Dr. Dinesh Palipana OAM

Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM is a doctor, lawyer, disability advocate, and researcher. Dinesh was the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland and the second person to graduate medical school with quadriplegia in Australia. 

Halfway through medical school, he was involved in a motor vehicle accident that caused a cervical spinal cord injury. As a result of his injury and experiences, Dinesh has been an advocate for inclusion. 

Dinesh works in the emergency department at the Gold Coast University Hospital and is a founding member of Doctors with Disabilities Australia. He is a senior lecturer at the Griffith University and an ambassador to the Human Rights Commission’s Includability program. 

Dr Dinesh Palipana OAM was the 2021 Queensland Australian of the Year and the author of Stronger, how losing everything set me free, published in 2022. 

Don Elgin

Don Elgin is a Paralympian who is well known and much loved for his larrikin, down-to-earth nature and highly respected for his many achievements on and off the field.

He represented Australia in the athletics at four World Championships, three Paralympic Games, two World Cups and a Commonwealth Games. A country boy from Victoria, Don was born without the lower half of his left leg but this didn’t stop him from developing a passion for sport.

 He first represented his country at the age of 18 then spent twenty years as an elite athlete, coming out of retirement to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and making the final in the Discus. These days Don travels the world as a sought-after motivational and after-dinner speaker whose positive approach to life appeals to all audiences and ages.

Don takes his audiences behind the scenes of his extraordinary journey from little bush battler to world-beater and shares his real-life practical strategies to get the most from every day.

Seamus Evans

Seamus Evans is a TV host, Radio personality, Stand up comedian, public speaker and Ambassador for Tourette Syndrome Association Australia. Seamus was faced with adversity when he was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, Depression, anxiety at a young age which led to failing school.  He overcome these things to have an amazing career in television, radio and stand up.

Seamus made a conscious decision to break the stigma through revealing his battles in the hope that others will follow. Using powerful storytelling, humour and vulnerability, he will help relinquish ‘imposter syndrome’ from your working life and propel your career.

Seamus will open the conference leaving you motivated and empowered by is energetic and hilarious keynote.