Danni Alty – Speaker
Danni Alty leads the Volunteer Programs at Taronga Conservation Society Australia.
She and her team strengthen volunteer engagement and support meaningful community participation by connecting volunteers with Taronga’s vision of securing a shared future for wildlife and people.
She aligns volunteer involvement with organisational needs through well designed roles and effective partnerships across the organisation, while fostering volunteer ambassadorship grounded in value and respect.
Danni is active in sector networks and values shared learning, embedding inclusive practice and continuous improvement to enhance volunteer experiences and organisational outcomes.
David Brett – Speaker
David Brett, Policy and Research Lead at Council of the Ageing NSW is an experienced policy professional who has worked at senior levels in both State and Commonwealth Governments.
David is committed to producing evidence-based policy that improves the lives of older people in NSW.
He has a particular focus on advocating for the most vulnerable members of society by undertaking research and developing policy positions that remove barriers for participation in community life.
Shaun Christie-David – Keynote Speaker
As the Founder & CEO of Plate It Forward, Shaun Christie-David has built a hospitality group that fosters economic and social inclusion for marginalised communities through comprehensive training, employment opportunities, and career development. He owns four vibrant restaurants—Colombo Social, Kyiv Social, Kabul Social, and Kolkata Social—where he employs refugees, immigrants, and underrepresented individuals, totalling over 250 staff, with 80% being migrant women.
During COVID, Shaun launched a meal donation program that now feeds over 3,000 people weekly, donating 650,000 meals to combat food insecurity across Sydney and the globe, to date.
His focus on employment training has empowered his team, generating $5.6 million in wages that have been redirected from social benefits, and breaking cycles of disadvantage.
He shows how one meal or one job can transform lives, proving that impact starts with an open heart.
Sean Haynes – Speaker
Sean Haynes is a respected community leader and resident of Eugowra in Central West New South Wales, recognised for his service, leadership and commitment to regional development. He has played a pivotal role in strengthening community resilience and advancing local initiatives. Sean holds several key community leadership roles, including President of the Eugowra Promotion and Progress Association (EPPA) and President of the Eugowra Show Society, where he has supported the growth of major events and community facilities. In 2025, he was appointed Independent Director of the RAS Foundation, extending his contribution to rural development and supporting the organisation’s strategic direction and governance.
Sean is widely recognised for his leadership following the 14 November 2022 Eugowra flash flood, one of the town’s most significant disasters. As Chair of the Eugowra Flood Recovery Committee, he led community-driven recovery efforts while working closely with local, state and federal government agencies, alongside non-government organisations, to secure support and funding for rebuilding. He also served as a vital link between the community and decision-makers, ensuring local priorities were reflected in recovery planning and resource allocation. His leadership during this period was widely regarded as decisive, compassionate and instrumental in sustaining recovery momentum.
Sean is Head of Environment and Quality at Australian Fresh Milk Holdings, where he brings extensive expertise in operational leadership, risk management and compliance.
Stacy Jacobs – Speaker
With more than 35 years of hands-on community service, Stacy Jacobs has dedicated her life to strengthening young people and communities through volunteering, sport, and service leadership.
Beginning at just 10 years old with Salvation Army and Red Cross appeals, her lifelong commitment has grown into influential leadership across Rotary, PCYC, and youth engagement initiatives such as Cessnock Driving Success, Awesome Foundation and Cessnock Business Chamber.
Stacy is President of PCYC Cessnock and a member of Rotary East Maitland, where she serves in district roles including Interact Coordinator and on committees focused on youth, conflict resolution, and inclusion. As Interact Coordinator at Cessnock High School, she empowers students to lead service projects and connect with their communities.
A passionate advocate for the power of sport to build belonging and resilience, Stacy has engaged in community sport for over three decades. In her professional role as Student Support Officer at Cessnock High School, she brings together schools, families, and services to support young people to thrive.
Stacy’s work shows how sustained volunteering—across generations and settings—creates connected, capable communities.
