From Melbourne, Australia, Ashleigh Streeter-Jones is a writer, speaker, activist, and the founder of Raise Our Voice Australia, an initiative to boost the number of diverse young female and non-binary voices in public decision making. The program launched in 2020, graduating 37 young people from across the country, and was supported by organisations such as the US Consulate and diverse leaders from across the public (domestic and international), private and NGO sectors.

Ashleigh started her career with VGen, World Vision Australia's youth movement, and as the Victorian State Director, was a pivotal driver in the campaign that got child labour on the G20 agenda for the first time in history. Following this, she was appointed the inaugural National Director of Campaigns.

Ashleigh co-founded the Girls Takeover Parliament program in 2017, for which she was described by Forbes as a "youthful visionary". Following this, she was named the youngest ever ACT Woman of the Year and Forbes 30 Under 30 listee.

In 2017, Ashleigh ran Young Australians in International Affairs' annual Future 21 conference, and is an alumnus of the Foundation for Young Australians Young Social Pioneers program. In 2019, she assumed the Chair of the Women's March Canberra, organizing and co-hosting the annual event as part of the global movement for gender equality.

Ashleigh has delivered workshops at the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations, and advocated for gender equality at the YWCA World Council. In 2019, she was recognised as one of Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence.

Ashleigh is the Vice-President of YWCA Canberra and a Director of Its Not A Compliment. She is the Deputy Curator of the Canberra Global Shapers Hub and in 2021, was selected as one of 50 young global leaders to attend Davos at the World Economic Forum, and has had her writing published by organisations including the IMF.

Ashleigh holds a BA(Hons) in International Relations / Politics, and a Masters in Diplomacy from ANU.

Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM is a senior resident doctor at Gold Coast University Hospital. Despite facing numerous barriers, he became the first quadriplegic medical graduate and medical intern in Queensland. He was recently admitted as a lawyer.

As co-founder of Doctors With Disabilities Australia, Dinesh has worked with the Australian Medical Association to create first-of-kind national policies for inclusivity in medical education and employment.

Dinesh is a doctor for the Gold Coast Titans physical disability rugby league team. He is also a member of multiple committees for disability advocacy and has spoken in world-renowned forums such as TEDx. Through COVID-19, he advocated for equitable treatment for people with disabilities, including as a witness to the Disability Royal Commission.

Dinesh has also contributed significantly to scientific advances in treating spinal cord injury and restoring function to people with paralysis. His national and global impact has been recognised with numerous awards, including Junior Doctor of the Year and the Order of Australia and 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year.

With funding support from the City of Gold Coast.

Recorded at COHORT Innovation Space, Southport.

Ariana is a corporate communications specialist with a Bachelor of Communication and majors in both Public Relations and Digital Marketing. As the General Manager of CoSpaces, Ariana oversees the delivery of facilities management, community management, communications, marketing, public relations and events for all individual spaces under the CoSpaces umbrella.

CoSpaces specialise in the design, leasing and management of flexible workspaces, coworking and innovation communities throughout Australia.

CoSpaces provide key insights and design consultation for the development and management of coworking spaces, commercial offices and integrated mixed-use developments. The team works with, and advises public organisations, land owners, developers, government bodies and tertiary institutions on the strategy, planning and design of coworking spaces, innovation ecosystems and support programs.

Ariana sits on the Executive Board of the Southport Chamber of Commerce, is the Co-Director for Startup Grind Gold Coast, a mentor for the Global Shapers Gold Coast hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum and is Griffith University Remarkable Alumni.

With funding support from the City of Gold Coast.

Recorded at COHORT Innovation Space, Southport.

Darren is passionate about creating unique learning experiences, particularly for students in the Middle Years but strives to find innovative ways to improve learning for all. He has taught across the Gold Coast for 25 years and in 2021 opened the Middle Learning Community at Hillcrest Christian College where over 500 students learn in a renovated carpark (nationally recognised as a finalist for best Innovation in Learning Environment Design at the Australian Educator Awards).

In the past ten years, Darren has focussed on building and sharing his knowledge of 21st Century learning and some accolades/highlights include; being recognised as a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, visiting Sweden to support Microsoft drive digital transformation in Stockholm, receiving the Science Innovation Champion Award from the Queensland Government in 2014, working with the Teacher Center of Excellence to provide training for STEM undergraduate students from Griffith University since 2016, twice being invited to visit Microsoft HQ in Redmond Seattle, developing and hosting T21C and later the MakeThink.Spark conferences on the Gold Coast.

John and Deborah Kim - Founders of RECAN

John Kim is a passionate and adaptable business leader with more than 15 years of international experience as senior management with Multi-National corporates in major cities around Asia. He is now on a mission to dedicate his expertise to make a positive impact in the pandemic issue of waste by bridging the gap between innovation and value. As a CEO and Founder of Brisbane based Environ-Tech start-up RECAN, he is creating a new platform to accelerate the circular economy.

Deborah Kim is a creative change-maker and a social entrepreneur. She is academically trained as a social worker in Sydney, worked with culturally diverse youth and families in many countries around Asia. She founded a multi-disciplinary consulting platform for education reforms in South Korea. After seeing the horrendous impact of waste during her family trip around the globe, she is determined to do her part to raise awareness and create timely solutions for a more sustainable future for the next generations to come.

