MissingSchool CEO, Megan Gilmour, was featured in an article from Canberra Times. To view the original article click here.
VIDEO SPECIAL | From promoting kindness to nurturing Indigenous culture, innovating to protect the planet and more, the Aussies in line to be 2025 Australian of the Year do us all proud.
When the employees of ACM, the regional news network that publishes this masthead, were asked back in 2021 what social issues they wanted to see the company actively support in their community, mental health emerged as the number one concern.
A key action arising from that internal discussion: a corporate partnership with the Kindness Factory and the opportunity to share founder Kath Koschel’s inspiring message with our audiences across Australia and promote the not-for-profit organisation’s empowering kindness curriculum for schools.
As Koschel and her team explain it, kindness has neurological, psychological, physical, spiritual, cultural and social benefits: “Scientific research demonstrates that kindness boosts the immune system, allowing us to live longer and live a more enriched life. Kindness is the opposite to stress. Stress creates tension in the nervous system, pushing our bodies into flight or fight mode. Kindness, on the other hand, relaxes the nervous system, guiding it into rest. Stress is linked to mental ill health. Kindness is protective towards mental ill health.”
An act of kindness also works both ways.
“The exchange and energy that people are giving each other through the movement I’ve created is something that lights me up,” Koschel said when we first shared her personal story with ACM audiences.
Koschel, who has been named NSW’s Australian of the Year for her Kindness Factory efforts, is one of the nine inspiring advocates and achievers from across the country in line to be named the 2025 Australian of the Year when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese presents the Australian of the Year Awards in Canberra on Saturday, January 25.
While we here at ACM might reserve a special cheer for our favourite collaborator in kindness, Kath Koschel, as official media partner of the Australian of the Year Awards we are proud to celebrate the amazing work of all of this year’s contenders.
The following profiles and pictures of each state/territory’s 2025 Australian of the Year have been supplied by the National Australia Day Council, organisers of the awards.
The contenders: Who will be Australian of the Year for 2025?
Megan Gilmour (ACT)
When her son survived a traumatic illness, Megan Gilmour vowed to support the 1.2 million Australian children at risk of missing school due to chronic medical and mental conditions.
Leveraging her lived experience and work across 24 countries, Megan co-founded MissingSchool to keep these students connected to school, learning alongside their peers, from hospital or home.
In 2015, she co-authored Australia’s first national report on school isolation, initiating a Commonwealth report in 2016. Her 2017 Churchill Fellowship – across six countries – started the world’s first telepresence robot service, reconnecting more than 7000 Australian classmates in real-time.
A Deakin University Honorary Fellow and Alumnus of the Year, Megan’s 2021 policy proposal for improved data and systematic support was accepted by the Commonwealth.
Megan, 56, drives a campaign to sustain school connection for children’s wellbeing, reaching 14.1 million Australians in 2024. She now champions “learn from anywhere” globally as vital school policy for students unable to attend physically.
Kath Koschel (NSW)
A former professional cricketer and Ironman competitor, 38-year-old Kath Koschel has faced unimaginable hurdles. In her twenties, she broke her back and was told she may never walk again. Shortly afterwards, she lost her partner to suicide. Then, piecing her life back together, she was hit by a car and learned to walk again a second time.
Kath’s resilience helped her to not only overcome these challenges, but to see the good in the world. In 2015, she established Kindness Factory. The not-for-profit, now based in three countries, has inspired more than 7.5 million acts of kindness.
Its curriculum teaches the power of kindness to children at more than 3500 schools across Australia and had been downloaded more than 60,000 times globally.
Kath’s incredible story of courage and hope in adversity has become a global kindness movement, touching people from all walks of life. She consults to organisations globally, teaching the same principles of kindness.
Grant Ngulmiya Nundhirribala (NT)
Grant Ngulmiya Nundhirribala is an internationally recognised musician and a cultural leader in Arnhem Land’s Numbulwar community.
Grant, 49, has inspired Numbulwar’s next generation to excel at performing their traditional music and dance. He’s shown how Numbulwar people can make an income from expressing their internationally esteemed culture, in a place where employment is scarce.
Bridging cultural differences, Grant has been an ambassador for his music, language and culture across the world. He collaborated with the Budapest Art Orchestra to release an award-winning album and worked in Japan with North Indian classical artists. He’s travelled to Ubud, Bali, to collaborate with a Balinese Gamelan and recorded an album with a Spanish guitarist in Barcelona.
Grant was the driving force behind the Numburindi Festival in Numbulwar. He regularly performs at Garma Festival and took 45 Numbulwar artists to the Barunga Festival two years in a row. And for decades, he’s led the renowned Red Flag Dancers.
