Conference Speakers

This year’s speaker lineup brings together changemakers, researchers, and leaders working to shift wellbeing systems from reactive to proactive. More keynote announcements are on the way — stay tuned.

Meet the Thought Leaders Driving System-Level Wellbeing Change

Dr Michael Johnston

Senior Fellow |The New Zealand Initiative

Dr Michael Johnston is a cognitive psychologist and education policy expert shaping the national conversation on curriculum, assessment, and system reform. As Senior Fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, Michael leads influential research into education quality, integrity, and outcomes — from literacy and numeracy to vocational pathways and AI in learning.

With a career spanning academia, government, and national curriculum leadership, Michael brings deep insight into how knowledge, truth, and rigour are essential to both personal and societal wellbeing. He has held senior roles at Victoria University of Wellington and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and chaired the Ministerial Advisory Group tasked with designing a knowledge-rich curriculum for New Zealand schools.

At The Prevention Imperative: New Zealand Universal Wellbeing Conference 2025, Michael will explore the Intellectual Dimension of the Universal Wellbeing Model and the Education systems contributions to life long thinking and learning capabilities that empower people to live better lives, despite challenges and complexity.

Ready to join the conversation?

Book your ticket now

Charlie Meaden is a fintech entrepreneur and systems thinker redefining the future of financial wellbeing, wealth, equity, and access. As Co-Founder of Eccuity, a cutting-edge investment platform, Charlie is on a mission to democratise wealth-building tools through building financial literacy, intelligent automation, and user-led design.

With a background in product innovation and deep experience across AI, gamification, and finance, Charlie has led several ventures focused on empowering people to take control of their financial journeys to achieve their dreams. His work sits at the intersection of financial and economic wellbeing, disrupting limited ideas of wellbeing, leading digital disruption, behavior change, and future-focused thinking — making financial wellbeing more inclusive, responsive, and human.

At The Prevention Imperative: New Zealand Universal Wellbeing Conference 2025, Charlie will unpack how intention, technology and systems innovation can support the long-term financial and future emotional wellbeing of communities — and why a prevention-first model must include finances, economics and social justice.

🔗 Connect with Charlie Meaden

Dr Julie Glover Avery

Director, TIIDE Aotearoa – Trauma-Informed Implementation Development and Evaluation

Dr Julie Glover Avery is the founding Director of TIIDE Aotearoa, an organisation advancing the integration of trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and system-aware practices across Aotearoa New Zealand’s education, health, and social care sectors.

Julie is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Monash University (Health & Social Care Unit, School of Public Health & Preventative Medicine), where she contributes to research on trauma-informed education and workforce capability. Her work spans across systems design, culturally grounded prevention, and interdisciplinary leadership development, with a focus on transforming how services and policy support collective wellbeing.

A long-standing advocate for relational practice and equity in service delivery, Dr Avery has worked across disciplines to support professionals, leaders, and organisations in embedding trauma-informed ways of working that honour and empower whānau, tamariki, and communities.

She is especially known for her thought leadership in creating the conditions for sustainable change — where wellbeing, social justice, and belonging are positioned at the centre of organisational and practice frameworks.

At The Prevention Imperative: New Zealand Universal Wellbeing Conference 2025, Dr Avery will offer critical insights into trauma-informed leadership and the systemic shifts needed to support meaningful prevention and wellbeing at scale.

🔗 Connect with Dr Avery

Ready to join the conversation?

Book your ticket now

Charlie Meaden

CEO & Co-Founder, Eccuity – Financial Wellbeing & Intelligent Investing Platform

Ready to join the conversation?

Book your ticket now

Professor Kay Fielden

Research Manager & Senior Academic

Professor Kay Fielden brings a rare depth of academic insight to the intersection of Universal Wellbeing, spirituality, research methods, and systems thinking. With a PhD in Social Ecology from the University of Western Sydney and postgraduate qualifications in Computer Science and Business, Kay has led interdisciplinary research across the domains of mindfulness, technology, organisational systems, and wellbeing practice. Editor of three academic journals and a highly experienced PhD supervisor, Kay fosters thought leadership and solution-oriented practice advances.

A thought leader in ethical systems design and evidence-based spiritual wellbeing, Kay has spent over two decades advancing the integration of holistic frameworks into both education and enterprise environments. Her work is grounded in the belief that meaningful transformation arises when research, practice, and purpose converge.

At The Prevention Imperative: New Zealand Universal Wellbeing Conference 2025, Kay’s keynote will explore the spiritual dimensions of Universal Wellbeing — highlighting how mindfulness, ethical leadership, and research-informed spirituality can guide both individual and systemic change in the prevention era.

Ready to join the conversation?

🔗 Connect with Dr Alexandra Muthu

Professor Yvonne Thomas

Professor and Research Coordinator, School of Occupational Therapy, Otago Polytechnic | Te Pūkenga

At The Prevention Imperative: New Zealand Universal Wellbeing Conference 2025, Yvonne will explore holistically how the lens of occupation, equity, and educational reform can reshape systems to support sustainable health and wellbeing outcomes.

🔗 Connect with Professor Yvonne Thomas

Book your ticket now

Dr Alexandra Muthu

Occupational & Environmental Physician | Clinical Director | Organisational Wellbeing Expert

Dr Alexandra Muthu is one of Aotearoa’s leading voices in organisational wellbeing, prevention, and workplace health systems. A Specialist Occupational & Environmental Physician, Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors, Clinical Director, and elected Council Member of the Medical Council of New Zealand, Dr Muthu combines frontline clinical experience with deep system-level insight.

With over 25 years of multidisciplinary practice, she has advised major public and private sector organisations on evidence-based strategies for staff wellbeing, psychosocial risk, prevention, holistic risk management, and performance. Her work is informed by global expertise including executive training from Stanford University’s Chief Wellness Officer Programme.

Professor Yvonne Thomas is a widely respected leader in occupational therapy education, with over two decades of experience in curriculum design, qualitative research, and professional practice development. With a strong focus on social justice, education equity, and occupational wellbeing, her research spans themes of practice education, innovative teaching models, and community-based health.

Yvonne’s academic and research work is grounded in both New Zealand and international contexts, having designed, led and coordinated undergraduate and postgraduate health education programmes across Otago Polytechnic, University of Worcester, and James Cook University. Her PhD research examined occupational wellbeing among people experiencing homelessness, highlighting her long-standing commitment to vulnerable communities.

At The Prevention Imperative: New Zealand Universal Wellbeing Conference 2025, Dr Muthu will explore how we build wellbeing-centred workplaces that are not just safe, but sustainable — and why prevention is a strategic leadership imperative for every organisation.

Ready to join the conversation?

Book your ticket now

More speakers will be revealed in the lead-up to the event.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook for announcements.

Join our Newsletter

Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates.

Email Address

Thank you!

All rights reserved: No part of this website may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

Address

Level 1, 610 Victoria Street,
Central Business District,
Hamilton 3204
New Zealand

Contacts

Phone:
+64 7 834 0451
+64 273869296

E-mail: contactus@fwi.ac.nz

Refund and Exchange Policy

Privacy Policy

Free Research & Educational Equity Trust