BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Board of Directors is responsible for achieving the objectives of the NDRP, the formulation of policy, and the general direction of the NDRP. It is also responsible for the stewardship and the future wellbeing of the NDRP.

Clare Gibellini

Chair

Clare (she/her) is a woman with multiple disabilities, including Autism. She works as a passionate advocate for the inclusion of people with a disability in all areas of the community. Clare is also the Co-Chair of the Oversight Council for the Australian Federal Government’s first National Autism Strategy, and a member of the National Disability Insurance Agency Independent Advisory Council’s Equity and Inclusion Reference Group. She is also the Deputy Chair for the WA Ministerial Advisory Council on Disability.

Clare serves on multiple boards and steering committees focused on improving outcomes for people with disability, and is a passionate human rights campaigner both in Australia and internationally.

Scott Avery

Independent Director

Professor Scott Avery is Professor of Indigenous Disability Health and Wellbeing at Girra Maa Indigenous Health, University of Technology Sydney. Affectionately known in community as Dr Scott, he is a proud Worimi man and is profoundly Deaf.

A nationally and internationally recognised educator, researcher and policy adviser, Scott’s seminal work Culture is Inclusion (2018) has shaped national reform across Closing the Gap, Australia’s Disability Strategy and the Disability Royal Commission. His work focuses on intersectional policy, culturally grounded methodologies and Indigenous data leadership.

Scott serves as a Director on the boards of Achieve Australia and Hearing Australia, and contributes to national reform through roles with the National Disability Research Partnership and the Australian Government’s First Nations Health Governance Group for Closing the Gap. Internationally, he represents Girra Maa as a founding member of the WHO Disability Health Equity Network.

In 2024, Scott was appointed Ambassador for the International Day of People with Disability and delivered the National Disability Leadership Oration, deaf defying, broadcast nationally on ABC Big Ideas.

Alexandra Bignell

Independent Director

Alexandra Bignell is an Autistic woman with lived experience of disability, neurodivergence, chronic illness and parenting an Autistic child. These experiences shape how she understands disability, access, participation, policy and systems.

Alexandra brings over two decades of governance experience across community, representative and public-purpose organisations. As a Disability Inclusion Advisor in local government, her work focuses on how evidence and lived experience can inform policy, practice and more inclusive communities. She also works across the local government sector, including as Chair of the Australian Local Government Association Community of Practice for Disability Inclusion.

Her broader governance and advocacy work focuses on self-advocacy, systems change, and how lived experience is heard, understood, and acted on in decisions that affect people with disability, including serving as Chair of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network of Australia and New Zealand and as a Director of People with Disability Australia.

Professor Bindi Bennett

Independent Director

Bindi (she/her) is a K/Gamilaroi woman and Professorial Research Fellow at Federation University. Her research challenges deficit-based understandings of disability, with a focus on neurodiversity-affirming approaches, relational care, and community-led models of wellbeing.

Bindi leads large-scale, community-engaged research in partnership with First Nations communities and organisations, co-designing research so it is led by those most impacted and accountable to community priorities. She brings significant experience in workforce development, designing and delivering training, simulation-based learning and practice frameworks that build capability in culturally responsive, inclusive care.

Louise Gates

Government-appointed Director

Louise is the Acting Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW). Louise leads the Deputy CEO Group and provides broad oversight of the Community Services Group, Data Governance & Integration Group, Population Health Group and the First Nations Health & Welfare Group. The Group also oversees the production of the Institute’s Flagship reports, Australia’s Health and Australia’s Welfare.

Louise has extensive experience across several federal and state organisations including the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the NSW Ministry of Health. She has a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours, a Masters of Statistics and Masters of Global Health/ Infectious Diseases.

Lorna Hallahan

Independent Director

Lorna has been a leading social work academic for two decades, specialising in teaching professional ethics and in research related to disability policy.

She has been a disability advocate since the late 1980s, when she was a founding staff member at Queensland Advocacy. Since completing her PhD in disability theory and spirituality in 2005, Lorna has contributed as a peer-recognised leader in state and national policy advice including as Chair South Australian Ministerial Advisory Council, Deputy Chair National People with Disability and Carers Council.

She contributed to the development and evaluation of the trial of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and more recently as the Senior Research Advisor at the Disability Royal Commission where she also authored a socio-cultural history of disability in Australia. During 2025, she has been appointed to The Independent Advisory Council of the NDIS and the Australian Research Advisory Committee. Lorna is an experienced director of for-purpose organisations and in 2024 gained certification in Governance for Social Impact from the Social Impact Centre.

Keran Howe

Independent Director

Keran is a social worker who has worked as a leader in the fields of health and disability over many years. As both a practitioner and a person with a disability she has been involved in advising government on policy reform representing issues related to community health, women’s health, violence prevention and the rights of people with disabilities.

Keran has served on a number of boards related to housing and disability and as Chair of the Victorian Disability Advisory Council and Co-Chair of the Australian Disability and Carers Advisory Council.

Luke Mansfield

Government-appointed Director

Luke (he/him) has extensive senior leadership experience across government and is currently a Group Manager at the Australian Government Department of Social Services. He has lead responsibility for implementation of Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-31; the National Autism Strategy; and establishment of additional community-based foundational disability supports across Australia. He also leads coordination of Australian Government responses to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of people with disability and is the government co-chair of the National Disability Data Asset Council.

He was awarded a Public Service Medal in 2025 for outstanding public service through advocacy to disability reform.

Chloe Rattray

Independent Director

Chloe (she/they) is a passionate inclusion advocate and PhD student based in Boorloo (Perth). Chloe's research explores the portrayal of queer and disabled stories in children's animated television, emphasising the importance of diverse representation in media. She also works in the not-for-profit sector and academia.

In 2022, Chloe was recognised in the Out for Australia 30 Under 30 Awards, which honors young queer individuals who have demonstrated success in their careers and made tangible contributions to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Emily Steel

Independent Director

Emily is an occupational therapist with a research background in disability-inclusive policy, accessibility, and assistive technology.

She has worked as a clinician, manager, and academic in Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and as a Fulbright Scholar in the USA. Emily is an active volunteer in professional and community groups.

Dr Dianne Winkler

Independent Director

Dianne brings over 30 years' experience in the disability sector, spanning clinical practice, research, policy influence and organisational leadership. Her early career as an occupational therapist working with people with severe brain injury gave her a deep understanding of the systemic barriers faced by people with disability.

She is CEO and founder of the Summer Foundation, which she established in 2006 after her PhD research on younger people in residential aged care (YPIRAC) made clear that research alone was not enough to create real-world change.

Since then, it has driven legislative reform, including a successful campaign to amend the National Construction Code for better housing accessibility. Dianne is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.