Steve Lancken and Lynette Edwards – Speakers
Steve Lancken is an internationally regarded mediator, trainer, coach, and commentator about dispute resolution. He is a Director of Voluntas and has taught negotiation and mediation at several universities including the UNSW, AGSM, UTS and Sydney University. Steve is an active volunteer in the social justice space.
Steve’s dispute resolution work commenced in 1981 in a litigation practice that included Commercial Litigation, Aviation, Insurance, Professional Indemnity, Industrial Relations, Workplace and Employment Law, including discrimination, harassment, workplace behaviour and Workers’ Compensation. He started mediating in 1990 and his mediation practice became full time in 1999. Notable areas of mediation speciality include major property and lease disputes, sports law, insolvency, telecommunications, native title, construction, insurance, and personal injury litigation.
Lynette Edwards is a Mediator and Conflict Management professional. She runs her own business, ResolutionWise and conciliates at the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. She is also a Director of Voluntas and supports law students learning to mediate. Lynette has mediated and conciliated over 2000 matters and specialises in the management of interpersonal conflict and workplace disharmony. She also mediates and conciliates in areas of commercial, retail and residential tenancy leases; home building and consumer and commercial matters. She facilitates community and public consultation and offers clients the benefit of over 25 years of diverse experience in government, private and not-for-profit sectors. She is a mediator for the Small Business Commission and the Department of Education.
Lynette’s working career spans the health sector; IT sector with IBM; construction sector as a business and stakeholder engagement manager; and over 15-years in government managing wide ranging public consultation processes. She has over 15 years of volunteering experience, including Wesley Mission – Lifeline, Barnardos Australia, Shine for Kids, Mission Australia (now Sydney City Mission) and judging mediation competitions locally and internationally.
Melanie Liddell– Speaker
Mel is the Social Impact Manager at Volunteering WA, with more than ten years’ experience measuring impact across the not-for-profit and public sectors. She specialises in helping volunteer-involving organisations embed practical, meaningful evaluation approaches that strengthen learning and decision-making. Mel is particularly passionate about data humanism – ensuring people and their stories remain at the heart of the data that organisations collect and use.
Volunteer-involving organisations are increasingly expected to show the real difference their work makes, yet many need evaluation approaches that are practical and manageable. Drawing on a two-year co-design process with organisations across the sector, this session shares what builds confidence in measuring change, where common challenges arise, and how simple tools can support clearer thinking about outcomes.
Participants will leave with an understanding of practical ideas to move beyond counting activities and strengthen impact measurement in their own context.
Andrew McCullough – Speaker
Andrew is the Deputy Chief of Staff at the NSW SES, and during his 16 years with the agency as both a staff member and a volunteer, he has been on the ground supporting the response to floods, cyclones and bushfires.
Andrew has witnessed how communities are increasingly mobilising to support each other in times of crisis. In late 2024, Andrew travelled around the world as part of a Churchill Fellowship to research how communities mobilise as informal volunteers in response to disasters.
This work led him to visit disaster affected areas in Japan, the United States, Türkiye, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Sweden, Norway and Chile. Andrew has also worked for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and recently led the Review of Emergency Volunteering at the NSW Premier’s Department.
Paul Muller – Speaker
Paul Muller is the principal of QQ Research and author of the State of Volunteering Report series, first issued in 2014. With over 50 reports published in Australia and New Zealand, his work focuses on the economic and social value of public goods, including volunteering, sport and the creative industries.
Paul has worked collaboratively with academics, industry and government to pioneer innovative approaches to measuring value and regularly shares his insights as a keynote speaker. He is particularly interested in challenging institutional assumptions and improving executive decision-making, and is passionate about mentoring the next generation of creative and critical thinkers.
Conference Presentation: The volunteering sector’s role in a disrupted world
The buzz around AI is what it can do for me, but the more important question is – what it means for all of us.
If AI is rapidly transforming and disrupting society, what does that mean for volunteering, a sector fundamentally important to how we live, work and play?
