15 January 2025
PWDA is pleased to inform you that the People with Disability Australia (PWDA) Board has appointed the following Executive Officers:
President: Trinity Ford
Co-Vice Presidents: Daniel Flynn and Eva Sifis
Treasurer: Stuart Mawbey
Secretary: Steph Travers
PWDA extend our heartfelt gratitude to the outgoing Executive Officers and President Marayke Jonkers for their exceptional service and invaluable contributions to PWDA and the broader disability community.
We believe the skills and expertise of our new leadership team will ensure PWDA's strong legacy as Australia's peak cross-disability rights and representative organisation continues.
About our Executive Officers
Trinity Ford is a research and policy consultant and a training lawyer, with six years' experience in the disability sector, including with the Disability Royal Commission. She is a proud neurodivergent trans woman with physical, neurological, psychosocial, and sensory disabilities. Her main disability policy interests are desegregation and disability rights instruments.
Daniel Flynn is an incomplete C5/C6 quadriplegic with over 15 years of systemic advocacy experience, leading co-design initiatives and delivering disability awareness and access training as a qualified facilitator. A former adjunct lecturer, he educated nursing, medical, and allied health students on the intersection of healthcare and disability. Daniel has also served on ASIC-listed boards, contributed to government working groups, and advanced inclusion through his lived experience and strategic thinking. In addition, he brings over 15 years of IT experience as an offensive security specialist, protecting critical infrastructure and solving complex challenges.
Eva Sifis is a professional with more than three decades of experience in the arts sector, two decades as disabled. Having faced brain injury in 1999 and late-stage lymphoma in 2009, Eva is a dedicated to advocacy for people with disability. She has held key roles with organisations such as Arts Access Victoria, Women with Disabilities Victoria and Voice At The Table. She launched By Accident series of conversations for those with Brain Injury or Traumatised and is currently the host of 'A New You' a series and platform exploring Neurodiversity.
Stuart Mawbey has experience in both the private and public sector including the ATO with financial matters, as well as a previously serving treasurer of PWDA. His interests as a disabled person includes systemic advocacy, especially in regard to culture, employment and the designed environment. He also has a long history of emergency service volunteering and emergency management and has interests where disability and emergency management intersect. Stuart's disabilities include trauma-based limb paralysis, PTSD and a psycho-social mental health history.
Steph Travers is a dedicated and passionate individual and systemic advocate. Her legal training coupled with her vast lived experience of Spina Bifida and psychosocial disability has driven her commitment to social justice. She is an experienced public speaker and access/inclusion consultant, with in-depth knowledge of systems and policies affecting the disability community. She believes organisational collaboration is vital to enact meaningful change through a Disability Rights Act and has a passion for Guardianship Law reform and Domestic Violence Responses for women with disability.
As we embark on this new chapter, our Executive Officers and Board are dedicated to building upon the proud 44-year history of our organisation.
We are confident that our new leadership team will have a positive impact on PWDA and the disability community. We look forward to continuing our work together to advance our shared vision of a socially just, accessible, and inclusive community where the human rights, belonging, contribution, potential, and diversity of all people with disability are recognised, respected, and celebrated with pride.
You can learn more about our Board here: Our Board – People with Disability Australia
You can also meet the PWDA Board at our member forum on Thursday 22 January.