Geoffrey Smith (Queensland)
Data analyst Geoffrey Smith recognised the untapped potential of neurodivergent people to contribute to the workforce.
Geoffrey co-founded Australian Spatial Analytics (ASA), a work-integrated social enterprise providing geo-spatial and engineering services, addressing a skills shortage in the technology industry. Some 80 per cent of ASA’s employees are neurodivergent and 61 per cent have come from long-term unemployment, reflecting the social barriers that are often experienced by neurodivergent people. While the unemployment rate for adults with autism is 10 times higher than that of the general population, 35- year-old Geoffrey knows that their unique skillset can make them an asset in the workplace.
The inclusive practices of ASA include a range of workplace supports for executive functioning, social interactions and sensory sensitivities, facilitating participation to employees’ full potential, developing skills and leadership, and providing stable, long-term employment.
Geoffrey is a Social Impact Leadership Australia recipient, and through ASA, aims to employ 1000 people by 2030.
Professor Leah Bromfield (SA)
Professor Leah Bromfield, 46, has devoted her life to establishing practical, evidence-based solutions to child abuse and neglect – important but challenging work.
Currently the director and chair of child protection at the Australian Centre for Child Protection, Leah developed the first evidence-based analysis of child protection practice frameworks. She informed improvements including the development of a new framework in South Australia and was on the team which advocated for – and got – the first National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children in 2007.
Over two decades, Leah has become one of the most trusted researchers in the field. Her calls for transformation and radical redesign have led to world-first insights and contributed to significant changes in our understanding of, and responses to, child abuse and neglect. She’s leading the development of a new child protection vision for South Australia, exploring unconventional approaches and interrogating assumptions to break the cycle of abuse.
Sam Elsom (Tasmania)
Sam Elsom is a climate solutions innovator who has commercialised a new way to reduce methane emissions. Methane is a significant contributor to global warming because it’s 28 times more harmful than carbon dioxide.
Sam founded Sea Forest, one of the first start-ups to successfully turn asparagopsis, a native Australian red species of seaweed, into a livestock feed supplement.
Sea Forest’s SeaFeed supplement contains bioactive compounds that stop methane production in the animal’s gut. Adding just 0.2 per cent of the supplement to livestock feed can reduce the methane emissions of cows and sheep by up to 90 per cent, while increasing productivity.
Sea Forest was named as a finalist for the $1.9million Earthshot prize set up in 2020 by Prince William and nature documentarian Sir David Attenborough.
By dramatically reducing methane emissions, 44-year-old Sam is strengthening the sustainability of livestock industries, slowing global warming and potentially changing the course of our planet’s future.
Neale Daniher (Victoria)
Neale Daniher AO is a co-founder of FightMND, a charity that has raised and invested more than $100million into medical research to find a cure for motor neurone disease (MND).
Since his diagnosis in 2013, Neale and his family have been battling the effects of the disease, but he remains a tireless campaigner for a cure and is always raising awareness of MND.
A former AFL player with Essendon FC who went on to coach the Melbourne Demons, Neale has implemented his team-based football experience to galvanise community and corporate support for the cause. Now 63, he has lived with the debilitating disease for 10 years, defying the average life expectancy of just 27 months. With amazing courage and relentless drive, he’s dedicated his life to helping prevent the suffering of those who’ll be diagnosed in the future.
Dianne and Ian Haggerty (WA)
Dianne and Ian Haggerty are passionate about restoring landscape ecology and producing the healthiest possible food, fibre and beverages while supporting a healthier outcome for the planet.
With the foundation of Natural Intelligence Farming (NIF), Dianne and Ian pioneered a modern farming practise focused on supporting diverse microbiomes in soil, plant, and animals – boosting immune system function, nutrient diversity and resilience.
NIF places trust and appreciation in the wisdom of natural systems, enabling them to replace synthetic fertilisers with natural fertility processes, such as plant diversity, compost extract, worm liquids and the microbiome of ruminant livestock. In very dry and poor soil conditions, they’ve pioneered a farming approach that optimises water use and rebuilds soils, biodiversity and landscape function.
Working with 26,000 hectares, Dianne, aged 58, and Ian, 60, have demonstrated viability at scale. Their world-leading approach has attracted global recognition, with Dianne invited to present at Australian and international conferences supporting other farmers in their own journey.
- ACM, publisher of this masthead, is official media partner of the 2025 Australian of the Year Awards, which are announced on Saturday, January 25. Watch the ceremony at Canberra’s National Arboretum from 7.30pm on the ABC and iView.