As the world of work shifts beneath our feet, the ripple effects won’t stop at the office door.
Drawing on national and state volunteering research, Paul weaves together the conference’s three themes to explore what’s coming and why volunteering has a vital (and, as usual, overlooked) role to play in the AI revolution:
- innovation and adaptability in how we respond
- empowerment and capacity building in what we offer, and
- inclusive leadership to ensure no community is left behind.
The organisations already expert in giving people purpose may, in fact, be more essential than ever.
Daniel Murray – Keynote Speaker
Across our workplaces, communities and volunteer organisations, leaders are facing greater complexity, higher expectations and increasingly interrelated challenges. In this powerful keynote, Daniel Murray explores how transformational leaders go beyond the everyday management realm to lift capability, foster innovation and build inclusive environments where people feel empowered and committed to contribute their best.
Daniel unpacks the core pillars of community-focused leadership:
• Empowerment & Capacity Building – enabling people to grow their capability, confidence and ownership.
• Innovation & Adaptability – helping teams navigate uncertainty with creativity, curiosity and resilience.
• Inclusive Leadership for Diverse Communities – building cultures where every voice is heard, valued and fuels collective success.
With compelling real-world examples and practical frameworks, Daniel challenges leaders to rethink how they mobilise their people, strengthen community bonds and create environments where purpose and performance thrive. You’ll walk away inspired and equipped to lead in ways that transform not just your organisation, but the communities you serve.
Eamon Nicholas – Speaker
Eamon Nicholas brings an academic background in Advanced Science (UNSW) and a dedicated focus on public policy to the volunteering sector.
Having held multiple executive leadership roles in volunteer organisations, he has managed complex volunteer operations and large-scale conferences, developing sophisticated strategies for organisational engagement.
Eamon is a passionate advocate for modernising volunteer management, offering a fresh, holistic perspective on how organisations can better secure and support diverse talent.
Driven by an enthusiasm for social equity, he bridges the gap between high-level policy and real-world volunteer advocacy to create inclusive opportunities for the next generation.
Tom Saetereie – Speaker
Tom is a senior social worker with more than two decades’ experience supporting vulnerable populations in public and community health and NGO settings. After volunteering with Ankali for eight years, he joined the team as a social worker and has now spent a further ten years in the role—totalling 18 years of service and commitment to the organisation.
Jo Scard – Speaker
Jo Scard is the Founder and CEO of Fifty Acres, Australia’s leading communications, advocacy and government-engagement agency working with not-for-profits, social enterprises and purpose-driven organisations across Australia and internationally. She has more than 20 years’ experience spanning government, policy, communications and social-impact strategy, including senior advisory roles in federal government.
Jo has an innate ability to translate lived experience, service delivery and evidence into compelling policy narratives that drive reform. Her professional work has consistently focused on advancing gender equality, women’s safety and women’s health. Through Fifty Acres, Jo has advised and supported a range of women-focused initiatives and organisations, including Women Deliver, a global organisation advancing gender equality and sexual and reproductive health and rights; the Australian Childhood Protection Conference, which convenes leaders working to prevent and respond to child abuse; Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, Australia’s leading women’s reproductive health charity; and the Centre for Non-Violence, a Victorian organisation focused on preventing family violence through primary prevention and systems change.
A trained lawyer and former journalist in both the UK and Australia, Jo has worked with ITV, the Associated Press, Seven Network, SBS, ABC and Fairfax. She has also served as a senior adviser in the Rudd and Gillard governments, as well as the British Labour Party.
Tanya Southworth – Speaker
Tanya Southworth is a Project & Policy Officer and Coordinator of the STARS Volunteer Program, supporting older people experiencing prolonged hospital stays while awaiting access to appropriate aged care services.
She brings extensive experience in workforce development and service design across the retail, telecommunications, local government, aged care, and tertiary education sectors.
Tanya holds a degree in Adult Education and Human Resources Management from the University of Technology Sydney and a Master’s in Strategic Organisational Development from the University of New England.
