Speakers

Dr. Elissa Farrow

Dr. Elissa Farrow (PhD) is an award-winning futurist, author, facilitator, coach and strategist. She has over 25 years experience in research, organisational innovation, design, adaptation and benefits realisation and has extensive experience in strategic organisational adaptation design and delivery. Dr. Farrow has supported organisations in defining positive futures and has successfully facilitated their transformation, bringing about lasting benefits. Dr. Farrow was the shared originator of the 1st Oceania Futures Symposium in 2025 with her friend and colleague Dr Jeanne Hoffman.

Dr Farrow is known for her compassionate leadership and engaging approach stemming from her background as a Social Scientist. She is an experienced board director, and has held global leadership positions with the Change Management Institute as well as chair of DVConnect a service preventing Domestic and Family Violence in Queensland. Her published doctoral research explored the implications of Artificial Intelligence on organisational futures. Dr. Farrow is a member of the Asia Pacific Futurists Network (APFN), Association of Professional Futurist (APF) and the World Futures Studies Federation (WFSF). Dr Farrow co-created the first Oceania Futures and Foresight Symposium in 2025.

Dr Melissa Innes

Dr Melissa Innes (PhD, FHEA) is a researcher specialising in Individual Foresight (IF), intuition, and knowledge management. Her award-winning doctoral research, published in the Journal of Innovation and Knowledge developed the IF Framework - an innovative approach now being applied to leadership capability development. Dr Innes is currently seeking to extend her IF research to support child safety in Queensland, aiming to enhance decision-making and knowledge-sharing in high-stakes environments. 

Melissa's ongoing research also explores the role of key network actors in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), focusing on how effective knowledge management can drive sustainability and innovation. Her work investigates how cultivating IF within organisations can foster knowledge creation, innovation, and improved knowledge management, ultimately contributing to organisational capability and strategic efficiency for the future.

Kathryn Maggs

Kathryn is a leadership expert who specialises in Conscious Leadership, Confidence Resilience, and Transformational Change — particularly for professional women leaders and their teams. With over 25 years of experience as a mentor, coach, and corporate facilitator, she is known for sparking conversations that lead to lasting, meaningful change.

Blending her deep passion for people, leadership, and the restorative power of nature, Kathryn creates spaces — often outdoors — where leaders can slow down, breathe, and think differently. She harnesses the science-backed benefits of nature to open minds, shift perspectives, and inspire bold, impactful action. 

Her approach is as unique as it is effective: a dynamic mix of raw honesty, warmth, humour, and persistent curiosity. Whether on a forest path or in a boardroom, Kathryn helps individuals and teams find clarity, build confidence, and chart a new course toward success. She tailors every engagement to the people she works with, ensuring the journey is as transformative as the destination.

Helene Barrie

Helene Barrie is a growth, sales, innovation, and digital leader with over 15 years of experience driving strategic transformation across key markets, including water and environment, life sciences, and critical infrastructure. Currently completing a Master of Leadership and Innovation, she brings a futures-oriented lens to digital strategy, service design, and organisational growth.

Helene’s work integrates human-centred design, systems thinking, and data-driven approaches to ensure technology and service solutions meet evolving customer and community needs. Her current focus is on applying futures thinking and design-led methods to help organisations plan and adapt for sustainable success in a rapidly changing landscape.

A passionate mentor and advocate for innovative practice, Helene is committed to bridging ideas and disciplines to shape resilient, future-ready solutions that connect people, technology, and purpose.

Dr Marta Botta

Dr. Marta Botta is a researcher at the Sustainability Research Cluster of the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia. She completed a Bachelor of Science/Psychology degree (CQU, Australia); a Graduate Diploma of Media Studies (Massey University, New Zealand); has a Graduate Certificate in Futures Studies and PhD from the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research interests include social change, heritage futures, and practical spirituality. These themes are explored in her vast portfolio of published work, conference presentations, and book chapters. Marta believes in "practice grounded research" and she produced a number of video documentaries to facilitate sociocultural renewal.

