Staff members
YDAS Board of Governance
Purpose
The inaugural YDAS Board of Governance is responsible for ensuring that YDAS is governed in a way that is compliant with the law and allows the organisation to achieve its mission.
The Board also sets the strategic vision and direction of YDAS, and oversees effective operations and the incoming CEO (currently the Head of YDAS) who is responsible for the day-to-day management decisions. The Head of YDAS reports directly to the Board.
Meet our current Board members.
Cindy Liu
YDAS Board Co-chair
Cindy (she/her) is a passionate young disabled person of colour, advocating and living on stolen Wurundjeri Land. Through her work centring lived experience, looking through an intersectional lens and advocating for self-determination, Cindy has worked closely with communities and organisations to amplify intersectional voices.
Among other work, Cindy is the founder and Co-chair of the Youth Disability CaLD Collective and a member of both Australia's Disability Strategy Advisory Council and the National Youth Steering Committee.
Swathi Shanmukhasundaram
YDAS Board Co-chair
Bio coming soon.
Aoife Ryall
YDAS Board Deputy Chair
Aoife is a queer and trans disabled person who has been working and volunteering in the community sector for over six years, primarily in disability, LGBTQIA+SB, and youth spaces, with a lot of overlap in between! They currently work in community health.
In their free time, they volunteer with the Disability Resources Centre and are completing a Bachelor Arts/Health Science, focusing on sociology and public health. Aoife is passionate about disability justice, queer/trans liberation and prison abolition, and believes that marginalised people are the experts in our own lives.
Deanna De Cicco
YDAS Board Member
Dee (she/her) is a young person living on Wurundjeri land. She has a lived / living experience of mental ill health, chronic illness, and physical disability. Dee is passionate about using her experiences to help create positive systemic changes that enable young people to have better outcomes.
Dee strongly believes in empowering disabled people and seeing / using their experiences as an asset whilst being part of a society that often views their experiences as a deficit. Dee hopes that by being on the YDAS Board she can bring her own unique perspectives as well as bringing the voices of the community to the table with her.
Gabriel Gervasni
YDAS Board Member
Gabriel (he/him) is a passionate advocate for young people with a disability, in particular those with low vision and blindness. Gabriel uses his own lived experience as a person with a disability (he is legally blind) as a motivator to help those around him and to make a positive difference both within his local community and the broader disability community.
Gabriel aims to challenge and break down the perceptions that still exist about what people with a disability (particularly those who are blind or have low vision) are capable of. He believes that equality in all things is a fundamental human right. Gabriel is actively involved in advocating for the rights of those with a disability to have equal access to education, employment, social activities, community spaces and involvement in their civic duties.
His leadership in this space has helped to raise the profile of young people living with a disability and their valuable contribution to society. Engaging with many people from diverse backgrounds and life experiences, ensures that Gabriel’s advocacy has the most impact in creating real change for young people living with a disability.
Being a member of the inaugural YDAS Board enables Gabriel to have an impact on improving systemic access and equality for young people with a disability and he is very excited to be in this new role.
Husna Amani
YDAS Board Member
Husna is currently studying a Bachelor of Social Work, and upon completion of her studies, she hopes to work with culturally and linguistically diverse people and their families, with lived experience of disability.
She is currently volunteering with Democracy in Colour and is a member of Multicultural Youth Advocacy Network’s Youth CALD Disability Collective. Additionally, she works at Children and Young People with Disability Australia, where she engages directly with young people.
Husna has experience in both sides of co-design, and has also participated in various reference groups and advisory projects. Her work in these areas has focused on various issues, where she brings her lived experience, to improve existing services, making them more inclusive and accessible.
She is passionate about improving the representation of young people from the communities to which she belongs, as well as other young people who may share intersecting, multifaceted identities similar to her own.
Karen Dimmock
YDAS Board Member
Karen is the CEO of the Association for Children with Disability (ACD). She has held leadership roles in the not-for-profit sector and sits on a range committees including the Disability Inclusion Advisory Group, NDIS Community Victorian Advisory Group and Victorian Committee for Families of Children with Disability.
Karen has been a foster carer and permanent carer for 20 years. Her eldest son is a young person with disability.