She is a committed advocate for the role of volunteers in strengthening communities and enhancing services, and an active contributor to community life through ongoing volunteer and governance roles.
Niv Srivastava – Speaker
Niv Srivastava is a seasoned Community Development Leader, Capacity Building Specialist, and long‑standing advocate for inclusive volunteerism. With more than two decades of experience across aged care, multicultural services, disability inclusion, and community capacity building, Niv is recognised for designing and leading programs that empower individuals, strengthen communities, and foster meaningful social connection.
Since 2015, Niv has served as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Aged Care Volunteer Visitor Scheme at Catholic Healthcare, where she leads engagement for up to 100 volunteers at a time. Her work has focused on creating volunteer experiences that prioritise belonging, sustainability, and person‑centred impact. She has developed partnerships with universities, aged-care providers, and local organisations, championed research initiatives that enhance sector understanding, and implemented systems that support volunteers throughout their entire lifecycle—from recruitment and training to recognition and retention.
Niv’s commitment to inclusion has shaped her broader career, spanning leadership roles within the Australian Red Cross, Auburn Diversity Services, MigrantLink Australia, and multiple local government and community organisations.
Kerry Staker – Speaker
Kerry is a Community Education Officer and YATZ Coordinator at Taronga Conservation Society Australia.
She is a passionate advocate for citizen science and conservation awareness.
In addition to delivering school-based education programs, Kerry oversees a range of community group initiatives and manages the YATZ (Youth at the Zoo) Volunteer Program, fostering community and cultural connection through animal education.
Nathan Turner – Speaker
Nathan wears many hats at Taronga Conservation Society Australia, where he works as Project Coordinator, YATZ Alumni (Guest Experience Officer), Guest Experience Coordinator and Trainee Zookeeper.
Across zoo and veterinary settings, working with both people and animals, Nathan takes pride in connecting his passions for animal husbandry, education, leadership and research.
NSW SES Commissioner Mike Wassing – Speaker
Mike Wassing (AFSM) is a highly experienced and decorated fire and emergency management leader with a commendable career spanning over three decades. He has held various senior executive roles within the State governments of Queensland and Victoria, demonstrating exceptional leadership and management skills across a broad range of responsibilities.
Starting his journey in 1990, Mike began as a career firefighter with the Country Fire Authority (CFA) after serving as a volunteer firefighter. This early period of his career saw him engaged in frontline roles, community engagement, risk management, and project leadership. Mike’s dedication to service became evident through his efforts in enhancing community safety and implementing key emergency management initiatives.
Mike’s demonstrated commitment led him further into pivotal roles such as the Assistant Emergency Services Commissioner and A/Deputy Emergency Services Commissioner for Victoria. He played a critical role during the Black Saturday fire events, where he directed significant disaster management reviews and contributed substantially to emergency management changes in Victoria. His expertise was sought in Queensland as well, where he acted as the Director General/Commissioner for the Queensland Fire and Emergency Services
(QFES) during times of organisational crisis, such as the 2019 Black Summer bushfires.
Mike has served as the Chief Officer for both the Rural Fire Service and the State Emergency Service in Queensland, as well as the Fire Rescue Service. He also served as the Deputy Commissioner and Deputy State Recovery Coordinator for the Queensland Reconstruction Authority, fortifying his legacy as a leader dedicated to fostering capabilities, driving innovation, and solidifying collaborative service delivery outcomes. Mike commenced as NSW SES Commissioner in December 2024 and since this time has initiated a collaborative engagement for an NSW SES Future Ready Strategy and led the State’s operations for Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred where more than 7,700 incidents were recorded. In November 2025, Mike was appointed as a Director of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Board (AFAC).
Darren Wensor – Speaker
Darren Wensor is a Little Athletics NSW Regional Development Officer with more than 30 years of experience supporting community sport volunteers across NSW. Passionate about making volunteering easier and more rewarding, he designs practical, engaging learning experiences that value volunteer knowledge and use innovation to build sustainable, connected volunteer communities.