Meet our Panel Speakers
Panel Discussion 1
When Learning Meets Reality: The Neuroscience of Sustaining Focus, Adaptability and Performance
Anna Pitman | ACP Consulting Group
Anna Pitman is the Founder of ACP Consulting Group, a leadership consultancy partnering with organisations worldwide to build capability through coaching and emotional intelligence. ACP works across diverse sectors — from mining and engineering to education, health, utilities, and the arts — with clients in Australia, Africa, Asia, and North America.
An Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coaching Federation, Anna is recognised for translating complex concepts from psychology and neuroscience into practical, everyday leadership practices. She specialises in supporting technical experts to transition into adaptive, emotionally intelligent leaders who can thrive in complex and rapidly changing environments. Her engaging and energetic style brings theory to life, leaving participants with tools they can immediately apply to their leadership challenges.
Over the past decade, ACP has grown into a global practice while Anna has also become a mother of three. Her lived experience raising a child under paediatric palliative care brings a unique depth to her perspective on resilience, agility, and applying leadership tools in the most testing circumstances.
Beyond ACP, Anna is Chairperson of a Western Australian philanthropic giving circle that has raised over $1.28 million to support 43 charities worldwide.
Loretta Mitchell | Neu Perspectives
As Director of Neu Perspectives, Loretta is a big believer in the powerful role neuroscience plays in driving effective learning, leadership, performance, and engagement. Loretta incorporates science into her programs to help participants understand the ‘why’, not just the ‘what and how’. This creates a foundation for approaching any situation in the workplace more effectively.
Loretta guides leaders, learning professionals, and individuals in adopting evidence-based strategies that enhance adaptability, productivity, and lasting behavioural change. Loretta’s own ‘why’ is to help create positive workplaces where the organisation and its team members can thrive. Our brains are wired for this, and we are happier, healthier & more productive when we experience it.
Loretta’s approach combines the latest research and best-practice techniques with her 25+ years of practical in-house experience developing teams across Asia Pacific, the UK, and the US. Loretta has worked with government, corporations, SMEs, Not-for-Profits, and start-ups.
Paula Johnson | NeuCoach
Paula Johnston is the Founder and Principal of NeuCoach, a leadership and learning consultancy that blends neuroscience, facilitation and behavioural science to create lasting human transformation. With more than 25 years of experience across government, corporate and education sectors in Australia, New Zealand and Europe, Paula designs award winning programs that build trust, connection and collective intelligence.
She is the creator of the FLAME Facilitation Model™, Australia’s first facilitation framework aligned with global standards through INIFAC. The model defines how facilitators ignite insight, regulate energy and design conversations that build psychological safety and shared understanding.
A Forbes contributor and keynote speaker, Paula is recognised for advancing facilitation as a professional capability. Her work demonstrates how evidence informed practice and the neuroscience of connection translate theory into measurable outcomes.
Paula’s purpose is to reimagine how people learn, lead and connect by elevating facilitation from process management to insight creation, helping facilitators and learning professionals build the human capabilities that technology cannot replicate.
Dr Britt Andreatta | Brain Aware Training
Panel Discussion 2
What the Evidence Shows: Applied Research on Learning Quality, Engagement and Decision-Making
Beth Hall | Culture Edge
Beth is an organisational development leader and facilitator with 25 years’ experience helping organisations lift performance through culture, capability and practical people solutions. She holds a Master’s in Organisational Psychology alongside postgraduate qualifications in psychology and learning management, grounding her facilitation in both scientific evidence and practical application.
Beth has led large-scale OD and leadership programs as Global Head of Organisational Development at Cotton On Group and set national HR standards and Certification as General Manager, Standards & Capability at AHRI. She is a Fellow of both the Australian Institute of Training and Development and the Australian HR Institute and is accredited in a wide range of leading frameworks and tools including Saville Wave, LSI, GSI, Denison, EQ-i 2.0®, GLWS, TKI, HBDI and NLP.
Evidence-informed and action-oriented, Beth designs learning that is immediately usable on the job. Her deep experience leading large, geographically dispersed teams informs her practical, results-driven facilitation that builds confident leaders, resilient cultures and measurable performance shifts.
