Thursday 23rd April 2026
8:30am – 5:30pm
Lighthouse Gallery, Maritime Museum, Sydney
The Fathering Summit offers a platform for sharing experiences, discussing research findings, networking and executing innovative strategies to drive meaningful change in the way fathers are perceived and engage in their families’ lives.
We unite a diverse group of participants, including, leading researchers, advocates, educators, policymakers, industry professionals, fathers and influencers, all committed to discussing the future of fathering.
What to Expect
- A full day in-person conference held in Sydney CBD location
- One international keynote, five panel sessions, a discussion session and networking opportunities
- Through panel sessions and interactive Q&As, speakers will unpack key issues such as the Australian findings from the State of the World’s Fathers report, men’s mental health, healthy masculinity and raising boys, family safety and respectful relationships, social inequity and disadvantage, and what the future of fathering looks like in Australia.
State of the World's Fathers - Australian 2026 Findings
Equimundo
WSU
Dr Alina Ewald is a Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Western Sydney University and a member of the Translational Health Research Institute (THRI). Her research programme centres on fathering, men’s caregiving identities, experiences of parenting, and the structural and cultural conditions that enable or constrain fathers’ involvement in family life. Her work examines how gender norms, workplace cultures, and policy settings shape men’s experiences of parenting and work-life balance – and the flow-on effects for families and gender equity more broadly. Alina has built a sustained body of research on fathers and flexible working, exploring the invisible boundaries, occupational hierarchies, and organisational practices that influence whether men can meaningfully adjust their work to accommodate caregiving. Alina completed her PhD in Psychology on fathers’ experiences of flexible working at Western Sydney University in 2022 and is an active member of the School’s Equity and Diversity Committee.
Men’s Mental Health
Flinders University
Dr Ian Zajac is a Clinical Psychologist and Breakthrough Research Fellow in Suicide Prevention at Flinders University. His research is focussed on men’s mental health and suicidality. His work examines concepts including masculinity, identity and social expectations to understand how these shape men’s lives. Ian collaborates nationally and internationally on research projects and he is a regular panellist, media commentator and podcast guest on men’s mental health, advocating for prevention-focused, gender-responsive systems that support men earlier.
Alongside research, Ian is the Founder and Director of MensPsych, a psychology practice dedicated to working with adolescent boys and men. Together with his team of psychologists, Ian works with fathers, working professionals, tradesmen, high-performers and men navigating depression, anxiety, anger, burnout, relationship strain and major life transitions. Ian also has an active role in training future psychologists, with a particular focus on why men don’t engage with traditional services until things reach crisis point, and what clinicians can do differently.
Running for Resilience
Ben Alexander is a former Wallabies rugby player, father of three, and founder of Running for Resilience. After retiring from professional sport, Ben experienced burnout and struggled with his mental health, which led him to rethink how men perform, cope, and stay connected through different seasons of life and fatherhood.
Today, Ben speaks to leaders, teams, and communities about nervous system regulation, energy management, and creating environments where people can thrive without burning out. His work blends lived experience and practical tools to help fathers show up with more calm, presence, and consistency at home and at work.
Australian Community Father of the Year 2024
Shaun Chandran is the Australian Community Father of the Year 2024 and Regional Director of Therapeutic Services at the Australian Childhood Foundation in Western Australia. A psychologist and father of two, Shaun is passionate about supporting fathers’ mental health through connection and community.
Shaun is the founder of Belmont Dads Group, one of Australia’s largest community dads groups and leads his school dads group, creating spaces where fathers and children can connect from the playground to the schoolground. He believes peer support and community are powerful interventions for fathers’ wellbeing and child development, guided by his mantra, “Why dad alone, when we can dad together.”
Keynotes
Boys and Socialisation
Researcher
Judy Y. Chu, Ed.D. is a researcher and educator whose work highlights boys’ relational strengths and aims to support boys’ healthy development by fostering their essential connections. She earned a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University, where she trained with Professor Carol Gilligan, and has taught a course on Boys’ Psychosocial Development at Stanford University for over 20 years (2003-2025).
