EEON Events and Webinars
Diversity in Leadership - Where are the Outcomes for People with Disability?
Wednesday
Featured Speaker and Interviewer:
Christina Ryan
Christina Ryan is the CEO and Founder of the Disability Leadership Institute. https://disabilityleaders.com.au/ She has been an active leader in the Australian disability community for over 20 years, working at an international, national and local level to change the diversity agenda, while mentoring and supporting numerous people with disabilities to their own leadership success. Christina pioneered the use of mainstream forums by women with disabilities at the United Nations, and now mentors and teaches effective use of the UN for rights activists globally, while working as a leadership coach for people with disabilities. After 20 years in community sector management, Christina realised that the levels of violence and marginalisation experienced by people with disabilities were the direct outcome of inequality, and that to address this we need a growth in disability leadership right across the public domain. She established the Disability Leadership Institute in 2016 as a professional hub for leaders with disabilities to build & support our disability leaders. It is the first organisation of its kind globally, and aims to grow the presence and recognition of disability leaders across all sections of our community. Christina is also a regular keynote speaker and commentator. In 2013 Christina was acknowledged as one of 100 women of the Canberra Centenary. She was a finalist in the 2014 ACT Telstra Businesswomen’s Awards, and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement in Inclusion at the 2015 ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Awards. Christina was a 2017 Westpac Social Change Fellow.
Mark Glascodine (Interviewer)
After acquiring a disability, Mark Glascodine left his corporate career and retrained as a careers counsellor focusing on people with a disability. In 2011, Mark was the recipient of the Winston Churchill Fellowship researching best practice career advisory services for university students with a disability in the UK. Since then Mark has been working in the disability employment area with Bravo Consulting https://bravocareers.com/ , working with secondary, tertiary and in the post education sector as well as involved with NDCO, NDIA and DEA with general training or advise for people working with PWD or direct advise to PWD.
Many organisations across Australia now see Diversity and Inclusion as a business imperative, contributing a productive, inclusive and happy workplaces. With almost 5 million Australians having a disability (18.3%), one would expect that we would be experiencing an unprecedented growth in the presence and recognition of disability leaders across all sections of our community and full participation and utilisation.
However, after what appears to be a concentrated and collective effort spanning 30 years to make our workplaces genuinely inclusive for people with disability, the labour force participation rate of people aged 15-64 with disability was 53.4%, compared with 83% of people without disability the unemployment rate for people with disability was 10%, higher than that for people without disability (at 5.3%) of the total labour force, 34% of people with disability are managers and professionals. People with disability still experience the highest levels of discrimination in employment.
This is a soundtrack that has been playing for 30 years.
In this presentation, Christina and Mark are keen to ramp up the conversation and examine ways to progress actions that progress beyond the quid pro quo rut that we have got stuck in over three decades. People with disability are more than ready for leadership.Christina will present on these themes and challenges and Mark will further interrogate these in interview format. This will be followed by a Q&A.
We invite you to join us for this event - all welcome!
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