PLENARY

Letting go bravely with love

Jason van Genderen has been called a 'Creative Agitator', who likes to stand on the edge of traditional thinking and crumble the edges liberally. Jason is a Director of Treehouse Creative, Oma’s Applesauce Productions and Founder of his new storytelling training arm, StickyStory.Co. We met Jason in our DCR3 virtual session last year and this short snippet left us wanting to learn more. We chose Jason because he is on a mission to advocate for the power of digital storytelling, bringing stories to life for people who are impacted by dementia. His feature length documentary – Everybody’s Oma – is slated for release this year.

PLENARY

Changing the game: Minimising head trauma in sport

Dr. Chris Nowinski is a social entrepreneur leading a global conversation on concussions, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), and the future of sports.

Dr. Nowinski is co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF), a non-profit organisation leading the fight against concussions and CTE in the United States, Canada, the UK, and Australia.

Dr. Nowinski is also the co-founder and visionary behind the acclaimed Boston University CTE Center and VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, which has changed how the world views the long-term effects of head impacts in sports.

An All-Ivy Harvard football player-turned WWE professional wrestler-turned neuroscientist, Chris discovered the concussion crisis the hard way when a 2003 kick to the chin in a WWE match ended his promising career, causing post-concussion syndrome. At the time, Chris had already been the youngest Hardcore Champion in the history of the WWE and had been named 2002 Newcomer of the Year by WWE Magazine.

His experience was the spark that inspired Chris to commit his life to serving patients and families who share similar experiences and ensuring a safer future for the next generation of athletes. Dr. Nowinski first wrote the investigative expose Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis in 2006, co-founded CLF in 2007, and co-founded the Boston University (BU) CTE Center and VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank in 2008, where he serves as the Outreach, Recruitment, Education, and Public Policy Leader.

Dr. Nowinski created the first athlete brain donation program in the world, tracking obituaries daily and calling families only hours after the death of a loved one to arrange brain donation. In 2020, the Brain Bank reached over 1,000 brains donated.

Dr. Nowinski earned his doctorate in Behavioral Neuroscience from Boston University School of Medicine and has authored over 30 scientific publications. He serves on the NFL Players Association Mackey-White Health & Safety Committee, the Ivy League Concussion Committee, Positive Coaching Alliance National Advisory Board, and as an advisor to All-Elite Wrestling.

Dr. Nowinski is an Eisenhower Fellow, a program which identifies, empowers and connects innovative leaders to pursue projects that create positive impact across sectors and borders to make the world more peaceful, prosperous and just. Chris is a frequent speaker on various aspects of brain trauma, and since 2004 he has spoken over 400 times at universities, conferences, high schools, and sports organisations around the world.

PANEL

First Nations and dementia: A voice for spiritual and cultural well-being

Nova Peris OAM OLY is an Olympic Gold Medalist, a Commonwealth Champion, and the first Aboriginal woman elected to Federal Parliament.

With an astonishing sporting career representing Australia across the globe in two different sports, Peris was a key component of both the Australian Women's field hockey team and the Australian Track & Field team.

In the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Peris became the first Aboriginal person and first Northern Territorian to win an Olympic Gold Medal playing for the Hockeyroos that defeated South Korea 3-1.

Transitioning her hockey career to sprinting, Peris competed in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, winning two more gold medals in the 200m & 4x100 relay and making her the only person to win Olympic and Commonwealth Gold in different sports! Nova went on to make the Track and Field Team for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and was the first of 10,000 Olympic flame torchbearers at the iconic Uluru, where she ran barefoot with the flame. Nova competed in the individual 400m, making the semi-finals, and finishing 4th in the 4x400m relay finals. Nova is the only person on the planet to make back-to-back Summer Olympic Games finals and consecutive Olympics in different sports!

Following a successful athletic career, Nova then became the first Aboriginal woman to sit in the Federal Parliament as Senator for the Northern Territory.

During her time in Parliament, Peris served in multiple Senate Committees, including the Education and Employment References Committee, Finance and Public Administration Legislation and References Committees, and the Senate Community Affairs Legislation and References Committees. Her political journey as a Senator took her all around the country where she gained a wealth of knowledge across many different issues, and enjoyed being a pivotal part of the solutions to those issues. She was also madam acting deputy president of the Senate.

Nova has now started her own charity, the Nova Peris Foundation, and recently had her bronze statue unveiled in Federation Square, Melbourne.