Dr Caitlin Noakes

Dr Caitlin Noakes is a sessional academic and knowledge proletariat at the University of the Sunshine Coast, where she teaches courses in the humanities, arts, social sciences, and creative industries, and researches the ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies of creative arts research. In 2025, she dove head-first into futures studies under the mentorship of Dr Marcus Bussey, and founded the Sunshine Coast Futures Hub with Camila Mozzini-Alister and Cassiana Buosi.

Shadi Rouhshabaz

Shadi Rouhshahbaz is a researcher, futurist, peacebuilder whose work sits at the intersection of futures thinking, intergenerational collaboration, and feminist transformation within global governance. Formerly a Peace and Security Analyst at UN Women HQ and an Associate Research Fellow at Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation and now a PhD candidate in Peace and Conflict Studies (University of Melbourne), she uses foresight methodologies to reimagine more inclusive futures with communities. 

Shadi was a 2023 Next Generation Foresight Practitioner Fellow in Nuclear Disarmament at the School of International. Shadi specialises in designing accessible, emotionally-grounded, and politically aware foresight processes.

Dr Marcus Bussey

Dr Marcus Bussey is an educator and futurist with 35+ years’ experience across neohumanist, community, Montessori and university settings. 

At USC he teaches world history, supervises research students, and serves as Deputy Head of the School of Law and Society. 

His work spans futures thinking, social learning, intercultural engagement and embodied practice. 

Marcus has presented internationally, held a Taiwan Fellowship, contributed to engineering education research, and co‑edited major works on dissent, embodiment and transformative futures.

Ruth Lewis

Ruth Lewis, Director of Technology Foresight Consulting, Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical), Graduate Diploma Digital Communications, Master of Strategic Foresight, National Engineering Register.

Ruth is an experienced strategic IT consultant, academically qualified futurist and professional engineer based in Melbourne, Australia, with a particular focus on introducing new technologies to business, creating managed services and creating innovative governance models. Ruth’s passion is to work towards the ethical and sustainable development and use of emerging technologies such as AI for the good of society, enabling her clients to make wise and informed decisions and investments today to enable their preferred futures. Ruth is Vice President (Standards) and the Chair of the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) Standards Committee. Ruth is a leader in developing many trustworthy AI technical standards and was awarded the IEEE SA 2022 Standards Medallion for leadership in promoting the development of IEEE technology and society standards.

Dr Cheryl Doig

Dr Cheryl Doig is a futurist, weaver and connector, often known as the #futuresaunty. She facilitates foresight workshops and programmes focused on anticipating futures for organisations and industries. Cheryl is part of many global projects connected with intergenerational ambition and future generations. 

She is co-designer of the Aotearoa Futures Barometer and the Aotearoa Futures Forum and coordinates futures networks across Ōtautahi, Aotearoa and Oceania. Cheryl is one of 12 futurists globally to be chosen to support the Dubai Future Forum and Awards 2025/26. 

Haydn Thomas

Haydn Thomas has over 25 years’ experience presenting unique and thought-provoking concepts, in a highly interactive and entertaining way, to conference audiences and workshop participants across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and North America. His engaging style encourages participants to think differently, challenge assumptions and leave with insights they can apply right away. He sometimes even brings along 'Fred the Penguin', adding humour and unique applicability to his presentations. 

When not speaking in front of groups, Haydn is an executive coach, mentor, trainer and people-development consultant. His experience spans the public, private and not-for-profit sectors (examples of the broad range of clients are noted here for reference):

Dr Rob Leach

Rob Leach is a foresight practitioner, researcher, and founder of OCNUS Consulting. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast, exploring Entrepreneurial Agency in the Age of AI through the lens of Causal Layered Analysis (CLA). His research investigates how AI is transforming entrepreneurial practice and identity, focusing on human–AI collaboration within startup ecosystems.

Rob’s professional work spans foresight strategy, systems innovation, and organisational transformation across public, private, and education sectors. His recent focus lies in applying futures methodologies to help organisations navigate uncertainty and technological disruption.

