Linda Ferrington is an academic leader and educator within the School of Clinical Medicine at UNSW Sydney and the Rural Clinical Campus Port Macquarie, with extensive experience across medical education, curriculum development, student engagement, academic wellbeing, and tertiary teaching practice. Her work focuses on the development and delivery of engaging, evidence-informed learning experiences for adult learners within higher education and clinical training environments.

She plays an active role in teaching, assessment, and curriculum development within Phase 1 Medicine at UNSW Sydney, while contributing to innovative approaches that support student engagement, retention, and long-term educational outcomes. Associate Professor Ferrington has a strong interest in learner wellbeing, educational sustainability, and the development of supportive and effective learning environments within medicine and health education.

At the Symposium, Linda will contribute perspectives from contemporary medical and tertiary education, exploring the importance of engagement, learning environments, curriculum innovation, and long-term wellbeing approaches within higher education and health training systems. She will also highlight a new research project investigating the Universal Wellbeing of higher education academics. Through her work at UNSW Sydney, Linda continues to contribute to advancing teaching practice, curriculum innovation, wellbeing leadership, and educational excellence within contemporary medical and tertiary education.

This presentation will introduce a new research project designed to explore the Universal Wellbeing of higher education academics. Drawing on experience in medical and higher education contexts, the session will examine factors that influence academics' wellbeing, engagement, workplace wellbeing, sustainability, and educational outcomes.

Dr Karen Hacker is a public health physician, researcher, and leader with more than three decades of experience advancing population health, chronic disease prevention, health equity, and public health policy across the United States. She previously served as Director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where she led national initiatives focused on preventing chronic disease, addressing health disparities, strengthening public health systems, and improving health outcomes through evidence-based policy and practice.

Currently an Adjunct Professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Dr Hacker continues to contribute to research, education, and policy development, with a particular focus on prevention, social determinants of health, community partnerships, and population wellbeing. Throughout her career, Dr Hacker has worked across government, healthcare, academia, and community settings, championing upstream approaches that address the underlying drivers of health rather than responding only after illness occurs. Her work has helped shape national conversations around prevention, health equity, and systems-based public health practice.

Current mortality/cost for chronic disease in the U.S. and internationally; trends in chronic disease; social determinants and their impact on chronic disease; caring for social needs in the health care system; which social needs/determinants; early success; examples of evidence (food/housing); Community Care Hubs; and the environment and public health, including policies that work.

Tasdik Hasan is an internationally recognised researcher in public health, digital mental health, and wellbeing, whose work spans Australia, Bangladesh, the United Kingdom, Africa, and the wider South-East Asian region. He serves as Policy and Advocacy Lead at the Mental Health Council of Tasmania and is a PhD Fellow in Digital Mental Health at Monash University's Action Lab, Faculty of Information Technology. His expertise spans mental health policy, digital health innovation, public health systems, and upstream approaches to prevention and wellbeing promotion.

Alongside his research and policy roles, he contributes to academic teaching, international research collaborations, and public health capacity-building initiatives across multiple countries and contexts. Dr Hasan is the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Digital Mental Health Leadership Excellence Award (eMHIC, Canada), the New Voices in Global Health Award (World Health Summit, Berlin), the Study UK Alumni Award (National Award, Bangladesh), and the Emerging Public Health Leader of the Year and Emerging Mental Health Leader of the Year awards, both from the Public Health Association of Australia.

At the Symposium, Tasdik will contribute to discussions on wellbeing challenges and opportunities, with a particular focus on digital mental health and systems-level prevention for marginalised communities, including Deaf communities. Presented will be Supporting the Deaf and Those with Disabilities: Wellbeing for Everyone, exploring how organisations, communities, and policymakers can develop more inclusive wellbeing approaches that leave no one behind. His presentation will highlight evidence-informed, practical strategies for improving accessibility, participation, and wellbeing outcomes for people living with disability.

Hossein is a systems modeller and public health researcher whose work focuses on applying systems thinking and modelling to complex health and wellbeing challenges. His applied research informs complex prevention challenges by examining how interacting determinants together with feedback processes and policy responses can produce both intended and unintended consequences.

