Featured speakers
Keynote speaker
Professor Ruth Bridgstock
Professor Ruth Bridgstock ALTF PFHEA is Professor, Education Transformation and Future Capabilities at Swinburne University of Technology, where she leads institution-wide transformation through future and change capabilities across curriculum, assessment, learner journeys, practice-based education and digitally enabled delivery. She recently guided Swinburne to achieve Moonshot 1 of its Horizon 2025 strategic plan every learner gets a work experience by embedding a fully scaffolded progression of work integrated learning across all undergraduate courses. This work led to the university receiving the 2024 Australian Financial Review Higher Education Award for Employability, and Ruth being recognised with the 2024 ATEM Award for Excellence in Leadership.
An internationally recognised researcher, Ruth’s work focuses on graduate employability, authentic learning, and education for the future of work and life. Her research examines how students, educators, and institutions can build future-capability—the capacity to adapt, innovate, and thrive amid digital, social, and environmental change. Ruth is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Australian National Senior Teaching Fellow. Her research has been cited more than 8,000 times, with key publications including Higher Education and the Future of Graduate Employability (Edward Elgar) and Creative Graduate Pathways (Routledge).
Featured speakers
Dr Gregor Lichtfuss
Dr Gregor Lichtfuss is a biotech entrepreneur who co-created Cardior Pharmaceuticals and co-founded ASX-listed Exopharm. Working with students as an industry partner has been central to his approach: Exopharm hosted over 10 students and later employed nine. He has served on Biomedical and Health Science advisory boards at Monash and Swinburne, and since 2025 has been involved in student programs across Melbourne, Monash and Swinburne spanning nine projects in 2025 alone. Seeing the challenges approaching over the next 25 years also compelled him to start creating a book to prepare young people for their future.
Professor Elizabeth Molloy
Professor Liz Molloy is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Curriculum) leading whole-of-university initiatives in academic program innovation and design, working closely with faculties, leadership from other chancellery portfolios and across the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) portfolio. Liz first joined the University of Melbourne as a lecturer in 2000 and has undertaken an extensive academic career spanning the University of Melbourne, Monash University, and even the Australian Athletics Team as Team Physiotherapist during the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia (2006). She served as Deputy Dean Education in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences 2023-2026.
Gurshan Nanda
Gurshan Singh Nanda is a recent University of Melbourne graduate, student leader, and Founder & Managing Director of the EdLodge Foundation, a student-led non-profit that has engaged thousands of students and volunteers globally to expand access to education. He currently works at the University of Melbourne as a Project Officer and has been actively involved in student representation and leadership initiatives. He also interned at the University with under the S@W Internship program as an IT/Web Support Intern with the Collaboration Applications team. His interests include community impact, process optimisation and fostering authentic connections that bring people, ideas, and opportunities together.
Eva Rodgers
Eva Rodgers is a marketing and communications professional, community founder and content strategist based in Melbourne. In 2025, she graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Media and Communications and Politics and International Studies. She is the founder of Coffee x Comms, a community connecting emerging marketing and communications professionals through events and industry conversations, and the founder of Socially Made, a creative agency specialising in social media and content strategy. Eva is passionate about community building, digital culture and creating meaningful opportunities for young people entering the creative industries.
Moderator
Dr Elena Balcaite
Dr Elena Balcaite is Acting Director, Arts Teaching Innovation and Senior Lecturer (Experiential Learning) in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. Elena specialises in Experiential Learning, Work Integrated Learning, and undergraduate teaching, particularly in multidisciplinary environments.
Elena coordinates a flagship internship subject within the Bachelor of Arts and leads curriculum development and renewal projects across the Humanities and Social Sciences with the focus on classroom-based Experiential Learning. In 2026, Elena was awarded the GEM Scott Fellowship for a project that aims to prepare undergraduate students for uncertain futures through curriculum transformation.