Deniese Cox | Teachingonline.com.au
Dr Deniese Cox (MBA, ML&D, PhD) researches adult learning effectiveness across the vocational education sector. Through her hands-on work with hundreds of trainers and learners annually, she conducts longitudinal studies on learner experiences and outcomes along with educator professional development engagement. As founder of TeachingOnline.com.au, she delivers research-backed insights that improve learning outcomes across diverse training contexts.
Dr Samantha Rush | Samantha Rush
Dr Samantha Rush helps leaders and teams make clearer, more confident decisions in complex environments.
With expertise in human decision intelligence, neuroscience, and cognitive performance, she brings practical tools that improve clarity, collaboration, and performance under pressure.
Samantha is currently the only accredited neuroimmersion coach on the East Coast of Australia and is recognised as a Master Neuroplastician. She specialises in helping individuals and teams identify unhelpful thinking patterns, rewire the ones that hold them back, and strengthen the cognitive habits that support better leadership and better results.
Her informative, relatable, and fun style will have your attendees learning and laughing.
For fun, she likes to lift weights, make cheese, drink champagne, make short films and hang out with her cats.
Dr Chris Campbell | University of New South Wales Canberra
Dr Chris Campbell is the Nexus Fellow at UNSW Canberra working across the city and Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) campuses. Chris engages with staff in innovative learning and teaching and has projects on assessment best practice and staff and student wellbeing. Her research area is in digital technologies to improve student learning and engagement, particularly in online learning. As a mid-career researcher Chris has a substantive research track record and expertise in digital technologies and pedagogies as well as in evaluating new and emerging technologies in the online space. Chris was the President of ASCILITE from 2019-2023, on the Executive for nine years and became a Life Member in 2023. In 2025, Chris became a Principal Fellow of AdvanceHE (PFHEA).
Panel Discussion 3
Evaluating What Matters: Rethinking Learning Impact in an AI-Enabled, Human-Centred Workplace
Sue Borhan | Cater Care
Sue Borhan is General Manager, People & Talent Capability at Cater Care Australia, leading enterprise-wide capability, learning, talent, First Nations strategy, and workforce experience across a national workforce of more than 2,800 employees. With a career spanning over 25 years, Sue has delivered capability and culture transformation in some of Australia’s most complex and operationally challenging environments — including NSW Police, BGIS, DEIT, global hospitality, aged care, mining villages, and frontline services.
Known for elevating Learning & Development from a transactional function to a strategic lever, Sue has built enterprise capability functions from the ground up, introduced multi-tier leadership systems, and delivered large-scale uplift in operational and dispersed workforces. She is the architect of Cater Care’s flagship EDGE Leadership Program and the national Chefs’ Culinary Masterclass Series, both delivering measurable impact, behavioural change, and cultural uplift.
Sue is recognised for her ability to partner with executives, COOs, and frontline leaders to deliver learning that is practical, human, and aligned to organisational strategy. Her leadership is grounded in care, authenticity, and commercial insight, with a strong commitment to building capability in sectors where learning is often hardest to reach. She regularly contributes to industry conversations through mentoring, speaking, and thought leadership.
Andrew Beveridge | Leadership Today
Andrew Beveridge is a Melbourne-based psychologist and the founder of Leadership Today. With more than 25 years of corporate and consulting experience, Andrew has held senior leadership roles with Hay Group (now Korn Ferry) and Aon Hewitt.
Andrew works with organisations to design and deliver leadership programs that create measurable, sustained impact. His programs are supported by an extensive library of on-demand content, including the Leadership Today app, accessed by over 250,000 leaders worldwide. He has partnered with clients across many sectors, with particular depth in healthcare, public sector and not-for-profit environments.
Andrew holds a Bachelor of Behavioural Science (Honours) and Master of Organisational Psychology. He is a registered Psychologist and Member of the Australian Psychological Society.
Natalie Francis | Department of Defence
Dr Natalie Francis is an experienced executive working at the intersection of Defence capability, organisational psychology and applied AI. As Executive Director People for the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group, she leads workforce capability uplift aligned with the National Defence Strategy, supporting a diverse workforce of public servants, contractors and ADF personnel. Natalie has previously established the strategic workforce planning and analytics functions and held senior roles in global HR technology companies including IBM Watson AI Talent and Fuel50, where she led APAC operations.
