Anyier Yuol is a renowned global keynote speaker driven by a passion for social change. Her work centres on creating impactful partnerships and advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion principles by reimagining and transforming organisational practices. Through her presentations and consulting, she helps leaders and organisations enhance inclusivity, improve workplace environments, and develop more equitable and diverse workforces.

Born in a refugee camp in Kenya and moving to Australia at age 10, Anyier’s journey is marked by resilience and a commitment to making a positive impact. She is in the final year of her PhD at Western Sydney University, researching “The African Cultural Practice of Bride Price: A Case of South Sudanese in Australia.” Her academic pursuits are complemented by a profound dedication to advocacy.

Anyier’s advocacy began through sports, where she championed the rights of refugee women and girls. This work sparked broader social impact initiatives, leading to the founding of the Miss Sahara initiative—a groundbreaking beauty pageant exclusively for African-Australian women. This initiative has sparked meaningful conversations about inclusivity in the fashion industry and empowered young women through representation and leadership development. Building on this success, Anyier established Anyier Model Management, a platform dedicated to promoting diversity and inclusion within the fashion industry.

At the heart of her efforts is Lead Beyond Education (LBE), a voluntary, not-for-profit charity organisation that empowers young women from Culturally and Racially Marginalised backgrounds through transformative opportunities in education, human rights advocacy, and leadership development.

Anyier’s extraordinary contributions to the refugee sector, diversity, and entrepreneurship have been recognised with numerous accolades, including the 2023 Les Murray Award for Refugee Recognition. This award honors her efforts to raise awareness of the plight of forcibly displaced people through sports and advocacy.

Dor Akech Achiek is the Group Head of Settlement Services at SSI, a community-based, not-for-profit humanitarian organisation providing various human and social services. In his role, Dor provides strategic and operational management of SSI’s Settlement Services across Australia’s eastern seaboard, including overseeing the NSW Settlement Partnership (NSP) consortium of 20 formerly migrant resource centres, ethnospecific organisations and multicultural services.

For the past 15 years, Dor has worked with refugees, humanitarian entrants, and people seeking asylum. Dor is a former refugee from South Sudan who came to Australia in 2003 after nine years of living in the Kakuma refugee camp as a result of war in the then Sudan.

Dor holds a Master’s Degree in International Law and International Relations, a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and International Relations, A Diploma of Community Services Coordination and a Diploma of Children Services.

Cheryl Webster is presently the Community Engagement Worker and Cultural Adviser in the Community Living Support Program for Refugees and Asylum Seekers, a mental health program with Anglicare, where she has been working for 37 years. Over the years, she has been involved in establishing a number of Multicultural for a with Government Departments and agencies and has worked with Government Departments (Local, State and Federal) and non-Government organisations at a State level in policy development, consultancy and advocacy; and within ANGLICARE has developed access and equity in service provision for communities of CALD backgrounds.

Cheryl has worked with many communities including African and other small and emerging communities, assisting them to build their capacity as they settle into Australia and advocating for, and with, them as they struggled to have their needs and issues heard. She has also been involved in building the capacity of mainstream organisations to assist new arrivals from these communities. She has spent a number of months each year since 2006 for 12 years working in Ethiopia and Southern Sudan (in a voluntary capacity) gaining greater insight into issues for, and ways of working with, many people from this part of the world.
She has qualifications in Social Work (Honours UNSW), a Master of Management in
Community Management (UTS), Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and a Graduate Diploma in Social Work Student Supervision (UNSW).