She is the author of When Boys Become BOYS, which focuses on early childhood, and co-editor of Adolescent Boys: Exploring Diverse Cultures of Boyhood. She has had the honor and pleasure of serving in advisory roles for Movember, Equimundo, The Foundation for Positive Masculinity, Boys’ Club of New York, The Partnership for Male Youth, Build Up Boys, The Representation Project, Next Gen Men, the APA Task Force on Supporting Boys in Schools, kNEWjoy, and Roots of Empathy.
Embedding Fatherhood in Men’s Mental Health Policy
Special Envoy for Men’s Health
Dan Repacholi is the Federal Member for Hunter and Australia’s first-ever Special Envoy for Men’s Health, a role created to put a stronger national focus on improving the health and wellbeing of Australian men and boys.
Before entering politics, Dan represented Australia at five Olympic Games in pistol shooting and built a career as a fitter and turner, working alongside miners, power station workers, and tradies in the Hunter. Since being elected in 2022, Dan has been a strong advocate for jobs, local industry, and health services. As Special Envoy, he works with communities, health organisations and government to break down stigma, improve access to services, and start new conversations about men’s health.
Known for his down-to-earth style and deep roots in the Hunter community, Dan brings both lived experience and passion to his work in Parliament and to his role championing men’s health nationally.
Raising Boys & Masculinity
The Man Cave
Ben Vasiliou is a social entrepreneur and the proud CEO of The Man Cave, Australia’s leading preventative mental health charity for teenage boys and young men. Ben is a social justice advocate, a seasoned CEO and a Father of 2. He has held a number of non-executive director board positions with Australian charities and is a Justice of the Peace. Ben graduated from the Executive Education in Social Entrepreneurship Program at Stanford University. Most importantly, Ben has an insatiable appetite to change the world.
Lads Need Dads
Sonia Shaljean is the Founder and Managing Director of the award-winning Lads Need Dads, a UK early-intervention mentoring organisation supporting boys aged 10–18 growing up without a consistent father figure. The organisation was established in 2015.
For over twenty years Sonia worked across criminal justice, substance misuse, domestic abuse, homelessness and complex family dynamics. Across this work she observed a recurring pattern: many of the men she supported had grown up without a father or had experienced a negative relationship with one. This led her to focus on early intervention and prevention – equipping, engaging and inspiring boys to reach their full potential.
Sonia is currently a Churchill Fellow researching mentoring and early-intervention approaches for boys – particularly those growing up without a father – across South Africa, the United States and Australia.
Movember
Dr. Zac Seidler is a Clinical Psychologist, the Global Director of Research at Movember and an Associate Professor with Orygen at The University of Melbourne. Zac has devoted several years to the goal of reducing the staggering male suicide and domestic violence rates, treating and researching men’s mental health, with over 150 peer-reviewed articles and 2 edited books published. Zac has worked clinically with men of different ages and presentations from adolescents in Darwin with early psychosis to older HIV+ men struggling with adjustment. Zac appears regularly in the media including the ABC, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Sky News and in The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald for his work.
Parenting Expert
Maggie Dent is a much-loved and trusted voice for parents, families and educators across Australia and beyond. A bestselling parenting author, she has written more than 10 books, including Mothering Our Boys, From Boys to Men, Girlhood and Help Me Help My Teen. Maggie hosts The Good Enough Dad podcast and led six seasons of the acclaimed ABC podcast, Parental As Anything. In 2025, she brought her wisdom to television in the ABC series The Role of a Lifetime. A mother of four sons and a grateful grandmother, Maggie continues to support calmer, more connected childhoods.
Family Safety
Full Stop Australia
Karen is the CEO of Full Stop Australia. She has more than 30 years’ experience working across NFP organisations, government and research institutions in roles including CEO and executive leadership, strategy, advocacy, research, training, service delivery and community development.
Karen has worked in areas including child protection, early childhood education, out of home care, domestic and family violence, family law, homelessness, disability services and mental health.
She has worked extensively with culturally diverse communities. As a consultant, Karen advised federal and state government departments in areas such as program design, procurement and system reform and ran a training and coaching practice supporting sector workers and leaders. Karen is a passionate advocate for prevention, recovery and healing.
