which sells ethically sourced, environmentally sustainable delicious chai to create connection through storytelling; and Ethnic LGBT+, a national website providing a safe place for members of the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) LGBTIQA+ community to share their stories.

She believes stories save lives and has travelled around Australia in a self-built tiny home connecting with rural youth. She was recognised as a finalist for the Young Australian of the Year QLD 2019 and AFR Top 100 Women of Influence 2019.

Naavi Karan is a trans non-binary community worker, story teller and a body-movement facilitator from India, based in Brisbane. Their areas of work include addressing systemic oppression and curating inclusive spaces for creatives to explore self-expression.

Also known by the name Shaun D'souza, Naavikaran has been named as one of 30 Under 30 LGBTIQ+ Leaders in Australia by Out For Australia in 2019. Naavikaran also starred in La Boite Theatre Company's recent production, The Neighbourhood.”

Naomi is a clinical sexologist currently living and working in Brisbane, Queensland. Naomi has been working in a diverse range of roles, in the field of human sexuality, for over 14 years. Naomi offers sex and relationships counselling & education face to face, online and via phone consultation.

Naomi continues to be a guest speaker and activist and participates in a variety of media commentary such as podcasts, radio, magazines, and blogging on Instagram as AustralianSexologist.

Dr Natasha Alexander describes herself as a Black bisexual British woman of Caribbean descent. She is a sex positive, sex worker friendly and kink aware clinical psychologist and loves her work as the founder and director of Consentability. This is a service for people with intellectual or cognitive disabilities in the area of sexuality, relationships, consent and safeguarding.

In her personal life, Natasha has experienced a return to a very different dating landscape from the one she remembers from 20 years ago. This has been a somewhat frustrating and bewildering process that has fortunately resulted in increased self awareness and sexual empowerment.

She draws on these experiences as well as her interests in Tantra and conscious sexuality.

Patrick is originally from South Australia where he was born on Kaurna Land. Currently Patrick and partner Sharyn live in Logan and have two sons, Jack 14 and Hamish 7.

Patrick works at Griffith University is a professor and expert on gender based violence. He is developing a program on educating and supporting boys to become ‘Gentle’ men. Prior to entering academic work Patrick worked as a social worker in sexual assault, counselling and domestic violence services. He has conducted extensive research on the effects of child sexual abuse on men as well as interventions for men who commit domestic and family violence.

Patrick has worked extensively in social development contexts in many countries. Patrick was an Expert Academic Advisor to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and a Senior Research Fellow with UNICEF’s Office for Research.

Ruth Ghee, Acknowledges her rich and diverse ancestral heritage and Connection to Country ie:

* Eastern Torres Strait Islands - 'Zagareb Clan' of Mer / Murray Island (Father),
* 'Kabi Kabi' nation - North of the Pine River Brisbane to Sunshine Coast (Mother),
* 'Gureng Gureng' nation of Central Coast Queensland - Bundaberg to Miriam Vale (Grandmother/Mother),
* South Sea Islands - West Ambrum, Vanuatu (Great Grandfather/ Mother),
* Scottish Ancestry- 'Campbell Clan' (Grandfather/Mother).

Ruth grew up in a household of natural born singers, musicians, storytellers and composers, and in 2002 she graduated as a professional singer, songwriter and performing artist from Aboriginal Centre for the Performing Arts (ACPA).

As a language worker, Ruth has used the performing arts arena to revive, maintain and preserve Australian Indigenous Language's, in particular, her father's language 'Meriam Mir' of the Eastern Torres Straits, through music, songs and storytelling.

Choir Directing is another form of teaching, learning and exchanging languages in songs that Ruth has been involved in over the past 15 - 20 yrs. Her choirs have been very unconventional in that Ruth forms these choirs, through facilitating 'language in song' workshops, for special occasions and celebrations within the Torres Strait Island and Aboriginal communities when needed.