Keynote Speakers

Mr Michael Furdyk

Co-founder and Director, Technology for TakingITGlobal.org

Michael Furdyk is the Co-founder and Director of Technology for TakingITGlobal.org, a global online community for young people, engaging hundreds of thousands of youth in over 200 countries and territories. Along with managing the technology team at TakingITGlobal, Michael is involved with the TIGed education program, and has spoken to over 50,000 educators about the importance of engaging students and integrating technology and global perspectives into the classroom.

In the past, he has turned his interest in technology into a series of successful online companies, co-founding MyDesktop.com (later sold to Internet.com) and BuyBuddy.com (which raised $4.5-million of venture capital). Over the last few years, Michael has consulted for many Fortune 500 companies, including a 6-month engagement developing youth strategy with Microsoft in Seattle, Washington.

As one of Teen People's "20 teens that will change the world", Michael has shared his opinions about Youth Engagement and experiences as a member of the Net Generation by speaking at dozens of events, including the World Congress on IT, the US Government's National Youth Summit, Microsoft's Anytime, Anywhere Learning Summits, The Business Council, and TED. He has made numerous media appearances including The Oprah Winfrey Show, Time Magazine, Fast Company, BusinessWeek, CNN, MSNBC, and USA Today. He is a board member and advisor to numerous groups including Microsoft, Pollution Probe, the Anytime, Anywhere Learning Foundation, and several other national and global organizations.

Dr Michael Rich

Director, Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH), Director, Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA)

Michael Rich, MD, MPH is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Assistant Professor in Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of Public Health, and practices adolescent medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston. He is founder and Director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, which is committed to pursuing research, developing interventions on negative health effects of media, and creating health-positive media. Dr. Rich was honored by the Society for Adolescent Medicine with their New Investigator Award for developing Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA), which explores the illness experience through patient-created visual illness narratives. He also received the prestigious Holroyd-Sherry Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for his contributions to children, adolescents and media.

Dr. Rich is routinely contacted by policy makers and media outlets to serve as an expert on the effects of media on children’s health. He was a contributing author of the Children and Media Research Advancement (CAMRA) bill introduced by Senators Hillary Clinton, Sam Brownback, and Joe Lieberman. Dr. Rich has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, the BBC, NPR, and in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe and San Francisco Chronicle.

Dr Lydia Shrier

Assistant in Medicine with the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine of Children's Hospital Boston and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School

Lydia A. Shrier, M.D., M.P.H. is an Assistant in Medicine with the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine of Children's Hospital Boston and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is board-certified in Adolescent Medicine, having completed a fellowship at Children's Hospital Boston in 1996. She received her Master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1997. Dr. Shrier has been funded by a number of sources, including the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, to conduct research on mental health and risk behavior in adolescents. Her research uses handheld computers to collect data from youth several times a day in their natural environments. Dr. Shrier directs Clinic-based Research for the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine at Children's Hospital Boston and, among other responsibilities, supervises the Clinic Research Coordinator and oversees the training of research staff and recruitment of adolescents for the many studies conducted in the clinic. She maintains a clinical practice in both primary and specialty adolescent care, with specific expertise in sexually transmitted infections, eating disorders, and reproductive endocrinology. Dr. Shrier is married to Dr. Michael Rich, another adolescent medicine physician, and mother of two young children.

Invited Speakers

Tom Ballard

Tom completed Year 12 at Brauer College in Warrnambool in 2007 as Dux of South West Victoria and has deferred studying law at Monash University this year in order to travel and work as a presenter for national youth radio station, triple j. He is passionate about music, stand-up comedy, theatre and political activism.

Tom has extensive experience in public speaking; he was a 2007 Public Speaking Captain at Brauer College and was a national champion at both the 2007 Apex National High School Debating competition and the 2007 Bond University National Mooting Championship. He was a national finalist in the 2006 RAW Comedy Competition and appeared in the 2008 Comedy Zone as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.

In 2007, Tom came runner-up in the Plain English national public speaking competition with his speech discussing the issue of cyber bullying, ‘Bullying.com’. In May of this year, he traveled to London to contest the English Speaking Union’s International Public Speaking Competition, where the adjudicators awarded him an Honourable Mention.

