Indigenous cultural leader

Panel Discussion:
Ethical Leadership: complex dilemmas, practical solutions (November 28, 2.45pm)

Deborah Cheetham, Yorta Yorta woman, Soprano, composer and author; Founder Short Black Opera Company; Associate Dean of Indigenous Studies and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts at the Faculty of the VCA and MCM, University of Melbourne.

Deborah Cheetham, Yorta Yorta woman, Soprano, composer and author has established her place as an artist in great demand. Since her international debut in 1997, Deborah has performed in the theatre and concert halls of the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and throughout Australia.

In April 2007, Deborah was awarded a two-year Fellowship from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. This fellowship allowed her to create Australia’s first Indigenous opera, Pecan Summer. In 2010, Deborah brought together Australia’s first classically trained Indigenous ensemble to present the world premiere of Pecan Summer.

In the same year she was a finalist for Australian of the Year in Victoria.

The success of Pecan Summer has led to the creation of Short Black Opera Company, a national not-for-profit Opera Company devoted to the development of Indigenous opera singers. In 2011, Short Black Opera presented a season of Pecan Summer at the Arts Centre, Melbourne and in 2012 the company toured to Perth to present a season at the State Theatre Centre of WA.

In September 2011, Deborah was appointed as Associate Dean of Indigenous Studies and Head of the Wilin Centre for Indigenous Arts at the Faculty of the VCA and MCM, University of Melbourne.

Twitter: @deborahcheetham

Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Panel Discussion:
Ethical Leadership: complex dilemmas, practical solutions (November 28, 2.45pm)

Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner; Member of the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, Member of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Advisory Board, The Vic Health Advisory Board and Supply Nation.

Elizabeth Broderick was appointed for a five year term as Sex Discrimination Commissioner in September 2007. This term has been extended for a further 2 years to September 2014.  She was also the Commissioner responsible for Age Discrimination from September 2007 until July 2011.

During her term, she has been committed to improving gender equality through her advocacy in preventing violence against women and sexual harassment, improving lifetime economic security for women, balancing paid work and unpaid caring responsibilities, promoting women’s representation in leadership and strengthening gender equality laws, monitoring and agencies.

Elizabeth has been a key advocate for Australia’s national paid parental leave scheme, and domestic violence reform.

She has championed the changes to the ASX Corporate Governance Principles to increase the number of women at decision making level.  She has worked with the Australian Government to strengthen gender equality laws and agencies.

Elizabeth represents Australia in the United Nations every year and has facilitated the attendance of marginalized Australian women as key advocates to address issues such as alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

In April 2011, the Government appointed Elizabeth, as Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner, to lead the Commission’s Review into the Treatment of Women in the Australian Defence Force Academy and the Australian Defence Force. She tabled her report in the Parliament in August 2012.

Elizabeth is a member of the World Bank’s Advisory Council on Gender and Development, a member of the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Advisory Board, the Vic Health Advisory Board and Supply Nation.

Twitter: @LizBroderick

Global Strategy and Development Manager, Barefoot College

Deep Conversation:
‘Education: Learning to embrace the future’ (November 27, 12.00-2.00pm)

Meagan Fallone manages Global Strategy and Development for the Barefoot College. Responsible for overseeing the Women’s Barefoot Solar Engineering program, she has been both a donor and a field presence in more than 20 countries since joining Barefoot College in 2011.

Working directly alongside Founder, Bunker Roy, to manage an aggressive scale-up of the Barefoot Approach, Internationally. Specifically to implement the “barefoot  model” of community owned and managed, sustainable, grass roots development;  in all the 43 Least developed countries (LDCs) by 2015.

Barefoot College is the only fully solar electrified college built by the rural poor and managed by the rural poor. For 40 years the College has demonstrated the power and impact of demystifying and introducing modern technologies into rural settings focusing on meeting basic minimum needs; The provision of drinking water (rainwater harvesting), basic lighting (solar electrification), livelihood development (handicrafts, health communications) and Education (Rural Solar Night Schools).

A strong commitment to developing women as agents of sustainable change and helping communities to develop their own capacity to meet the challenges within the developing world, is at the heart of every Barefoot Solution.

A strong belief in transforming beliefs into action, she is an entrepreneur who has created or restructured a series of companies since 2005 in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Championing women in the developing world, she speaks regularly on the power of women as agents of sustainable change and poverty reduction. Her company MFC Art Consulting Ltd in 2006 launched her deep commitment to the social sector by mentoring women artisans to gain unprecedented livelihood access in the luxury hotel sector. Born in New Zealand, educated in the US and the United Kingdom, Meagan is a mother of 3 and a passionate mountaineer; she lives between Switzerland, Africa and India.

Ethicist, Theologian, Master Ormond College, University of Melbourne

Deep Conversation:
‘Education: Learning to Embrace the Future’ (November 27, 12.00-2.00pm)

Panel Discussion:
Ethical Leadership: complex dilemmas, practical solutions (November 28, 2.45pm)

Master of Ormond College and a Principal Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne; Ethicist, strategic advisor and theologian; Expert on ethical, public policy and education issues.

Rufus Black is the Master of Ormond College and a Principal Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne. He is an ethicist, strategic advisor and theologian and writes and works on ethical, public policy and education issues.

His work on ethics includes teaching for the Centre for Ethical Leadership and chairing the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Human Research Ethics Committee.

His recent public policy work has included leading the Accountability and Governance Review of Department of Defense (The Black Review) in 2010 and the Prime Minister’s Independent Review of the Australian Intelligence Community in 2011.

He is currently the strategic advisor to the Secretary for Education in Victoria. He is a director of the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA).

His education works includes chairing the Board of Teach for Australia and sitting on the Board of the New York based Teach for All.

He is a Director of the law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth.

Before becoming Master of Ormond, Rufus worked at McKinsey & Company for 9 years where he was a partner. He holds degrees in law and politics from the University of Melbourne and degrees in moral theology from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.