Women's Safety Commissioner
Hannah commenced as the inaugural NSW Women’s Safety Commissioner in 2023. In this role, she provides leadership across the whole government to improve responses to domestic, family and sexual violence. Previously Hannah worked as an international human rights lawyer at the United Nations, as the Director of Disability Rights at the Australian Human Rights Commission, and as a barrister in London and Adelaide.
QUT
Professor Michael Flood is a Professor at the Queensland University of Technology. He is an internationally recognised researcher on men, masculinities, and violence prevention.
He has made significant contributions to scholarly and public understanding of men’s involvements in preventing violence against women and building gender equality, and to scholarship and programming regarding violence and prevention. Professor Flood also is an educator and advocate.
eSafety Commissioner
Gulsum Adas is the Director of Children, Youth and Families at the eSafety Commissioner, where she leads national initiatives that support children, young people and families to have safer, more positive experiences online. Her work explores how technology shapes belonging, identity and vulnerability and how families can build trust, resilience and connection in a digital world. Gulsum is committed to equipping parents, caregivers and professionals with the evidence‑based tools they need to support children’s online safety, and to fostering environments online and offline, where all children can thrive.
Disadvantage & Social Inequity
NSW Community Fathering Manager
Tim is a husband of 10 years and a father of 4 (including twins). Accordingin to Tim, being a father has been the greatest joy and challenge of his life all at the same time.
His professional experience consists of degrees in Psychology and Counselling as well as over a decade working with children and families both in NGO’s and private practice in the Illawarra and South coast region. Ranging from roles in child protection, Pediatric counselling, positive behavior support, program design and management.
Tim’s role with The Fathering Project encompasses leading and driving our work nationally for dads, kids and families to work towards every child in Australia experiencing an effective and engaged father or father figure.
Researcher
Elisabeth Duursma is a Research Theme Fellow at Western Sydney University’s TeEACH Research Centre. Her work focuses on child language and literacy development, parenting, and the role of fathers in children’s learning. She has led extensive research on fathers’ book reading, including disadvantaged groups such as incarcerated fathers. Elisabeth holds a PhD in Human Development and Education from Harvard University and has held academic roles in the U.S. and the Netherlands.
The Kids Research Institute
Professor Francis Mitrou is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the Centre for Child Health Research, The University of Western Australia, and Head of Human Development and Community Wellbeing at The Kids Research Institute Australia.
An economist by training, he specialises in research on vulnerable children and families, with expertise in child development, mental health, Indigenous human development, and linked data.
He leads major national research projects, including work on children’s health trajectories, fathers’ influence on child development, and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on wellbeing.
Discussion Session: The Future of Fathering –Empowering the Next Generation
Clinical Psychologist
James is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society and the College of Clinical Psychologists. Over the course of his career James has worked in a number of consulting and clinical psychology settings, including his own private practice where he has specialised in men’s mental health. James has provided training services to organisations to assist with improving workplace wellbeing, as well as providing keynote adresses on topics including healthy relationships, work and family integration, fatherhood, and men’s mental health.
He completed his doctorate (PhD), investigating the importance of relationship closeness between fathers and their children, and barriers to father involvement. James has previously taught in the post graduate programs in Psychology and Counselling at the University of Southern Queensland. Currently James is a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of New England.
Researcher
Judy Y. Chu, Ed.D. is a researcher and educator whose work highlights boys’ relational strengths and aims to support boys’ healthy development by fostering their essential connections. She earned a doctorate in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University, where she trained with Professor Carol Gilligan, and has taught a course on Boys’ Psychosocial Development at Stanford University for over 20 years (2003-2025).
She is the author of When Boys Become BOYS, which focuses on early childhood, and co-editor of Adolescent Boys: Exploring Diverse Cultures of Boyhood. She has had the honor and pleasure of serving in advisory roles for Movember, Equimundo, The Foundation for Positive Masculinity, Boys’ Club of New York, The Partnership for Male Youth, Build Up Boys, The Representation Project, Next Gen Men, the APA Task Force on Supporting Boys in Schools, kNEWjoy, and Roots of Empathy.
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