Creating safety, equality, inclusion and respect for women with disabilities in the workplace

Dr Emma Partridge is Special Advisor, Primary Prevention at Our Watch, Australia’s national organisation working to prevent violence against women. She provides high level content expertise, advice, and leadership on prevention across the work of Our Watch and to governments and other key stakeholders.

Over the past 11 years, Emma has made a significant contribution to the evidence base for primary prevention. She led the development of the world’s first national framework focused on preventing violence against women, Change the story (2015) and its second edition (2021), as well as Changing the picture (2018) a national resource to prevent violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. She also managed the development of other Our Watch publications including Changing the landscape (2022), a national resource to prevent violence against women and girls with disabilities, Men in focus, and Tracking progress in prevention. During this time, she has provided extensive policy analysis and advice on prevention to all Australian governments and presented widely at Australian and international forums.

Dr. Trishima Mitra‑Kahn, Chief Executive Officer of Women with Disabilities Victoria, is a nationally recognised leader in gender and disability advocacy, bringing a strong intersectional feminist lens to her work across Australia’s family violence and community health sectors.

Prior to her role at WDV, she was a Director at Safe Steps, Victoria’s 24/7 family violence response service as well as a specialist family violence service provider for People with Disabilities. She was previously Director of Research and Planning at Family Safety Victoria where she delivered significant Royal Commission initiatives and co-led Victoria’s input into the National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032. She has also held high-level executive roles in the family violence sector, including CEO of the Luke Batty Foundation and Deputy CEO of Domestic Violence NSW. Dr. Mitra-Kahn started her executive career as Director-Research at ANROWS, Australia’s national research organisation guiding policy and practice to reduce violence against women and children.

Zoe Simmons is an award-winning journalist, speaker, author and fierce disability advocate who uses the raw power of storytelling and lived experience to smash stigma and create change. She's been published hundreds of times around the globe, and candidly shares her experience as a chronically ill, multiply disabled, autistic LGBTQIA+ person. 
 
Passionate about accessibility, lived experience and genuine diversity and inclusion, Zoe also works as an advisor for a number of health, disability, research and media organisations, including having made history as the first disabled person on the ABC's Youth Advisory Committee.  Currently, she's working with Women With Disabilities Victoria on projects to improve experiences for LGBTQIA+ people with disabilities as a lived experience advisor, working in communications for Disability Rights and Culture, and a casual academic with La Trobe University for a project on improving sexual safety for neurodivergent LGBTQIA+ people. She's also an ambassador with the Australian Human Rights Commission's Equality At Work project.