ASORC is excited to bring thought leaders and experts together to share the latest insights and knowledge with the Rehabilitation Counselling community, to cultivate strong collaboration and unity.
Our Keynote speaker is Matt Formston AM. Matt is no ordinary athlete. With less than 3% vision, he is a world champion surfer, cyclist and Australian Paralympian.
Beyond the waves and tracks, Matt is a powerhouse in the professional realm. As a motivational speaker and executive coach, he inspires leaders and teams across iconic brands and businesses in Australia. His story is a testament to turning differences into superpowers.
Matt has launched an award-winning children’s book (Surfing in the Dark), the first book with text, illustrations, and braille, he is a Guinness World Record Holder, and an ambassador for Vision Australia, Invictus Australia and Surfaid. Matt Formston is not just an athlete, he’s a force breaking barriers and inspiring a world that once doubted what he could achieve.
Norma is a Wiradjuri woman born in Cowra NSW, and was raised on ‘Erambie’ Aboriginal Reserve.
Norma has 30 years’ experience in senior project management. She was a project manager for the NSW Premier’s Department and Cabinet. Norma ran training programs at QANTAS and University of Technology, Sydney. She was the Chief Executive Officer of both the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and the NSW State Aboriginal Land Council. Norma has developed and implemented training programs which focus on developing skills and healthy lifestyles to assist Aboriginal women in gaining meaningful employment. This program has been implemented within the Aboriginal communities, as well as TAFE.
Norma’s community work includes the governing committees of Aboriginal organisations such as Murawina Pre-School and Wyanga Aboriginal Elders Program (AEP), the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) Board. Her current board commitments include the Aboriginal Housing Office Board and the Indigenous Advisory Group at UTS and is Co-Chair of the City of Sydney Indigenous Advisory Committee.
Dr. Sullivan is a Clinical Psychologist who has been practicing for over 30 years. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Sullivan is the Internship Director with the Clinical Psychology Program at McGill University. He has presented nationally and internationally on psychosocial risk factors for problematic health and mental health outcome. In 2011, Dr. Sullivan received the Canadian Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Profession. In 2025, Dr. Sullivan received the Distinguished Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society.
Dr Frank Iorfino is a senior research fellow and NHMRC Emerging Leadership Fellow at the University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre. His research combines youth mental health, early intervention and digital health to transform how emerging anxiety, mood and psychotic disorders are assessed and managed. Frank has made major contributions to our understanding of illness trajectories, functional impairment and suicidality in young people presenting for care. He leads a digital mental health program that partners with clinicians, data scientists and industry to develop digital solutions that ensure every young person can access timely, effective mental health care.
Alicia started her career as a rehabilitation counsellor providing vocational support to individuals in regional and remote areas of Australia. In 2015, she commenced her career in the life insurance industry developing rehabilitation services for life insurance customers. She has recently moved into the world of reinsurance as Claims Service Delivery Lead at Swiss Re, as well as the Rehabilitation Chair of ALUCA. Alicia is also an accredited mental health first aid instructor, has worked as a private career coach, forensic vocational assessor and wellbeing specialist. She also volunteers as a digital and telephone crisis supporter at lifeline; Australia's national suicide prevention hotline.
Alexa Locke has worked in the occupational rehabilitation and employment services industries since 2008 in various roles. She has experience working across compensable and non-compensable schemes. She is currently the National Operations Manager (Recovery and Return to Work Services) for Resilia.
Alexa sat on the steering committee for the Vocational Intervention Program, leading a team providing specialised employment services for people with traumatic brain injury in NSW. Alexa was elected to the ASORC Board in 2021.
As a person with an acquired disability and a NDIS participant, she brings a unique perspective to working in the role of Rehabilitation Counsellor in the emerging vocational assessment and employment support sector within the NDIS.
Rhea began her career as an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, initially focusing on providing treatments before transitioning into workers compensation injury management. At the invitation of Dr Mary Wyatt in 2024, Rhea joined the It Pays to Care team where she applies her knowledge to the practical implementation of IPTC policy to equip workplaces, case managers, rehabilitation and healthcare professionals with tools and strategies to foster successful and sustainable return-to-work outcomes. This led to her role as the Creative Production Lead for the Messaging Matters Project and IECCC Framework. Rhea authored "Compo: A Rehabilitation Consultant's Journey" which inspired her to establish The Intelligent Rebellion and Threesticks Training and Development.
Jackie is a Prosthetist Orthotist by clinical professional background with a Masters in Health Service Management who found her way into policy and advocacy due to a passion for wanting to address practice problems at a systems level.
Jackie believes solutions to many system challenges lie within digital initiatives and is therefore determined to provide the allied health sector with the opportunity to easily engage with fit for purpose digital solutions.
