Robert Tickner AO, Chair Robert is Australia’s longest-serving Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, former CEO of Australian Red and former Councillor on Sydney City Council including a brief period as Acting Lord Mayor. Robert was Acting Under Secretary General of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Federation on two occasions. He is the author of two books, one of which was the story of his reunion with his birth family as an adopted person. |
Jane Caro AM Jane is a Walkley winning columnist, author, novelist & social commentator. She appears regularly on Today Extra, and ABC radio Western Plains. She writes a regular column for Sunday Life and her work often appears in The Saturday Paper. She has written 13 books. Her latest novel, The Mother, is a bestseller. She’s writing another (best seller, she hopes). |
Emma Dawson Emma is Executive Director of public policy think tank Per Capita. She has worked as a researcher at Monash University and the University of Melbourne; in policy and public affairs for SBS and Telstra; and as a senior policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Governments. Emma has published reports and articles on a wide range of public policy issues. She is a regular contributor to The Age and SMH and Guardian Australia, is a frequent guest on various ABC radio programs nationally, and was an occasional panelist on The Drum on ABC TV. She appears regularly as an expert witness before parliamentary inquiries and often speaks at public events and conferences in Australia and internationally. Emma is the co-editor, with Professor Janet McCalman, of the collection of essays What happens next? Reconstructing Australia after COVID-19, published by Melbourne University Press in September 2020, and author of several papers and book chapters on social policy in Australia. She is a Fellow of the Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the UTS Business School. |
Kaye Fallick With 20+ years’ experience publishing for baby boomers, Kaye is the founder of STAYINGconnected website and publisher, SuperConnected ageing demographics newsletter. She is also a freelance writer on topics relevant to lifestage changes including planning retirement, downsizing/rightsizing, aged care, government policy, superannuation and Age Pension entitlement. Owner and content director for digital retirement income tools, PensionChecker and RetirePlanner Founder & Publisher of YourLifeChoices website, Australia’s largest and longest established destination for Baby Boomers interested in finance, health, travel and retirement income. Author of two best-selling books, Get a New Life and What Next both non-fiction guides to negotiating life stage change, published by Allen & Unwin Commentator: B2B specialist in marketing and communication for brands seeking to engage with baby boomer customers, speaker on related matters on ABC Radio, Southern Cross, A Current Affair, and at various industry conferences including Mumbrella trade events. Not for Profit: Director, EveryAGE Counts, Director, International Federation on Ageing (2007-2014), Member Australian Society of Travel Writers (20 years). |
Dr Marlene Krasovitsky, Secretary Marlene is a passionate advocate and campaigner against ageism and building intergenerational solidarity. Marlene is currently a consultant to the World Health Organisation's Global Campaign to Combat Ageism. Prior to joining the WHO, Marlene was the Director and Co-Chair of EveryAGE Counts, Australia's coalition-led campaign against ageism. Previously, Marlene was the Director of Willing to Work, the National Inquiry into Employment Discrimination Against Older Australians and Australians with Disability with the Australian Human Rights Commission. |
Susan McGrath Susan McGrath has devoted the past decade in her work to pursuing a fervent commitment to the rights and increased wellbeing of older people. As an analyst, advisor and advocate in policy roles at COTA Australia, the EveryAGE Counts campaign to end ageism and National Seniors Australia she has contributed to many government policy decisions and processes affecting older people. She has represented the interests of current and future older people on a number of high-level government, not-for-profit, academic and private sector bodies and has been a non-executive Board member for the Australian Association of Gerontology. Over her career Sue has held a range of senior professional roles in government and community sectors, and for many years was a senior consultant to both. Her early work focus was employment and industrial relations, as an appointed and elected trade union official, government policy advisor and teacher in tertiary education. She went on to consult in policy areas such as health, housing and communications, and to provide business services in evaluation, management, strategy planning and learning and development to government and not-for-profit agencies. Across her working life Sue has maintained strong conviction and action towards achieving fairness, equity and rights as the foundation of social and economic policy. |
Hon Dr Kay Patterson AO Like many girls in the 1960’s Kay left school at 15 after completing the Intermediate Certificate, attended Secretarial College for a year and went on to manage a small secretarial business. At 21 she returned to school, matriculated and went to the University of Sydney and gained a BA(Hons) . She then went to Monash University where she obtained a PhD and a Dip Ed. She then taught allied health science students for 11 years and studied gerontology at two universities in the U.S. Using the knowledge gained during those visits she co-developed the first post-graduate diploma in gerontology in Victoria and introduced gerontology into her undergraduate behavioral sciences courses. In 1987 she stood for election to the Senate in the Federal Parliament and was elected as a Senator in July of that year. In 1998 after serving on a number of Senate committees and holding various shadow portfolios she was appointed a Parliament Secretary before being appointed to Cabinet in 2001 serving in the Health and Social Security portfolios. During her time in the Senate one of her major areas of interest involved issues affecting older Australians. She retired from Cabinet in 2006 and from the Senate in 2008. In 2016 she was appointed as the Age Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission and served in that role until July 2023. During her seven-year term she focused on the effects of ageism and in particular its impact on the rights of older workers, women at risk of homelessness and elder abuse. Dr Patterson has served on a number of not-for-profit boards - e.g. Girl Guides of Victoria, Interplast Australia New Zealand, Advisory Board to the Australian Institute of Regenerative Medicine and was a Member of Monash University Council for 20 years. Currently she is Patron of the Australian Institute for Intergenerational Practice and is a member of Elder Abuse Action Australia, is a member of the Australian Post Office Advisory Council and served for two years on the first iteration of the Council of Elders. She was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2016 and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Monash University in 2019. |
Dr Mike Rungie Mike works with individuals, organisations and networks to develop scalable strategies that have citizenship and productivity for older people at the centre of their impact. He engages as a coach, friend, enabler, strategist, author and presenter. Or whatever you want. His points of difference are his obsession with impact, being seriously non-conflicted, and only available pro-bono. He is a director of Pure Land Home Hospice and EveryAGE Counts. And a member of the Uniting Communities Felixstow advisory committee and COTA SA policy council. Mike has a unique experience built from past memberships of the Aged Care Financing Authority, the SAHMRI Wellbeing and Resilience advisory board, the SA Economic Development Board, and as a director of Central Northern Adelaide Health Services board and the Global Centre for Modern Ageing. He was CEO of ACHGroup, a South Australian and Victoria NFP aged care provider. And was part of the ACHGroup team that drove national policy and service innovation focused on older people flowing into good lives, as they became frail. |