As a Systems Modelling Research Fellow with the Mental Wealth Initiative at The University of Sydney, Dr Hosseini works at the intersection of public health, mental health policy, participatory systems modelling, and evidence-informed decision-making. His work supports policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and communities to move beyond fragmented or reactive responses and toward more integrated, prevention-focused approaches that recognise mental health and wellbeing as outcomes of dynamic systems. He also serves as President of the Oceania Chapter of the System Dynamics Society and is a member of the Management Committee of the Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand.

Many of today's mental health challenges are not isolated problems to be solved, but patterns produced by systems we have yet to fully understand. They emerge from the interaction of conditions across multiple domains, including education, employment, housing security, social connectedness and cohesion, health and social services, economic environments, and public policy.

For this reason, prevention-focused mental health action requires more than isolated programmes or short-term responses; it requires a way of seeing the wider system and understanding how patterns of risk, protection, access, and support evolve over time.

In this keynote, Dr Hosseini will introduce systems thinking and systems modelling as practical and accessible ways to understand complex mental health and wellbeing challenges. The session focuses on how systems approaches can help reveal interdependencies, feedback loops, delayed effects, trade-offs, and leverage points for system-level change.

Drawing on contemporary public health and mental health policy research, the keynote will show how systems thinking can support more joined-up, prevention-oriented, and evidence-informed decision-making across sectors.

The presentation will also consider the role of modelling as a shared learning and decision-support process. Models are not simply technical tools; when used well, they can help diverse stakeholders test assumptions, explore possible futures, identify where interventions may have the greatest long-term impact, and strengthen collective understanding of complex social problems.

Dr Justine Gatt is Scientific Director of the 18 and Up Study at the Sax Institute, a nationally significant longitudinal study of mental health and wellbeing involving more than 300,000 Australians. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), where she founded and led Australia's first dedicated research program in the neuroscience of wellbeing and resilience.

An internationally recognised neuroscientist and mental health researcher, Dr Gatt has more than 25 years' experience advancing the science of wellbeing, resilience, and recovery across the lifespan. She has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed publications and led innovative research spanning longitudinal cohort studies, neuroimaging, twin research, and wellbeing interventions, including development of the COMPAS-W Wellbeing Scale.

Her work has informed policy, practice, and population mental health initiatives, and has been recognised through awards including the Worldwide University Network Award for Exceptional Achievement and the Commonwealth Health Minister's Award for Excellence in Medical Research. Dr Gatt is also the founder of Tilt Your Life, a wellbeing company translating wellbeing science into personalised, evidence-based tools for everyday wellbeing.

Wellbeing and resilience research has progressed considerably over the past 25 years, moving from foundational neuroscience toward population-scale measurement and, increasingly, real-world application. This presentation synthesises three interconnected areas: the neurobiological basis of resilience, population-level cohort infrastructure, and the translation of validated science into accessible tools for everyday practice.

Twin and neuroimaging studies have identified genetic, environmental, and neural correlates of psychological flourishing, clarifying the mechanisms that distinguish individuals who sustain wellbeing and recover from adversity from those who do not. These findings informed development and validation of the COMPAS-W Wellbeing Scale, a multidimensional psychometric measure spanning six domains of wellbeing, subsequently validated in adolescent and child/parent populations, and shown to predict long-term risk and resilience trajectories following childhood trauma as well as wellbeing outcomes over time.

Building on this evidence base, the 18 and Up Study was established as a longitudinal population cohort at the Sax Institute, combining with the existing 45 and Up Study to capture data from over 300,000 Australians, with a dedicated mental health and wellbeing focus.

To support translation, Tilt Your Life is a new wellbeing app built around wellbeing neuroscience, to deliver personalised, evidence-based activities matched to individual wellbeing profiles.