She is an Aboriginal person with family connections to the Riverina region of South-West NSW, Australia. She is a queer (lesbian), cis-woman (she/her), with a disability (visual impairment), living and thriving as a perpetual guest on the Lands of the Wurundjeri Peoples in Narrm (Melbourne). A multidisciplinary health professional (Rehabilitation Counsellor and Clinical Myotherapist), her practice and academic work is centred in Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing practice specific to Indigenous, queer and gender diverse (QGD), disability communities. Her research and practice is deeply embedded in themes and locales of social justice and liberation, with knowledges and practices explored across her work including areas specific to Indigenous, abolitionist, decolonising/anti-colonial, queer and gender diverse, feminist, disability/crip, and ecological.
Leanne Watts is the founder of Inclusion at Heart, a rehabilitation counsellor specialising in support for neurodivergent job seekers with co-occurring conditions and individuals with complex needs. Driven by a commitment to inclusion, she also advocates for healthcare accessibility, supervises academic research, and contributes to projects exploring complex health and disability systems.
Anita Hobson-Powell trained as an exercise physiologist. She has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Human Movement, Master of Science and Master of Business. Anita's career has been dedicated to excellence across health, sport and wellness domains. She spent almost 18 years working in associations, advocating for recognition and access to allied health professions, and establishing the quality assurances of self-regulation for health professions. Anita’s role as the Chief Allied Health Officer includes supporting the Department of Health and Aged Care to:
raise awareness of the role and value of allied health care in Australia
build and strengthen engagement with the allied health sector
promote inclusion of allied health in relevant policies, programs and reforms within the primary care sector and health system more broadly.
Cliff Bingham is Assistant Secretary of the Labour Market and Migration Branch of Jobs and Skills Australia. He leads Jobs and Skills Australia’s work to advise on issues affecting the state of the Australian and international labour markets, and how these affect Australia’s current and emerging workforce skills needs.
Cliff has worked across several Australian Public sector agencies for more than 20 years, including on long-run demographic and labour productivity analysis for the Department of the Treasury.
Jennifer was a passionate high school teacher with 17 years' experience promoting inclusive classrooms and student wellbeing across nine Sydney schools. Beyond teaching, she leverages her leadership skills as a restauranteur, NDIS provider, and NESA- accredited facilitator of professional learning. Drawing on her lived experience with disability, mental health and trauma, she designs impactful workshops on BIG empathy, helping organisations cultivate psychologically safe spaces.
At the heart of her work is a drive to ensure every individual- whether in education or the workplace- feels valued, supported, and empowered to thrive.
Paul Gibson is a non-Indigenous man who has lived and worked on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country (Canberra) for close to three decades. Since completing a Bachelor of Applied Science and Graduate Diploma in Public Health, Paul has worked in health promotion, health, and education. Paul entered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce development in 2017 with the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, before joining Indigenous Allied Health Australia in 2018, where he is now the Chief Operating Officer.
Paul is experienced in policy, advocacy, program delivery, and co-design with a strong understanding of the health, education and training and employment sectors, and a focus on achieving meaningful outcomes with and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Dr Damian Mellifont leads and contributes to studies that advance the economic and social inclusion of people with disability. Damian is a member of the Centre for Disability Research and Policy (CDRP) leadership team at The University of Sydney. As a Lived Experience Postdoctoral Fellow, Damian has been an active member of the Centre over the last decade, with extensive prior experience in government policy.
Damian is also Editor of the Disability Studies Collection at Lived Places Publishing.
Djasmine is a diagnostic radiography student at the University of Sydney who is passionate about health, inclusivity, and the environment. In high school, Djasmine was a member of Best Buddies Indonesia where she worked with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Djasmine is also a former president of World Wildlife Fund Bogor in Indonesia where she raised funds for the waste management system in her hometown.
Associate Professor Roxanna Pebdani, (PhD, CRC, SFHEA) is a rehabilitation counsellor, counsellor educator, and ASORC Director. She holds multiple leadership roles in the Sydney School of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney. Her research, teaching, and leadership activities have a common thread of equity and inclusion.
She has authored or co-authored over 55 journal articles, book chapters, and reports and has conducted over 60 presentations at local, national, and international conferences. She has also obtained over $1M in competitive research funding.
Glenn “Spider” Roberts is passionate about his boat racing journey. He has been profoundly deaf from early in life, and in his 30s, deterioration of his vision was noticed, and he was diagnosed with Ushers 2 syndrome - a rare genetic progressive condition affecting hearing and vision.
Determined to live life to the fullest rather than admit defeat, his passion for boat racing and setting records is what drives him to inspire others, demonstrating what is achievable even with his disability.
Shaya is a final-year Occupational Therapy student at the University of Sydney, currently completing an Honours project exploring workplace barriers and facilitators experienced by neurodivergent allied health professionals in Australia. As a soon-to-be new starter occupational therapist, Shaya is passionate about creating inclusive practices and spaces for all—both through research and therapeutic work. She also has a strong interest in paediatrics and neuroscience, and hopes to work in the public health sector to support diverse communities.