As a researcher–practitioner, Rob is particularly interested in the intersection of human creativity, ethics, and technology—how foresight can help societies adapt to profound shifts in agency, autonomy, and meaning. His approach combines empirical insight with layered futures thinking, connecting micro-level human experiences to broader systemic and cultural change.

Dr Alina Bas

Dr. Alina Bas, PCC, is an Executive Coach, Strategy Consultant, and Organizational Psychologist with over 20 years of experience coaching leaders on making strategic high-stakes decisions under uncertainty. She is an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, where she teaches Advanced Executive Coaching and Development, Personnel Selection and Organizational Development. 

Dr. Bas designs and facilitates corporate workshops on embodied leadership and decision-making under uncertainty. Her clients include leaders at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, and other leading institutions in healthcare, government, and higher education. Dr. Bas is a published book author and a co-author of several book chapters and academic papers.

Aimee Ross-Taylor

I have been exploring the futures landscape personally and in a corporate setting for 9+ years.  That has been achieved through the focus on Identity and Personalisation strategy and delivery i.e. Understanding 'what is identity and what is personalisation?' i.e. How do we get the right message to the right person at the right time? Personally I have been developing a framework and tool set to design and articulate a personal future called The Life Architecture practise.  The practise takes us from strategy to execution and self realisation through understanding a person's identity and creating a personal plan to realise their life goals. 

Steph Clarke

Steph is a futurist and facilitator who helps the C-Suite see around corners, so they can be ready for what's next.

Her combination of 20 years in professional services, and global experience as a facilitator mean she's well-equipped to work with leadership teams to expand their thinking about the problems they face today, and share the signals of change that spark bigger conversations about what might happen tomorrow.

She has certifications from The University of Houston, Copenhagen Institute of Futures Studies (CIFS), and the Institute for the Future (IFTF) and has worked with clients across professional services, banking, financial services, fintech, design, government, and utilities industries. She regularly appears on podcasts and contributes writing to a variety of outlets.

Thomas Biedermann

Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in Cybernetic Futures at the Australian National University (ANU).

He integrates his background in systems engineering and interests in organisational design to research and deploy methods to create safe, sustainable, and responsible systems. His approaches draw on cybernetics, visual arts, and playcentric and embodied methods, to support diverse participants in imagining and acting towards hopeful futures.

He has applied these approaches in various contexts, including a Sino-French joint research lab on haematology in Shanghai; the science diplomacy sections of French embassies in the USA and Australia; and the Australian Higher Education sector. Prior to his current role, he has served as inaugural manager of the 3AI Innovation Institute at ANU, and inaugural program manager for the ANU-wide decarbonisation program, Below Zero

Associate Professor Leonie Hallo

Associate Professor Leonie Hallo (University of Adelaide) has over 40 years of expertise in complex systems management, leadership, and AI integration. With a PhD in Psychology, her research examines the synergy between human intuition and analytical decision-making in volatile environments. 

An international keynote speaker and educator, she has supervised over 25 doctoral students globally. At the symposium, Leonie will explore serendipity and Indigenous wisdom, bridging contemporary foresight with embodied knowledge to address challenges at the human-technology interface.

Dr Marta Sinclair

Dr. Marta Sinclair, Griffith Business School, received an M.A. in Education from George Washington University, USA, and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from The University of Queensland, Australia. She is the founder of Intuition in Organizations, a global online forum of researchers and practitioners, the editor of a series of Edward Elgar intuition handbooks (2011, 2014, 2020) and the co-editor of Frontiers in Psychology/Sociology special issue on female intuition (2025). 

Beside numerous intuition publications, she co-authored a practical intuition guide (Windpferd, 2012) and published the novel Woman’s Intuition (Kindle/iTunes, 2013). Prior to joining academia, Marta was active in various management positions in Europe and USA, including Silicon Valley.

Aunty Leanne Phillips (Keynote)

Leanne Phillips (Mietha) is a Minjungbal womyn with blood ties through her maternal line to the Jarowair people of the Bunya Mountains . As a Spirit Way Healer and Lifestyle Practitioner, she integrates ancient cultural knowledge with contemporary healing practices.