Together, these findings demonstrate a coherent pathway from mechanism to measurement to population infrastructure to application. This work illustrates how wellbeing science can move from bench to population to practice. The 18 and Up Study offers unprecedented capacity for future researchers to investigate mental health and wellbeing longitudinally, while Tilt Your Life demonstrates how validated science can be delivered directly to individuals, closing the gap between research evidence and everyday impact. The presentation links to several Universal Wellbeing Determinants identified in the Universal Wellbeing Model.

Dr Jolene Morse is a Chief Risk & Governance Leader, Board Director, Lecturer, and Enterprise Risk Management specialist with more than 20 years of experience across education, financial services, health, consulting, wellbeing and the public sector. Currently serving as Chief Risk Officer at Catholic Education Sandhurst Limited in Australia, Dr Morse leads system-wide risk, compliance, governance, assurance, and organisational resilience across almost 60 schools and early childhood services.

Her work sits at the intersection of governance, leadership, organisational culture, resilience, and strategic decision-making, helping organisations strengthen trust, navigate uncertainty, and build long-term adaptive capability in increasingly complex environments.

Dr Morse holds a Doctorate in Enterprise Risk Management and is currently undertaking postgraduate studies in Educational Neuroscience. Alongside her executive leadership roles, she serves as a board director, audit and risk committee member, and Adjunct Associate Professor and lecturer. She is also a member of the Universal Wellbeing Charter International Advisory Board.

Her contribution brings an important Australian leadership and governance perspective to conversations surrounding prevention, wellbeing, resilience, and long-term societal outcomes.

Australia continues to face persistent and interconnected wellbeing challenges, including mental ill-health, suicide, family violence, social isolation, declining trust and community fragmentation. While significant resources are invested in responding to these issues, many governance systems remain structured around managing consequences rather than preventing causes.

This keynote explores how these challenges can be understood as systemic risks that emerge from complex interactions between social, economic, institutional and behavioural factors.

Drawing on enterprise risk management principles, the presentation examines how governance structures, performance incentives, cognitive biases and decision-making processes often favour reactive responses over preventative action. These same dynamics can unintentionally perpetuate the very conditions that drive poor wellbeing outcomes.

Using insights from risk governance, behavioural science and systems thinking, the presentation will consider how leaders, boards, policymakers and communities can shift from a cycle of crisis response to one of prevention, resilience and long-term value creation.

Particular attention will be given to the role of governance in creating the conditions that enable wellbeing to flourish - including psychological safety, social connection, trust, inclusion and community capability.

The session will demonstrate how the Universal Wellbeing Charter provides a practical governance framework for this shift, helping organisations and institutions identify root causes, align incentives, challenge decision-making biases and embed wellbeing as a strategic objective rather than a downstream outcome.

Ultimately, the keynote argues that universal wellbeing is not merely a social aspiration but a governance responsibility, requiring leaders to apply the same discipline, foresight and risk thinking used to address other complex systemic challenges.

Dr Gabi Nudelman is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Management and Governance at UNSW Business School, with expertise spanning higher education, organisational systems, professional identity, ethics of care, and sustainable approaches to learning and work.

Holding a PhD in Higher Education Studies from Rhodes University, Dr Nudelman's research explores how educational and organisational systems can support more wellbeing supporting, humane, and just, alongside sustainable ways of working and learning across institutional settings.

Her work focuses particularly on professional identity, academic roles, institutional culture, and the importance of wellbeing, care, kindness, and ethical leadership within contemporary education and organisational environments.

As an educator and researcher, Dr Nudelman contributes to advancing critical conversations around leadership, organisational wellbeing, higher education systems, and sustainable institutional practice.

At the Australian Universal Wellbeing Symposium 2026, Dr Nudelman will draw on her research and practice to argue that higher education institutions, as sites of knowledge creation and formative spaces that shape the next generation of citizens and professionals, carry a unique and underutilised responsibility in the broader societal wellbeing project.

Dr Nudelman will draw on her research and practice to argue that higher education institutions, as sites of knowledge creation and formative spaces that shape the next generation of citizens and professionals, carry a unique and underutilised responsibility in the broader societal wellbeing project.

