Joint session Disability Funders Network and Jobs & Skills Funders Network (May 2025)

Professor Erin Wilson – Director, Centre for Social Impact Swinburne (CSI Swinburne)

Professor Wilson is a leading researcher and thinker in the field of participatory social change. She has a track record in the areas of disability and inclusion and, prior to this, Indigenous community management and development.

Her research career has focused on research that ‘makes a difference’ through participation of those most affected and high utility of the research products.

Working collaboratively with key stakeholders, she has sought to influence policy and practice via strongly embedded projects that directly interface with stakeholder activities and offer immediate translation opportunities into policy and practice. Methods to influence change have included policy briefs, guides to practice, and short films, as well as academic publications.

Her work is underpinned by the design of inclusive and participatory research and evaluation methods that enable a full diversity of participation, including children and adults from diverse cohorts including those with diverse disabilities.

A key methodological focus has been on developing methods to value lived experience and enable self-report of a wide range of cohorts, utilising innovative methods such as image assisted data collection. Her work in this arena has included research in Australia, PNG and Vanuatu.

A major and long-standing area of work has been the development of methods of outcomes measurement, particularly relating to outcomes of consumers using diverse community services, as well as outcomes for communities in relation to community capacity building initiatives.

Erin is the lead of the acclaimed Community Services Outcomes Tree project and works with organisations in the development of outcomes measurement approaches. Professor Wilson has advised government in regard to outcomes measurement of social services (WA, Victoria and Commonwealth).

Recent research activities have focused on understanding ‘what works’ to increase employment of people with disability, with a strong focus on the design of policy, legislation and practice to support those furthest from the labour market.

Dr Jenny Crosbie – Interim Director, Centre for Inclusive Employment; Principal Industry Fellow, CSI Swinburne 

Jenny has worked to support people with disability to be included in community life for over 35 years, in a variety of research, advocacy and practice roles.

Jenny has a particular interest in understanding and addressing barriers to economic participation that young people with intellectual disability face, in particular barriers at the system level, which limit opportunities available.

Her PhD research reconceptualises thinking about economic participation for young people with intellectual disability and identifies factors that promote their inclusion in community-based economic participation roles.

Nick Taylor – Disability Portfolio Lead for a private philanthropic trust; Chairman, Board for Wheelchair Sports NSW

Nick Taylor is the Disability Portfolio Lead for a private philanthropic trust, and the Chairman of the Board for Wheelchair Sports NSW. A native of South Africa, Nick grew up in a sports obsessed family of four siblings.

In 1998, just after he finished high school, Nick was involved in a serious car accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. At the time, Nick was leading his team in the South African National Basketball Championship and despite his absence from the grand final, his team would go on to win the national title in overtime. They dedicated the win to their fallen captain, who would also be named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

Nick received a bachelor’s degree in business science in Cape Town, including spending a year on a wheelchair basketball scholarship at the University of Texas. Going from strength to strength, Nick then secured a role with a leading international management-consulting firm in Johannesburg and got back to representing South Africa, playing wheelchair basketball in both the World Championships and the Paralympics.

In 2006 Nick immigrated to Australia to build a brighter future for himself in Sydney. He became an Australian citizen and sat out of international competition in wheelchair basketball for three years so he could switch his nationality in order to represent Australia. He did so at the highest level by playing in the London Paralympics in 2012, winning a silver medal and two years later in Korea, he and his team would be crowned World Champions!

Kirsty Nowlan – Executive Director, The Achieve Foundation 

Dr Kirsty Nowlan is the Executive Director at The Achieve Foundation, leading large systems change initiatives across both international development and in Australia. She has worked across areas as diverse as ageism in Australia, child mortality and fragile and conflict-affected states. Underpinning all the roles in her career is a deep commitment to social justice. Kirsty is dedicated to making better outcomes happen for people with disability and shaping society to embrace the diversity of human experience as a strength.

Alongside her work with The Achieve Foundation, she is on the boards of The Centre for Social Purpose – a membership organisation that works to support operational excellence in for purpose organisations – and Peacifica, an Australian-based organisation that aims to promote peace through genuine partnerships with Pacific Islanders. She holds a PhD on international law and politics and her thesis explored the evolution of new forms of power through citizen activism around international trade negotiations. 

Stephen Torsi - Program Manager, Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation

Stephen Torsi is a social impact leader with over 20 years' experience across corporate, not-for-profit and government sectors in the UK and Australia. He is currently a Program Manager at Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation, Australia's largest and oldest community foundation. Stephen's 'portfolio' learning and working life includes musical theatre, hospitality, national literacy projects, strategic communications, community development, government relations and social impact.

Stephen is very good at building trusting and collaborative relationships. He is obsessed with uncovering the root causes of inequality and how complex systems thinking can illuminate the darkest corners of our shared purpose. Stephen is also Chair of youth service YouthNow and serves his community in several voluntary roles.