With a lifetime of experience as a Master Healer, Life Coach, and Mentor grounded in Aboriginal Healing Practices, Leanne supports individuals and communities through culturally rooted, spirit-led healing.

Well known as a conduit for transformative healing energies from the Universe, Ancestors, and Natural World, she channels the Language—a vibrational expression of creation energy that facilitates holistic balance across mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions.

Guided by Integrity, Equality, Respect, and Love, Leanne is committed to embracing difference and fostering collective wellbeing. She advocates that individual self-realisation is foundational to community healing. Leanne’s path to being healed is one of love, connection, and profound listening.

Rachelle Cooper-Kulkarni

Rachelle Cooper Kulkarni MSc is a futurist, alchemist dedicated to creating the futures we want to see in the world by bridging the physical and metaphysical. Her career journey across construction, energy, and sustainability clarified her core purpose: delivering change that matters. 

As Founder and CEO of Sustainify and Community Energy Queensland, she works at the nexus of foresight, community, climate, and energy to advance a just future. Expanding her mission, she also founded Embodied Lotus Alchemy and is a Director of Aboriginal charity, Sanctuary for Embracing Difference, supporting all women to embody their highest potential.

Claire Marshall

Claire Marshall is an award-winning futurist who leads the National Futures Initiative at the Australian Centre for Social Innovation. Her work focuses on how the stories we think through influence how we imagine and enact futures. She is the creator of the Museum of Futures, a participatory exhibition exhibited nationally and internationally, that brings to life our visions for different futures. 

Amanda Reeves

Amanda Reeves is a Naarm/Melbourne-based futurist, art therapist, and facilitator at The Understory Art Therapy. She uses the arts to access metaphors to make sense of our lives and explore how our worlds could be made differently. 

Cate Houston

Cate has engaged in community work for most of her adult life. She was a partner of a successful business for 20 years. 

Cate is a Counsellor and a member of Australian Counselling Association and the Mental Health Academy. Cate was awarded for a short story written for adults with low English literacy levels.

Cate completed a series of Metafuture courses and a journal article that was awarded an APFN-JFS Award, Honourable Mention. Cate appreciates and values the potential impact of transformative futures strategies.

Currently, Cate contributes to DCA Mentoring Supports’ (DCAMS) management team within the disability sector.

Adam Sharpe (Keynote)

Adam Sharpe is the Co-founder and Director of Learning at Metafuture School and a youth participation specialist at UNICEF. His programming has reached hundreds of thousands globally, with foresight research published in academic journals and for the United Nations. 

A recipient of the 2022 NGFP Award for Intergenerational Fairness for his game People Power, Adam is a KFAS-Salzburg Global and NGFP Fellow. He co-leads the UNICEF Innocenti Youth Foresight Fellowship, winner of the APF If Award for Participatory Futures and runner-up in the Dubai Foresight Awards.

Dr Owen Cooper

Owen Cooper is a Senior Advisor in the Futures Hub at the National Security College at ANU and is a leading Australian expert in public-sector strategic foresight and intelligence practice. 

Owen has led foresight training, workshops and tabletop exercises across Australia, as well as in Asia and the United States, and has trained hundreds of public servants in futures thinking, structured analysis and intelligence tradecraft. Before joining NSC, Owen spent 14 years in strategic intelligence analysis and tradecraft roles at the Department of Defence. He deployed to Timor-Leste in 2010 in support of peacekeeping operations. 

Laura Stuart

Laura Stewart is the lead socio-economic advisor with the NSC Futures Hub, seconded from the Department of Social Services. Beyond the public service, Laura has a strong background in political negotiation and policy development, with previous experience working in the Office of the Hon Senator Dr Mehreen Faruqi. 

An institutional economist with a sharp focus on social cohesion and economic inclusion, Laura is known for applying futures methodologies to tackle complex challenges. She designs long-term policy solutions, informed by historic and cultural contexts. At the Futures Hub, she is developing a vision for an inclusive, safe, and secure Australia.

