Join us for Building Futures Through Gender Equity Reform, presented by UNSW Medicine & Health Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee (MHEDIC) Gender Equity Network, in partnership with UNSW Business School EDI team. This event is in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Violence against women, whether family, sexual, workplace-related, or increasingly digital, is not just a statistic. It’s a profound social and economic crisis that touches countless lives across Australia.
What kind of future are we building, across campuses, workplaces, and communities, especially in how we address gendered violence and drive equity reform?
This gathering will begin with a keynote address and panel discussion with live audience Q&A, followed by lunch and a financial literacy workshop where everyone is invited to engage in a timely and thought-provoking dialogue on gendered violence and the urgent need for systemic reform. Grounded in research, innovation, and cross-sectional collaboration, the event explores how institutions like ours can drive meaningful and lasting change through action.
We are honoured to welcome Rochelle Courtenay, Founder of Share the Dignity and 2017 Australian of the Year Finalist, as our keynote speaker. She will be joined by a panel of distinguished speakers from across UNSW, who will share their insights, research, and commitment to addressing gendered violence within their fields. See our speaker list below.
NB: You don't need to stay for the full day. There are a variety of ticket types to allow you to attend either the full day (including the keynote, panel discussion, lunch and workshop) or just the segments that best suit your schedule. Please refer to the registration page to select your preferred ticket option!
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Live hybrid event, including keynote address and panel discussion
Time: 10.30am - 12.00pm, followed by lunch
Stay for lunch after the proceedings to network with our panel and peers!
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Design your own financial future
Financial literacy workshop, in-person only
Time: 1.00pm - 3.00pm
Facilitated by Dr Natalie Oh, School of Banking and Finance, UNSW Business School
Turning conversation into action
The conversation doesn’t end at lunch. The UNSW Business School invites all attendees to stay on for a Financial Literacy Workshop, held at the same venue.
This hands-on session will look at how financial empowerment can support gender equity, giving participants practical tools and insights to help navigate financial decisions, especially during times of uncertainty or crisis.
By bridging dialogue with action, this workshop continues the momentum of Building Futures Through Gender Equity Reform, offering a tangible step toward lasting change.
As the unstoppable force behind Share the Dignity, a national charity dedicated to ending period poverty in Australia, Rochelle Courtenay has a simple yet profound vision: a world where period products are freely accessible, and dignity is never compromised by menstruation. Her journey began in 2015, after reading about women using socks and newspapers to manage their periods. Despite self-doubt and zero experience, this former personal trainer took action, believing from little things big things come.
With a reputation for fearless advocacy, Australia’s “Pad Lady” has spent the past ten years not only working to change policies and outdated ideas that don’t serve women and girls, but has created a cultural shift that shows with enough moxie and fire in your belly, you can ignite a movement and change lives on a national scale. With her eye on the next 10 years, Rochelle is ramping up Share The Dignity’s mission, evolving to tackle whole-person holistic wellbeing, addressing deeper systemic issues preventing people from living with dignity. If anyone can do it, Rochelle can.
Scott Parlett is the Director Nura Gili, Centre for Indigenous Programs. He is a proud Malyangapa and Barkindji descendent but born and raised in rural QLD (Winton). Scott has over 18 years of extensive knowledge, experience and qualifications in working in the higher education sector.
Scott has a proven track record in multi-faceted management, leading strategic and operational planning, budget and finance management, business and professional services, human resources management, facilities and information technology management, workplace health and safety, student and academic support, curriculum development, and managing learning and teaching, research, community engagement initiatives.
Previously, Scott was employed at Queensland University of Technology as School Manager and Lecturer, Indigenous Strategies in Design, School of Design. Scott specialises in teaching contemporary Indigenous perspectives in design, cultural awareness conversations bringing Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff together to learn, understand, respect, identify and address hidden barriers that impact their works in learning and teaching, research and community engagement. Scott is driven to improve working relationships with Elders, community representatives, industry partners, academics and students in learning and teaching activities, research and community engagement.
Scott has a strong passion in creating a respectful and inclusive working environment that supports multiculturalism and diversity. His vision for Nura Gili is building a culturally safe, sense of belonging and connection to community that’s beyond ‘box-ticking’ systems through recruitment, retention and success becoming future community, local, national and global leaders.
Jan Breckenridge is a Professor and Head of the School of Social Sciences and the Co-Convener of the UNSW Gendered Violence Research Network, UNSW. She is also a Research Fellow of the UNSW Australian Human Rights Institute (AHRI). Jan has undertaken extensive work and research in the areas of gendered violence. Select research areas include domestic, family, and sexual violence and workplace responses; economic and financial abuse; homelessness and the potential of safe-at-home programs for women and children affected by domestic and family violence. Jan’s research is oriented towards maximum impact in innovative social policy development, service provision, and outcome measurement of effectiveness.
Jan leads the evidence-informed knowledge-exchange stream ‘Gendered Violence and Organisations’, which provides expert advice to government, private, and third sector organisations on best practice policies and organisational response to employees and the management of customers affected by domestic and family violence, sexual assaul,t and sexual harassment.
Ann Kayis-Kumar is the Founding Director of UNSW Tax and Business Advisory Clinic, which bridges the gap between grassroots community support and empirical research by supporting people in serious hardship and in turn aggregating client data to identify systemic issues. Associate Professor Ann Kayis-Kumar's research conceptualises tax as a mechanism to achieve social justice across the taxpaying spectrum; ranging from improving the integrity of taxing multinationals to improving the wellbeing of financially vulnerable individuals and small businesses.
Ann has presented her research team's findings at multiple Parliamentary hearings, and is also regularly involved in the media, with appearances on ABC's The Business, ABC Radio National and Channel 10's The Project. Notably, Ann's research and law reform proposals have been adopted by national reviews including the Report of the Rapid Review of Prevention Approaches to End Gender-Based Violence and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services's Financial Abuse Inquiry. Ann also regularly presents her research at national and international conferences, including at Oxford University and the University of Cambridge.
Ann serves on a range of industry, government agency and community sector committees including the ATO's Small Business and National Tax Clinic Stewardship Groups, the Australian Financial Security Authority’s Consumer Consultative Panel, the Law Council of Australia's Taxation Committee, the Tax Institute’s NSW Technical and SME & Tax Practitioner Committees, and the Economic Abuse Reference Group's (EARG) Business and Tax Working Group.
Renee is the Clinical Lead for Psychology and Wellness at UNSW, where she oversees residential wellbeing support, a team of counsellors, and the Gendered Violence Response Team. In this role, she provides psychological care, case management, and advocacy for victim-survivors of gendered violence.
With a deep sense of vocation, Renee views her work as a privilege, walking alongside individuals on their healing journeys. She has worked across several NGOs in the gendered violence and mental health space and currently provides support through The Survivor Hub. Her previous experience includes work in remote Indigenous Australian communities and South India, focusing on women’s empowerment, trans rights, drug and alcohol support, wellbeing, and gendered violence.
Renee also contributes to the sector through her role on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association.
Dr Natalie Oh is a finance academic at the UNSW School of Banking and Finance, with a strong focus on education and social impact. Natalie's background includes working at the World Bank in Washington D.C., leading a non-profit organisation dedicated to poverty alleviation, and teaching in both developed and developing countries.
Driven by a belief in ‘education for all,’ her work focuses on developing inclusive financial education programs that address challenges such as the gender gap and empower diverse and often marginalised groups, advancing the goal of ‘finance for all.’
Natalie's research has been published in leading international finance journals, and she has a strong track record of translating academic insights into practical financial education. Natalie's contributions have been recognised through the award of Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA)
