Caring Online Spaces

Ashley Kolaya is the founding Executive Director of the Mental Health Storytelling Initiative (MHSI), a coalition of 80+ entertainment, mental health, and philanthropic organizations working to shape how mental health is portrayed in media and culture. MHSI operates as a translation layer between the full ecosystem of social and mental health knowledge — research, clinical practice, community organizations, and people with lived experience — and the storytellers who shape culture. The goal is to ensure that what’s true and hard-won about human experience actually makes it into the stories reaching millions of people.

With more than 15 years of experience at the intersection of storytelling and social impact, she has built initiatives that help creators and institutions better understand, engage, and move their audiences. At TED, she built the global youth voice platform, TED-Ed Student Talks, and served as the founding Director of Curation and Coaching for TED Masterclass, where she coached speakers and developed programs to help leaders communicate ideas that shape culture. Her background is in civic engagement education.

Regan is a proud First Nations Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal woman from regional New South Wales, Australia.

With extensive lived and frontline experience, Regan is highly skilled in navigating complex systems and providing intensive support to women and children experiencing domestic, family, and sexual violence. Their voices inform her role as Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Strategy at Our Watch.

Widely respected for her expertise, Regan is passionate about ending violence against all women and children with a particular focus on First Nations women in remote communities – the most impacted and the least seen. Through truth telling, she shines a light on the root causes of the unacceptably high rates of violence against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, and what we must all do individually and collectively to stop gender based violence before it starts

Widely respected for her expertise, Regan is passionate about ending violence against all women and children through truth telling with a particular focus on First Nations women in remote communities – the most impacted and the least seen.

Richie Hardcore works in the community as a public speaker, consultant, educator and advocate. His work discusses the intersections between masculinity, mental health, pornography, social media, sex and consent and how we can end sexual and domestic violence. He works extensively with schools and communities in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia

He has a Master’s degree in Sociology and is an ongoing champion of the New Zealand Ministry of Social Development’s ‘Change is Possible’ anti-domestic violence campaign.

He was a multiple New Zealand Muay Thai champion, and now that he has retired from fighting, he is a gym owner, coach, and trainer.  He uses Muay Thai and Kickboxing  as a pathway for conversations about healthy masculinity for people who are in the criminal justice system, are in alternative education or are in alcohol and drug rehabilitation.

Richa is a teacher-turned entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Labhya, an India-based education non-profit that impacts the wellbeing of 2.4 million children.

Richa is a DRK Entrepreneur, a Mulago Fellow, and was featured in the Forbes Asia 30U30 list. Richa serves on the board of Global Fund for Children. She is one of the 17 United Nations Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Richa has a Master’s in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she also served as an Equity & Inclusion Fellow, Harvard Ministerial Leadership Fellow and Education Entrepreneurship fellow.

Glenn Gillis is co-founder and CEO of Sea Monster, and a globally recognised thought-leader on impact games and immersive technologies. With a Business Science degree from the University of Cape Town and over 25 years as a senior executive, consultant, and entrepreneur, Glenn brings commercial rigour to the intersection of play, storytelling, and social change. As Chairperson of Games for Change Africa, Glenn helps shape the continent’s fast-growing games ecosystem, championing the power of games as catalysts for social impact and economic growth across Africa. As co-founder and chair of the not-for-profit social enterprise Relate, he has also helped generate over $5.3 million in employment opportunities and charitable donations across South Africa.

Isabelle has a decade of experience working at the intersection of legal frameworks, youth leadership, and the 2030 Agenda. She holds a degree in Political Science from the University of Brasília and executive training in Early Childhood from the London School of Economics and Political Science. She is currently a postgraduate student at the Center for Public Leadership and a PhD candidate in Social Sciences at São Paulo State University. She has led several advocacy initiatives, including co-founding the first Global Youth-Led Movement on Ending Violence Against Children, and has collaborated with governments, the United Nations, and civil society to advance policy change. She previously served as an advisor at the Federal District Secretariat of Justice and Citizenship, contributing to initiatives on child participation, digital wellbeing, and parenting programs. She is also part of international communities of practice, including United People Global, the Global Youth Forum, and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee Youth Group.