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Margherita Coppolino  – Consultant

Margherita Coppolino is an influential disability and inclusion consultant.

With an outstanding network of contacts in government, business and social justice organisations, Margherita has a proven ability to inspire and influence a wide range of stakeholders on disability and inclusion issues. She has strong commercial acumen and ability to frame disability and inclusion issues in a commercial context. Margherita is also a powerful speaker and motivator.

Margherita believes and lives by the business philosophy that “Inclusion is the Key”. Through her work with government, commercial businesses and social justice organisations, Margherita aims to empower people to take action to improve quality of life both for themselves and others.

Margherita is a tertiary-qualified and industry accredited Trainer, Mediator, Auditor and a Company Director. During her consultancy career, she also has honed & developed specialist skills in project management, mediation, facilitation, recruitment, case management, auditing and keynote speaking.

Margherita’s life and work have been profiled in The Australian (Lifelines section), The Gold Within by Noel Waite, Women’s Business, Women’s Wealth by Amanda Ellis, and a range of social justice and community publications.

In 1999 Margherita was also the inaugural recipient of the Olive Zakharov scholarship for women in management.

In 2003, Margherita was invited to present at the third Global Diversity Conference in Hawaii and was also honored with an Australian Centenary Medal for her contribution to Women’s and Disability rights.

In 2004, she was invited to present at the Global Women’s Trade Summit in Vancouver.

In 2009, Margherita was invited to participate in Social Inclusion Group for the 2020 Summit. The Summit was organised to help shape a long term strategy for the nation’s future.

In 2010, Margherita was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Women with Disabilities Leadership roundtable at the World Bank in Washington DC. At the same time, she presented a paper at the Institute of Inclusion Conference.

During 2006-2012, Margherita presented to a number of conferences on her work in Department of Planning and Community Development (Victoria) about their journey from a Disability Action Plan to an Inclusion Framework and Annual Plan.

From 2012, Margherita continues to provide consultancy on Inclusion issues.

In 2014, Margherita graduated as Company Director Graduated after completing the Australia Company Directors course in 2015 and has held several Chair and Company Directors positions on Non-for-Profit organisations since 2013.

Margherita Coppolino – Photographic Artist

Margherita Coppolino is a vibrant change agent, with a diverse range of skills and interests relating to workplace diversity and inclusion, as well as in the training arena. She is an experienced manager of diversity and inclusion projects with government, business, social justice organisations and the wider community.

For many years Margherita has created images that capture stories from diverse communities as they unfold in her role as a diversity/disability and inclusion consultant. Only four years ago, she realised that she could use also use her photography as a powerful tool to educate people on diversity and inclusion.

In 2012, she was a successful applicant of the Cultivated Grants through Arts Access Australia and was mentored by photographer Belinda Mason. This mentoring opportunity opened her eyes to what was possible and  challenged her to take the next step and exhibit her work within the public domain.

This led to Margherita being selected from a range of photographers to be a part of the Head On Photographic Festival as one of the 35 featured photographers, where her work, Short and Sweet, (images of short statured people in every day lives) was featured. (https://headon.com.au/exhibitions/short-and-sweet)

In 2009 and 2013, she was one of the official photographers for the World Dwarf Games..  In 2013 Games in USA, during the event, she, along with photographer Ali Ryan captured images, many ‘a golden moment’ of the Australian team giving rise to an exhibition of the same name at Federation Square Melbourne in 2014. The exhibition was sponsored by Federation Square and Arts Access Victoria and received media attention. In 2015 as part of SSPA 20 years National Sporting weekend in Albury, the exhibition was shown at the Albury Library in which was opened by the Major of Albury.

In 2014, Margherita was commissioned by Writers Victoria to create portraits of writers with disabilities, which would be developed into a postcard series and distributed throughout Australia by Write-ability.

In 2015, Margherita was commissioned as one of the four photographers for an exhibition at the Museum of Democracy entitled ‘Grass Roots Democracy – the Campaign for Disability Rights.’ (http://made.org/explore/exhibitions/disability-rights-exhibition/)

Margherita has been the documentary photographer for a number of other events, including:

2016

  • Seddon Festival

2015

  • Inaugural Deadly Mob Conference
  • Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) Youth Network Launch
  • Australian Cross Disability Alliance (ACDA) National Youth Disability Forum
  • Wominjeka Festival 2015
  • UMMTA Gala Openning party
  • Seddon Festival 2015
  • Weave Rehearsals for White Night 2015
  • Weave at White Night 2015
  • Arts Access Victoria projects
  • SSPA socials events

 

In  2015, Margherita received the following awards for her work:

  • Maribyrnong Inclusive Recognition Awards 2015
  • Winner: Arts Awards – Individual category

In 2016, Margherita was a collaborating artist in the ‘Silent Tears’ exhibition which reveals the lived experience of women with disability who are subjected to violence and women who acquired disability as a result of violence.  Funded by The Australia Council for the Arts and curated by Kon Gouriotis OAM, the exhibition was launched at the 2015 Ballarat International Foto Festival by Sue Salthouse of the Australian Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel to Reduce Violence Against Women. In March 2016, the exhibition will be displayed at the Sydney University Law Library. The Silent Tears Project will also be showcased at the United Nations as part of the 60th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, USA.