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Master of Ceremony: Phil Hayes-Brown (he/him), Chief Executive Officer, Wallara

Read about Phil Hayes-Brown, notable Monash Alumni here. Inspired by his daughter’s moderate intellectual disability, Phil entered the disability sector in 2010.

As current Chief Executive Officer of Wallara, a not for profit leading provider of disability support. Wallara is an innovative, sector leading support service for adults with different abilities, seeking to drive social change through innovative partnerships. Based in Melbourne’s south-east suburbs, Wallara support over 500 people across 20 sites to Grow, Work, Explore and Live in their community.

“My current role (with Wallara) is my most rewarding role to date and was inspired by my daughter.” - Phil Hayes-Brown.

Guest Speaker: Associate Professor Paul Harpur, (he/him) University of Queensland

Associate Professor Dr Paul Harpur is a former duel Paralympian, guide dog user, lawyer and ARC Future Fellow at the University of Queensland.

He is a leading international and comparative disability rights legal academic, current Australian Research Council Future Fellow (project “Normalizing Ability Diversity through Career Transitions: Disability at Work”), and an Affiliate, Harvard Law School Project on Disability.

He is affiliated with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability and chairs Universities Enable.

Dr Em Bould, (they/them) Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Em is a senior post-doctoral research fellow in the School of Primary and Allied Healthcare at Monash University. They have a strong track record of research generating evidence to guide development of practices, programs and policies enabling participation by people with cognitive disability and promote their social inclusion, to bring about positive change for people living with disability. Most recently this has focused on employment supports and human and animal supports, that facilitate social and community inclusion.

In addition, Em has expertise in accessible digital design and research methods and processes and has produced various accessible web-based and other digital resources.

Penny Robinson (she/her), Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

Penny Robinson is a Lecturer and Biostatistician in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University.  She teaches introductory epidemiology, biostatistics and public health to first year students. She's also the biostatistican for the Women's Health Research Program, doing data analysis for various projects they have on the go.

She was diagnosed as autistic during Year 9, 25 years ago.  She's an autistic advocate and gives talks on her experience of being autistic - including a popular presentation during Monash's Diversity & Inclusion week in 2021.  This has led to her appearing in The Age in 2014, speaking at the Asia Pacific Autism Conference in Singapore in 2019, and being interviewed on ABC Mornings by Virginia Trioli in 2020.

Professor Umesh Sharma, (he/him) Faculty of Education

Professor Umesh Sharma is the Associate Dean (Equity and Inclusion) at the Faculty of Education. Umesh’s research programs in the area of disability and inclusive education span India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Samoa as well as Australia, Canada, USA and New Zealand.  He is the chief co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Special Education and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Inclusive and Special Education. He has authored over 175 academic articles, book chapters and edited books that focus on various aspects of inclusive education. He was (2019) named the top Special Education Researcher in Australia based on the impact of his work locally and internationally by the Australian Chief Scientist.

His research program has focussed on how best the system can be reformed and key stakeholders could be adequately prepared to create a society where people with a disability could thrive and make meaningful contributions to the society.