Professor Phil Riley is an internationally recognised researcher in educational leadership, principal wellbeing, and occupational health. A former school principal, his work explores the intersection of psychology, education, and leadership, with a particular focus on the wellbeing of educational leaders and the conditions that enable thriving school communities.

He is the Director and Chief Investigator of the Principal Health and Wellbeing Survey, Australia's leading longitudinal study of principal wellbeing, conducted across Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Finland.

Professor Riley has published extensively, secured significant competitive research funding, and is a recipient of the Australian Council for Educational Leadership Researcher of the Year Award.

What 15 years of wellbeing research has taught me is that the most significant barriers to universal wellbeing in schools are politicians and bureaucrats. Systems not individuals set the conditions in which wellbeing flourishes or flounders.

Governments and bureaucracies have been universally ineffective dealing with the consistently alarming results of the Australian Principal Occupational Health, Safety, And Wellbeing Survey.

The media system, which politicians do take note of, only ever focuses on the sensational aspects of the annual reports we produce, violence directed at principals and teachers, but never on the consistent driver of illbeing in schools: workload particularly administrivia.

I intend with this presentation to provoke discussion around step change in school functioning to promote wellbeing, which can happen alongside good education.

If we are serious about achieving significant improvement in school functioning, which is crucial to the long-term wellbeing of Australia, learning the workings of government, the political system and the bureaucracy is essential, but far from easy. The system is atomised and diffuse, the interactions are nuanced and yet the issues are universal. Navigation is key but the map is not the territory.

After work in education and government contexts, Susan facilitated staff teaching excellence at HEDC, University of Otago. She was then selected as one of two people to implement the Treaty of Waitangi initiative - a first-of-its-kind equity and quality programme at the university.

Susan was later invited to design and lead a new degree in the Health Sciences Faculty at Auckland University of Technology, where she gained recognition for innovative research and ethics leadership in an emerging field.

Susan founded the New Zealand Curriculum Design Institute and led the design of over 400 higher-education programmes.

In 2008, she joined an extended wellbeing research initiative aimed at increasing programme completion rates in deprived communities, which led to the founding of the FREEDOM Wellbeing Institute.

Her research underpins the Universal Wellbeing Model, the UWEL Evaluation Tool, new definitions of Universal Wellbeing, and the Determinants of Universal Wellbeing.

Editors of the 6th World Conference on Psychology and Behavioral Science (London, 2025) described her work as "an important advancement in wellbeing research."

Susan now focuses on testing and expanding access to the Universal Wellbeing Charter: A Framework for Global Primordial Prevention. International interest has led to conference presentations in Australia, Dublin, Florence and Cape Town in 2026.

A Universal Wellbeing Advisory Board has been formed and is working toward establishing a Prevention Universal Wellbeing Implementation Centre.

Currently, ten research projects are underway, testing the Universal Wellbeing Theory of Change through three standardised intervention programmes across diverse settings.

Her research explores what wellbeing is, how it is influenced, and how it can be enhanced, maintained and measured across individuals, organisations, communities and society to realise human potential and improve equity outcomes.

This session reviews the 16-year wellbeing research programme that underpins the new evidence-based Universal Wellbeing Model first published in 2023.

The Universal Wellbeing concept and Model will be examined along with how Universal Wellbeing is influenced, improved and sustained over time.

All Model components are examined, along with recognition of the emergence of three distinct wellbeing research paradigms, including the one within which this work lives.

The Universal Wellbeing Evaluation Tool will also be introduced but detailed in a later presentation.

This session will identify how the Universal Wellbeing Model is and can be practised and applied to advance knowledge and practice with individuals, families, schools, organisations, and communities to improve Universal Wellbeing and equity outcomes.

Details about the AI-assisted Universal Wellbeing Evaluation Tool, developed to measure Universal Wellbeing, will be shared, along with details about the data it generates.

This session also examines the progressive, step-by-step Theory of Change journey respondents make and the three standardised UWM-based interventions that have been developed.

The pathway taken fosters the development of positive, caring, family-like communities. It leads toward a destination that includes being empowered to fulfil one's potential and experience a sense of freedom.