Free WebinarUnlocking Student Wellbeing: What 4 Million Emotion Check-ins Tell Us About Tiredness, Emotional Literacy and Emotional Awareness

ABOUT OUR EXPERTS

• Nikki Bonus is a visionary leader, entrepreneur, and advocate for whole school, teacher and student well-being. With over 20 years of expertise in the research, co-design, development, and delivery of social-emotional literacy programs, she is transforming the way education measures wellbeing.
• As the founder and CEO of Life Skills GO, an innovative EdTech SaaS platform for K-12 education, Nikki is equipping schools with real-time well-being data, metrics, and insights. Her platform enables educators to detect patterns, implement targeted interventions, and proactively support both student well-being and academic success.
• Nikki’s drive stems from her own lived experience. Having been out of home by 16 and tragically losing her brother to mental health struggles, she is deeply committed to ensuring no child falls through the cracks. She believes that every young person deserves to be seen, valued, and equipped with the life skills necessary to thrive—beyond just academic results or behavior assessments.
• Under her leadership, Life Skills Go has collaborated with over 850 schools, empowering districts, schools, principals, teachers, students and families with data-driven solutions that foster resilience, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her holistic approach to education focuses on building global communities, promoting collaboration, and driving meaningful change.
• A compelling storyteller and transformational leader, Nikki inspires through messages of leadership, compassion, and courage. Her ability to engage educators, leaders, and governments has positioned her as a changemaker in education reform. Recognized on the global stage, she was one of just 100 CEOs invited to participate in Google's Engage – Search Inside Yourself leadership program in San Francisco, training under world experts in neuroscience, leadership, mindfulness, and emotional intelligence.
• For Nikki, the future of education isn’t just about academics—it’s about nurturing the whole child, fostering well-being, and creating a system where every student is heard and has the opportunity to succeed.

• Rydr is a specialist in evidence-informed practice in educational innovation, with a career focus on strategic change that improves student outcomes. He draws on a rare blend of successful experience in schools, system leadership roles and industry practice – experience that has given him deep understanding of the complexities of the education sector from the classroom to the boardroom and a demonstrated capacity to generate practical recommendations that are grounded in context and evidence.

Core competencies

• child development and learning
• school leadership and system leadership
• use of technology and contemporary pedagogy in teaching and learning
• innovation, product design, program design and reform, particularly in educational settings
• design, implementation and leadership of monitoring and evaluation systems
• training and capacity building in evaluation
  strategic stakeholder engagement

Selected experience from NSW Department of Education

• Building on a successful 10 years in primary teaching, Rydr excelled in a series of corporate roles in the NSW Department of Education between 2015 and 2021. These culminated in elevation to Director of Strategic Priorities in the Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation and then Director of Strategic Delivery – Learning Improvement. In these roles he worked effectively to embed evaluative practice as a systemic lever for change, redesigning school improvement processes, setting and monitoring school targets and generating a series of sustainable system reforms.

Selected work examples and achievements as Head of Educational Transformation at Creatable

• Established an innovation and entrepreneurship curriculum for UNICEF Burundi. Phase one of this project generated significant positive results including improved life outcomes for vulnerable peoples living in the poorest nation on earth. This work is now in the process of scaling across East and West Africa.
• Designed the education campaign for Correct the Internet, which is designed to raise awareness of bias in internet algorithms. This included running a not-for-profit campaign that provided education resources and lessons for teachers to foster compassion, imagination, influence and student empowerment.
• Led a working group of industry leaders to establish a skills framework to bridge the gap between industry and schooling. This framework has the endorsement of industry and is supported by a suite of on demand, self-paced, NESA-accredited professional learning and implementation support for school leaders.
• Invited to join the United Nations Global Education Platform Advisory Board.
• In consultation with the Australian Council for Education Research (ACER), produced high level academic White Papers and rubrics and learning tools.
• Produced an evidenced-based blog and podcast unpacking the case for educational transformation.
• Collaborated with UNICEF on innovative education programs that focus on improving life outcomes for children in the world’s poorest countries.

Dianne Giblin AM MICDA – CEO, Australian Council of State School Organisations (ACSSO)

Dianne has worked in education in both paid and unpaid capacity for the past 32 years.

• Di has a passion for education, in particular public education, and the opportunities it affords young people. She has led the ACSSO secretariat since 2011 but has been a significant player in parent activism since 1984 when her eldest child commenced school. She is proud of her four children’s achievements – all successes of public education.
• She has held various volunteer roles in the parent movement finishing her P&C career as President of the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW.
• Di was a founding Director of Public Education Foundation whose board position she held for six years; a founding Director of Primary Ethics Board and also a founding Director of The Parenthood board.
• She worked in a paid capacity for the NSW education department in a number of roles across a large area of Sydney. Her roles were all in the area of parent engagement and home-school partnerships including school based community officer, across district Community Development Officer and regional Partnership Officer – all through the Priority Schools Program.
• Recognition of her work saw her commended for Meritorious Service to Public Education and Training in 2010. In 2012 Dianne was admitted as a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her service to public education and the community.