Jess Price

Jess Price works at the intersection of humans, technology and future systems. She is the founder of Paradigm Makers, a futures-oriented practice designing for the world of 2075. Jess brings a long-horizon perspective to how invisible systems shape work, wellbeing and technological outcomes. 

She challenges the assumption that current systems are broken, arguing instead that they are producing exactly what they were designed to produce. Her current work focuses on translating futures thinking into collective, systems-led approaches and designing future human-technology systems grounded in care, adaptability and intentional choice.

Samantha Starshine (Willcocks)

Samantha Starshine (Willcocks) is a futures researcher, author and facilitator, bridging academic foresight with embodied, relational practice. 

She holds a BA/BSc from the University of the Sunshine Coast (Chancellor’s Medal) and is undertaking a Masters/PhD focused on resilience and adaptive capacity through futures studies with a Luo community in Kenya, where she is recognised as a daughter of the village. 

Trained in circle keeping, Systemic Constellations, and feminine empowerment, Samantha has lived in Africa for the past year and is a homeschooling mother of six. She is the founder of The Starseed Sisterhood, a premium women’s leadership and futures journey.

Dr Camilia Mozzini- Alister

Dr Camila Mozzini-Alister is a passionate futurist and social media educator at Rewire Educational Consultancy and Training. Her academic background is a double PhD in Communication and Arts, a Research Master’s in Social and Institutional Psychology and a Bachelor (Honours) degree in Journalism. 

Camila is obsessed with how our current technologies are changing what it means to be a “body.” She has written several books on social media, identity, and cultural change, including "Does Social Media Have Limits?" and "Phenomenologies of Grace" (co-edited with Marcus Bussey). 

Evelyn de Moraes

Evelyn de Moraes is a systems thinker, facilitator, and engineering leader with a passion for regenerative frameworks that help communities and organisations imagine thriving futures. Drawing on practice in technology leadership and community engagement, Evelyn centres experiential and participatory approaches in her work, bringing people together to explore complex challenges and collective possibilities.

She has facilitated interactive sessions grounded in Donut Economics, a relational model that maps human well-being within ecological and social boundaries, helping participants discover practical insights into where our economies and communities can flourish together. Through these engagements, Evelyn supports diverse groups to navigate uncertainty, build shared understanding, and co-create pathways toward equitable and sustainable futures.

Dr Katie McIntyre

Dr Katie McIntyre is the Founder and CEO of the Joyful Leadership Academy, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership at Deakin University and a sessional academic with the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her work focuses on relational, human centred and emotionally intelligent approaches to leadership, with a particular interest in how Joyful Leadership, trust and care shape positive organisational cultures and strengthen the way people work together. Katie has more than twenty years of experience across the nonprofit, government, education and research sectors, and her work often sits at the intersection of leadership, community impact and wellbeing.

Katie’s work in leadership and futures is closely linked to her PhD research on Joyful Leadership, which explored how calm presence, relational connection and grounded emotional experiences influence trust, wellbeing and the emotional climate within teams and communities.

Alice Dimond

Alice Dimond (Kāi Tahu) is a social innovation and futures practitioner with a passion for using these approaches to create more collective and equitable futures. As Project Manager at Tokona te Raki, she leads Mō Āpōpō Future-Makers, a project that equips young people to imagine and create better futures. This work includes designing a toolkit grounded in Māori perspectives and stories, empowering rangatahi to use these perspectives to navigate complexity and drive transformative change. Alice is also a Fellow with Next Generation Foresight Practitioners, and the National New Zealand Lead for the Futures Methods from Around the World project, where she explores how Māori worldviews, ways of thinking, organising, and acting can unlock new pathways to better futures. Alice has presented at global forums such as the Dubai Future Forum, World Futures Day, and the Building Hopeful Futures Festival. 

Emi Hall

Emi is a purpose-driven leader with a career spanning the education, university, not-for-profit, and government sectors in Australia. Her work has focused on improved educational outcomes and advocating for better support for women and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. 

