 |
Drisana Levitzke-Gray (born 1993 [1] ) is an Australian disability rights campaigner from Perth, Western Australia. She is an advocate for deaf culture, and a native speaker of Auslan. [2] In 2015, she was the Young Australian of the Year. [3]
|
Drisana Levitzke-Gray (born 1993 [1] ) is an Australian disability rights campaigner from Perth, Western Australia. She is an advocate for deaf culture, and a native speaker of Auslan. [2] In 2015, she was the Young Australian of the Year. [3]
Levitzke-Gray was born from a line of deaf women, and is the fifth woman on her line to be deaf or partially deaf: great, great-grandmother Eva Johnston, her daughter Dorothy Shaw, Danielle Shaw, Patricia Levitzke-Gray, and herself. [2] Her father is also deaf, and she has a deaf brother. [2]
Levitzke-Gray was selected in 2011 by Deaf Australia to attend the World Federation of the Deaf Youth Section Leadership Camp in Durban, South Africa, and the World Federation of the Deaf General Assembly. [2]
Levitzke-Gray attended the Frontrunners [4] international deaf youth leadership course in 2012 and 2013.
In January 2014, Levitzke-Gray was the first deaf person in Western Australia and Australia to participate in jury duty. [5]
Natasha Jessica Stott Despoja AO is an Australian politician, diplomat, advocate and author. She is the founding Chair of the Board of Our Watch, the national foundation to prevent violence against women and their children, and was previously the Australian Ambassador for Women and Girls at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade from 2013 to 2016. She was also a Member of the World Bank Gender Advisory Council from 2015 to 2017 and a Member of the United Nations High Level Working Group on the Health and Human Rights of Women, Children and Adolescents in 2017. She is a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.
Marlee Beth Matlin is an American actress, author, and activist. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award, and four Primetime Emmy Awards.
Julia Eileen Gillard is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013, holding office as leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She previously served as the 13th deputy prime minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010, under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She is the first and only female to hold either office in Australian history.
Julie Isabel Bishop is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Curtin from 1998 to 2019. She has been the chancellor of the Australian National University since January 2020.
Janet Holmes à Court, AC, HonFAHA, HonFAIB is an Australian businesswoman and one of Australia's wealthiest women. She is the Chairperson of one of Australia's largest private companies, Heytesbury Pty Ltd, having turned around its fortunes after the death of her husband Robert Holmes à Court in 1990. She retained full ownership of the Heytesbury Group of companies until 2008 when her son, Peter Holmes à Court, assumed ownership, while she remained chairman.
Tara Rae Moss is a Canadian-Australian author, documentary maker and presenter, journalist, former model and UNICEF national ambassador for child survival.
Alannah Joan Geraldine Cecilia MacTiernan is a former Australian politician. From 1988 to 2023, she has served in politics at a federal, state, and local level, including as a minister in the Western Australian state governments of Geoff Gallop, Alan Carpenter, and Mark McGowan. She is best known for her role as the minister for planning and infrastructure during the construction of the Mandurah line. Born in Melbourne, she moved to Perth to study at the University of Western Australia, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts and later with a law degree. She worked for the Department of Employment before practising as a lawyer between 1986 and 1992. During this time, she also served on the Perth City Council. In 1976, MacTiernan joined the Australian Labor Party, and at the 1993 Western Australian state election, she was elected to the Legislative Council's East Metropolitan Region. She became a shadow minister in October 1994, and she was transferred to the Legislative Assembly at the 1996 state election, winning the seat of Armadale.
Gary Gray, former Australian politician and Australia's Ambassador to Ireland, was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) representative for the Division of Brand in Western Australia in the Australian House of Representatives from 2007 to 2016. On 25 March 2013, Gray was appointed to the Australian Cabinet as the Minister for Resources and Energy, the Minister for Tourism and the Minister for Small Business. From 2010 until 2013, Gray served as the Special Minister of State for the Public Service and Integrity.
Liza Mary Harvey is an Australian politician who was the Liberal Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia from 2008 to 2021, representing the seat of Scarborough. She was a minister in the government of Colin Barnett, and in 2016 was appointed deputy premier, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She became leader of the opposition after being elected unopposed to replace Mike Nahan as state Liberal leader on 13 June 2019. On 22 November 2020, she resigned as Liberal leader and was replaced by Zak Kirkup. She lost her seat at the 2021 election.
Elizabeth Mettam is an Australian politician. She has been the Liberal member for Vasse in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly since a by-election on 18 October 2014. She has been the leader of the Western Australian Liberal Party since January 2023 and was the deputy leader of the party from December 2020 to January 2023. At the 2021 state election, she was one of only two Liberal MLAs to retain their seat, the other being David Honey.
Wendy Elizabeth McCarthy is an Australian businesswoman, activist and former university administrator. McCarthy has worked for reform across the public, private and community sectors, in education, family planning, human rights, public health, and overseas aid and development, as well as in conservation, heritage, and media.
Haben Girma is an American disability rights advocate, and the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School.
Melanie Joy Mark, also known by her Nisga'a name Hli Haykwhl Ẃii Xsgaak, is a Canadian politician in the province of British Columbia. A member of the New Democratic Party (NDP), she served as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant from 2016 to 2023. From 2017 to 2020, she served as Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Training; from 2020 to 2022, she served as Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture and Sport. Mark is the first First Nations woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, and the first First Nations woman to serve in the Cabinet of British Columbia. On February 22, 2023, Mark announced her intention to resign as MLA and cabinet minister, her resignation took effect April 14 of the same year.
Rebeca Z. Gyumi is a Founder & Executive Director at Msichana Initiative, a Tanzanian NGO which aims to empower girls through education, and address key challenges which limit girl’s right to education. She has worked for over 8 years with Femina, a youth focused organisation, as a TV personality and youth advocate.
Village Wooing is a 1962 Australian television play directed by William Sterling and starring Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray who were touring Australia at the time. It was based on the play by George Bernard Shaw.
Heather Lynne Reid AM is a former Australian football administrator and an advocate for gender equity, diversity and inclusion in sport, particularly in the world game of football. From 2018 to 2021, she was a member of the Football Australia Board.
Anika Molesworth is an agroecology and scientist. She is a public figure on issues of food security, nature conservation, climate change and rural community development. Molesworth currently sits on the Board of Directors of Farmers for Climate Action, the NSW committee of the Crawford Fund, and is a Governor of WWF-Australia.
Isabella McCorkindale (1885–1971), known as Isabel McCorkindale, was a Scottish-born Australian temperance, suffrage and women's rights activist. She was a leader in both the Women's Christian Temperance Union of Australasia (WCTUA) and the World Women's Christian Temperance Union (WWCTU). As director of scientific temperance education for the WCTUA, she spent more than 40 years working to educate young people about the health and social consequences of alcohol abuse. She was international president of WWCTU from 1959 to 1962, after serving as vice-president from 1947 to 1959. She then served as national president for the Australian WCTU from 1963 to 1966. In 1961, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her work.
Debbie Kilroy, née Deborah Harding, is an Australian human rights activist and prison reformer. She is known for having founded Sisters Inside, an independent community organisation based in Queensland, Australia, that advocates for the human rights of women and girls in the criminal legal system. She is a qualified lawyer, who in 2007 was the first person with serious convictions to be allowed to practise law by the Supreme Court of Queensland.
Luba Norma Grigorovitch is an Australian Labor Party politician and former trade union official.