A published researcher and former organisational psychologist with the Defence and Systems Institute, her PhD examined creativity, innovation and complex systems in engineering workforces. She has presented nationally and internationally on the future of work, cognitive computing and culture change in technology adoption, and is Co-Chair of the Defence Gender Advisory Committee
Panel Discussion 4
Creativity That Delivers: Turning Imagination into Action in Complex Systems
Dr Cathryn Lloyd | Maverick Minds
Dr Cathryn Lloyd is a creative facilitator, leadership coach, and founder of Maverick Minds. She brings together artful inquiry, creative practice, and practical strategy to help people and teams work well in complex and changing environments.
Cathryn works across government, corporate, education and community sectors, designing learning experiences that strengthen capability, deepen connection, and enable clearer thinking. She is passionate about the world of facilitation — its importance as a skill, a capability, and a creative way of being. Her practice centres on reflective dialogue, imagination, and purposeful experimentation, supporting people to shape better ways of working individually and together, especially in moments of uncertainty or change.
She is the author of Seriously Playful Creativity and co-author of The Story Cookbook and Facilitating with Stories. With a background spanning the creative industries, education, professional training, leadership, and facilitation, Cathryn brings a distinctive blend of creativity and pragmatism to her work. Her approach is grounded, experiential, and focused on helping individuals and groups think creatively, collaborate effectively, and create meaningful change.
Jina Hardy | LX Design Agency
With a diverse background spanning corporate, NFP, small business, and vocational education sectors, Jina Hardy has specialised in L&D for most of her career.
As a highly experienced L&D practitioner focused on
organisational learning, guiding instructional strategy, and delivering
successful learning solutions, she's also a strong advocate for staying active
and current in the learning industry at large.
A coach and mentor in industry and current President of the
AITD QLD/NT Divisional Council, she strongly supports L&D practitioners at
all stages of their careers becoming professional members as a pathway to
advocating for L&D being recognised as a crucial part of business success.
Founder and Chief Learning Officer at LX Design Agency, she
loves working with her clients to create engaging and authentic learning and
enjoys consulting, facilitating/moderating, and speaking to inspire.
Nigel Collin | Nigel Collins Creative
Nigel Collin is a leading expert in enabling 0creative thinking innovation, and adaptability, specialising in empowering Leaders to drive sustainable growth through practical, evidence-based frameworks. Formerly a creative director in events, Nigel has taught and strategised creativity with organisations across the US, Asia, and Australia. He is co-author of "The Business Switch - switch on the creative thinking of your people and turn their ideas into commercial results. His hands-on experience includes being show director behind Australia’s largest-ever corporate event in 2025 and building one of Australia first entertainment design companies. An alumnus of the Disney Institute where studied organisational creativity . His engaging, real-world storytelling—grounded in the Ingenious Oz Project—equips leaders to systematically align the ingenuity and creative thinking of their teams with top-down strategy.
Nigel earned his MBA with high distinction from La Trobe University and is now a casual lecturer at the La Trobe Business School in Leadership, Strategy and People Management. Currently he is completing his doctorate of business administration, having earn a full scholarship, researching grassroots innovation.
Nigel created and used the Ideas Funnel as a strategic facilitator through over 20 years of real-experience leading creative teams and advising organisations on developing creative capabilities.
Dr Denise Meyerson | The Focus Learning Group
Dr Denise Meyerson is an award‑winning education leader, entrepreneur, and board director with more than 35 years of experience across corporate learning, vocational education, and early childhood development. She is a past AITD Learning Professional of the Year.
Denise applies various methodologies including LEGO Serious Play, What the Duck, World Cafe and Creative Problem Solving. She creates an inclusive learning environment where all voices are heard.
She is invited to speak at events around the world, including the recent CREA Conference, Europe's largest innovation event. She also presented at this year's AITD conference in Melbourne to a full room of delegates with positive feedback.
Denise is the author of 3 books on using strategic play to enhance learning sessions and ensure that key messages are embedded. She is passionate about inspiring educators and trainers to create engaging and interactive learning sessions that leave their mark on participants.
Denise holds a PhD in Literature and has been honoured through various forums, including being nominated as a Telstra Businesswoman of the Year and an EY Winning Woman.