With a Bachelor of Government and International Relations, a Graduate Diploma of Education, and a Master of Business Administration, Emi brings a multidisciplinary lens to creating impact. She has led and contributed to strategies and initiatives that support social and economic equity, particularly in the areas of disability and economic security. 

Beyond her professional roles, Emi is the Founder of the Carnelian Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation supporting children affected by family violence and is a proud mum to Lily.

Willow Pryor

Willow Pryor is a futures doula, facilitator and embodied wayfinder based in The Gap on Meanjin’s outskirts. Her work integrates individual and collective healing, ecological wisdom, relational leadership and embodied practice. She created WILD (Wonder–Interconnected–Liminal–Deep Futures) Ways, offering alternatives to dominant WEIRD paradigms and inviting regenerative, life‑centred ways of being. With a Master of Strategic Foresight, she has worked across community, health, disability, education and multicultural sectors. Willow supports changemakers to shift from productivity and control toward embodiment, interconnection and inner authority, drawing on somatic inquiry, narrative practice and nature‑based wisdom to guide transformation in uncertain times

Amy Knudsen

Amy Knudsen (Kāi Tahu, she/her) is a social innovator and passionate advocate for rangatahi, driven by her daughter and a vision for future generations to thrive. At Tokona te Raki, she contributes to kaupapa that centre youth voice, challenge systemic barriers, and create pathways for rangatahi to dream, lead, and live authentically. 

Her work is grounded in kaupapa Māori, intergenerational thinking, and the sharing of knowledge across communities. Amy is committed to building futures where rangatahi are empowered to shape the world on their own terms. What futures become possible when rangatahi have both the skills and the agency to act?

Clare Beaton-Wells

Clare Beaton-Wells is a policy innovator specialising in systems change, with a focus on embedding long-term thinking and intergenerational fairness in Australian governance. At Foundations for Tomorrow (FFT), she leads the convening of cross-sector collaborations and the design of initiatives to strengthen long-term governance and future-focused leadership, including FFT’s Future Generations Fellowship.

Clare has coordinated national youth-led consultations like the Listening Tour with UN Youth Australia, supported the co-design of Australia’s Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill, and spoken internationally at prominent global forums like the UN Summit of the Future. 

Dr Michael McAllum

Dr Michael McAllum has had a long engagement with futures thinking and strategic foresight and has consulted globally enlarge scale systems change.  Of recent times he has been involved in conversations on how 'post normal effects' have morphed into a 'post normal context' that challenges both how we see reality and how we think we know.  

He is engaged with the Centre for Post Normal Studies, is an Adjunct Fellow at UniSC, is a member of the Oxford Forum for the Future and was a Foundation Member of the Association of Professional Futurists 

Dr Elizabeth Znidersic

Dr Liz Znidersic is a research scientist with research interests in wetland bird species, invasive species management and the application of technological tools to monitor threatened species and ecosystems. One of her main focuses is ecoacoustics and the application of sound recordings to monitoring the environment and also restore ecosystems. Liz believes in the strength of collaborations, particularly cross-disciplinary approaches and the knowledge shared by our Traditional Custodians. She has worked in science communication and lectures to guests on small nature based tourism operations. Liz has travelled extensively with her research, resulting in collaborations based in the USA and all over Australia. She is happiest when in the bush, travelling to new destinations, or wading through a wetland.

Dr Miriam Moeller

Miriam Moeller (PhD, MBA) is an Associate Professor in International Business at The University of Queensland Business School, Australia. Her research, published in top academic and practitioner journals, explores how effective procurement, inclusion, and mobilisation of talent support firm internationalisation. As a multi-generational expatriate with experience across 5 continents, her research examines the global work relocations of globally mobile talent and their accompanying family members. She has a special interest in marginalised and minority communities, including that of LGBTIQA+ expatriates, women expatriates, and neurodivergent expatriates. In recent years, Miriam’s focus has been on championing the development of neuroinclusive workplace practices, both in Australia and globally. She is a member of the UQ Disability Inclusion Advocacy Network and serves as Associate Editor at the International Journal of Management Reviews and editorial review board member at the Journal of Global Mobility.