Speakers

Keynote Speaker:
Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM

Dinesh is a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, and researcher. He works in the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital and is a researcher in spinal cord injury.

In 2021, Dinesh was the Queensland Australian of the Year. In 2022, he was listed as number 33 in the Courier Mail’s top 100 power list for Queensland’s most influential in health and wellbeing.

Cam Raw

Cam is a Palawa man with family links to the far south of lutruwita (Tasmania). Providing veterinary care and building relationships in remote communities across the Top End have provided pathways to explore his cultural identity in ways he never imagined growing up. He never expected to be where he is now in his career, having worked in cattle practice, mixed practice, remote small animal practice and now teaching and research, but he loves the diversity of experiences and people that he’s encountered along the way. Indigenous representation, mental wellbeing and diversity as a whole have become a real focus in his life in and outside of work hours, but besides this he loves cooking, creating and viewing art, ice cream, weird sour beer and spending time with his partner.

Jodie Wilson

What do you get when you combine ASD, ADHD, acquired physical disability, an award-winning veterinary career, a Master’s degree in Positive Psychology, insatiable curiosity, and a complete disregard for contextual knowledge boundaries? You get dedicated disruptive influence, author, speaker, and La Trobe University Autism Researcher, Dr Jodie Wilson. Jodie describes herself as a talented overthinker who can talk underwater. She’s a fan of explicit communication, and thinks unexamined social rules are stupid.