With funding support from the City of Gold Coast.

Recorded at COHORT Innovation Space, Southport.

NOTE: The date for the Steve Baxter lunch and learn session mentioned in this episode has changed from 6th of May and is now happening on the 19th of May.

This episode we speak to entrepreneur and innovator Sharon Hunneybell about her work supporting entrepreneurs and fostering innovation on the Gold Coast. Recognised by the Australian Financial Review as one of Australia's 100 Women of Influence Sharon Hunneybell has a passion for technology, innovation, collaboration and is a champion for youth participation in startups and technology.

Sharon has held senior roles in a number of fast growing Australian firms including multi award winning software company, Opmantek. She has been an active startup community builder, co-creating and facilitating dozens of programs and initiatives to support digital business creation and growth. These include Startup Apprentice, Australia's first high school startup accelerator program and the Mayors Telstra Technology Awards.

In 2017, Sharon co-founded the Gold Coast Innovation Hub, a non-profit organisation that has received Federal, State and Local government support to deliver a citywide innovation strategy to support entrepreneurs and new business growth on the Gold Coast.

With funding support from the City of Gold Coast.

Recorded at COHORT Innovation Space, Southport.

This episode features Taylor Hawkins, Taylor is a passionate entrepreneur with a focus on social impact, innovation and leadership. In 2020, Taylor took the opportunity to re-design her entire working portfolio to focus on the social impact orientated initiatives. This resulted in the inception of Foundations for Tomorrow, a non-profit driving the amplification of youth voices to design a more equitable Australia, and Future Frontiers Group, a consultancy with the mission to support and grow purpose-led businesses. We talk about Foundations for Tomorrow's latest initiative, a survey inviting young people to have their say on a youth driven COVID-19 recovery plan.

With funding support from the City of Gold Coast

Recorded at COHORT Innovation Space, Southport

This episode features Winnie Nguyen, Winnie is an emerging public health leader who delivers public health projects across Queensland to improve health and social outcomes for people affected by viral hepatitis. She is also the Co-founder of ReHose Solutions a start-up that aims to incorporate hydraulic hose waste into the circular economy. Winnie is a founding member and current Curator of the Global Shapers Gold Coast Hub and is responsible for overseeing the Hub's many projects and connecting with our Mentors. Winnie is passionate about the role of innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership in creating impact in the areas of climate change, health and shaping the future of the Gold Coast region. We talk about the achievements and goals of the Gold Coast Hub in 2021, new innovations in the circular economy and how she is making an impact in health during such a crucial time.

With funding support from the City of Gold Coast

Recorded at COHORT Innovation Space, Southport

Age is a diversity metric. To ensure the world's economic leaders are driving value for all their stakeholders in responsible business, they are increasingly involving Youth with a seat at the table. The Global Shapers Community is a network of young people who are working together to drive dialogue, action and change to address local, regional and global challenges. Today, we ask the Head of the Global Shapers Community at the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Wadia Ait Hamza, how he focuses on empowering young people and enabling them to self organise for impact. This episode is full of motivational recommendations and inspiring insights to the Great Reset our global economy is working towards.

The youth of today are living in an online world where the competition is global. So it's a given we are global citizens. But beyond that, Millenials are striving to be human first. Their sense of human supersedes the sense of race or nationality.

Wadia is a graduate of International Studies and Euro- Mediterranean Affairs, and is founding Curator of the Global Shapers Rabat Hub in Morocco. Previously, he worked at the Rabat School of Governance and Economics, at Toyota and at the European Institute for the Mediterranean in Barcelona.

Wadia is 2012 United Nations Alliances of Civilizations fellow and 2013 cohort of the Global Leadership Fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Previous Podcast Wadia has featured in with Canadian Shaper:

https://anchor.fm/julian-guderley/episodes/Global-Shapers-Community---with-Wadia-Ait-Hamza-e7spi1?fbclid=IwAR13Kcrq_ivo4uL9mJqG6aqGfm5p_taNsK436clayX_x-B-2RTtWVtZ11Cc

Wadia's blog post on the youth revolution:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/the-youth-revolution-is-more-powerful-than-ever/?fbclid=IwAR253zrUo-MRGD7CN-JwK6WV4OHSiBTVMuspoZ1zAglt0s9BRPpdNKmOm-E

Global Shapers Homepage: https://www.globalshapers.org/

Imagine a community that is accessible, inclusive, sustainable, and gives everyone equal access opportunities based on what THEY want to achieve in life. That's the future of Smart Communities and Smart Regions that today's guest Zoe Eather has in mind.

Zoe is a Toowoomba based smart regions advocate, who prompts us to think about technology as an ENABLER (rather than the shiny end game!) and we discuss key smart city concepts like decentralisation, mobility with systems thinking.What aren't we talking enough about? What do we need to future proof our regions?

As a fellow untraditional engineer and millennial, in this episode our host Michelle brings out some tips and guidance for our young professional listeners to be change makers to build the places we live to be more accessible, liveable and sustainable for all.

Show notes:

My Smart Community: https://mysmart.community/

Zoe's Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoemayeather/

Zoe's Winston Churchill Fellowship Project Report: https://www.churchilltrust.com.au/project/?id=PR0014442