Prof Ian Frazer

Director of the Diamantina Institute of Cancer Immunology and Metabolic Medicine and 2006 Australian of the Year

Ian Frazer is director of the Diamantina Institute of Cancer Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, a research institute of the University of Queensland at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. He was trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh, Scotland before emigrating in 1981 to Melbourne, Australia to continue his clinical training and to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall institute of Medical Research with Prof Ian Mackay. In 1985 he moved to Brisbane to take up a teaching post with the University of Queensland, and he now holds a personal chair as head of the Diamantina Institute. This institute employs over 200 researchers and trains over 30 postgraduate students. Dr Frazer’s current research interests include immunoregulation and immunotherapeutic vaccines, for which he holds research funding from several Australian and US funding bodies. Dr Frazer teaches immunology to undergraduate and graduate students of the University. He is president of the Cancer Council Australia. He has sat on various committees of the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia continuously over the last 15 years. He advises the WHO on papillomavirus vaccines. He was chosen as the 2006 Queenslander of the Year and the 2006 Australian of the Year.

Christopher Hall

Director - Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement
BEd GradDipAdol&ChPsych MA MACE MAPS CT

For the past 12 years Christopher Hall has held the position of Director of the Australian Centre for Grief and Bereavement. He is a psychologist who has developed a specialisation in the field of grief and bereavement over the past 20 years. Chris has trained many health and education professionals in grief theory and interventions both in Australia and overseas. He has a strong interest in child and adolescent bereavement, the impact of traumatic and complex bereavement experiences and the organisational and social impacts of grief and loss.

Chris is a certified thanatologist (Death, Dying and Bereavement) with the U.S. Association for Death Education and Counseling. In 1999 he was elected to the International Work Group on Death, Dying and Bereavement (IWG) and currently is a board member of the organisation. He is a member of the US Association for Death Education and Counseling, a member of the UK Bereavement Research Forum and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management. Chris is also an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Melbourne and a lecturer in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the university. He is the editor of the peer-reviewed journal Grief Matters: The Australian Journal of Grief and Bereavement and was both the scientific and organizing committee chair for the 8th International Conference of Grief and Bereavement in Contemporary Society, which was held in Melbourne in July 2008.

Mr David Healy

Senior Manager, Road Safety, Transport Accident Commission

David Healy holds the position of Senior Manager, Road Safety at the Transport Accident Commission (TAC). He is currently also Vice President (Development) of the Australasian College of Road Safety and Chair of its Victorian Chapter. David’s experience and interests relate to strategy and policy development, evaluation and marketing change in road safety activities.

Prior to joining the TAC in 1995, David held a number of positions with road safety responsibilities in the major roads authority, VicRoads and its predecessor organisations, dating from 1975. His previous roles encompassed a variety of activities including community-based action, strategic planning, data analysis and programme evaluation.

He holds qualifications in Engineering (Civil), Education and Quantitative Methods.

Assoc Prof Todd Herrenkohl

School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

Todd Herrenkohl, PhD, is Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, University of Washington and research scientist with the U.W. Social Development Research Group. His work has focused on the development and prevention of youth violence, consequences of family violence for children, and resilience in vulnerable youth and families. Dr. Herrenkohl’s publications examine various health-risk behaviors in children exposed to domestic violence and early childhood abuse, promotive and protective factors that buffer against early risk exposure in children, and outcomes of rigorously evaluated school and community intervention programs.

Mr Jonathan Nicholas

Director of Programs, Inspire Foundation

Jonathan has a BA(Hons) in psychology and recently completed a MPH. He is Director of Strategy and International programs with Inspire Foundation, - an Australian based charitable organisation that uses technology to improve the mental health and wellbeing of young people. In this role he leads the for-profit arm of the Foundation, developing technology-based initiatives to promote social change as well as overseeing program development of Inspire programs in the USA and Ireland. Jonathan has unique experience in the social sector having spent the last decade exploring ways to use technology to improve the mental health and well-being of children and young people and has published a number of articles and presented widely in this area. While working with Inspire, Jonathan has provided training to Indonesia on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and co-authored a report for UNICEF on the situation of children and women living in Cambodia.

Adam Smith

Chief Executive Officer – The Foundation For Young Australians

Adam is one of Australia’s youngest CEOs, leading The Foundation For Young Australians – an independent national grant-making organisation, funding and working in partnership with youth-led initiatives which aim to positively contribute to young people and their communities. An outstanding advocate for youth development, education and strategic philanthropy his views have been widely represented across the Australian and international media landscape. Adam’s values and expertise were shaped by work with the Coalition for the Homeless in New York, work in remote villages in Northern Thailand and as CEO of the Education Foundation in Australia. He is a founding board member of Changemakers Australia and Director of the US-based International Youth Foundation. In recent years Adam’s work has been acknowledged through three nominations for Young Australian of the Year; was recipient of a 2004 Celebrating Melbourne Award, and was recognised, by ‘The Age’, as one of Australia’s 40 most influential people under the age of 40.