On 19 August, the UNAA Young Professionals Queensland hosted a collaborative ‘World Cafe’ style online event, linking young professionals with leaders in humanitarian organisations across health, climate change, refugee support and community/sustainable development.

Presented by Ishara Sahama, our panel included:

Erika Isabel-Yague: Rotary Peace Fellow currently completely a Masters in Peace & Conflict Studies at The University of Queensland (UQ). Erika is also a consultant for UNICEF on gender empowerment and young people’s participation in humanitarian and peacebuilding.

Ellen Derbyshire: Final year Masters of Business and Sustainability student at UQ. Ellen has over four years’ research experience working in International Sustainable Development, Sustainability Science, Policy, and Practice.

Saad Alkassab: A first year medical student at The University of Melbourne who hopes to one day have his own medical humanitarian project. Saad has delivered over 350 public talks, including a TEDx Canberra session that shares his story of fleeing Syria and finding a new home with courage, poignancy and humour.

Luke Barbagallo: A community development and social enterprise professional, Luke works as Partnerships & Programs Manager at Pollinate Group, a social enterprise and last-mile distributor that empowers women entrepreneurs across India and Nepal. Luke is currently completing a Master of Disaster, Design and Development at RMIT.