About Us

Joe Zabar has worked within the government and not-for-profit sectors to improve the lives of vulnerable people both in Australia and overseas.

Joe has held leadership and governance roles across the not-for-profit sector, working with senior government officials, Ministers, Members of Parliament, Senators, and staff in the pursuit of important social and economic policy and legislative reform. He is motivated to use his extensive network and experience to support the work of a number of charities across the nation. With extensive experience in organisational management and change, advocacy, network engagement, policy development and implementation, Joe continues to be a leading voice within the social services sector on social and economic policy with a strong record of negotiating with government to deliver positive changes for the sector and the vulnerable people they serve.

Joe is currently serving as the Chair of Mercy Works and is a visitor with the Crawford School’s Tax and Transfer Policy Institute.

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Emma Noble is a communications professional with 25 years’ experience on two continents. She worked in book publishing in the UK and Australia for many years, in a brand management/PR role, before launching her own consultancy, Noble Words Communications, in 2010 whose clients included the Australian Government’s Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, the Sydney Writers Festival and Audible.

Since 2017, Emma has excelled in leading communications for not-for-profits in education and health. She has a passion for social justice and has volunteered her time and expertise to a range of causes. She lives in Melbourne.

Sharon Burns has broad commercial experience gained within the Financial Services sector (Private and Public) attained in many operating environments, and business cultures, over 20+ years. Her experience includes a mix of Finance operations, reporting and commercial business roles. Executive accountabilities have included execution of business transformation programmes and business change requiring fit for purpose governance and risk management. Sharon’s qualifications include Accounting, MBA and GAICD. Sharon’s childhood was enjoyed on a working dairy farm in the Hunter Valley, NSW. She now resides in Sydney, NSW. Her interests include health & fitness, art, theatre and travel. Sharon’s community contribution supporting PEARLS pre-eclampsia research labs, Sydney for many years, volunteering for the Holdsworth Community Centre, a committee member of the Queen Street West Woollahra Association (QSWWA), and non executive director of COTA NSW are most rewarding.

Alyssa has held leadership roles across government, private and not-for-profit organisations. She is driven to create structural change to achieve economic and social equity, and realise wellbeing for individuals, institutions, and communities. She has managed national campaigns and projects including Raise the Rate, NAIDOC Week, and access to reproductive healthcare. She has also served as the CEO of a charity focused on student welfare. Alyssa is the Chair of Better Renting, and Co-Founder of 4 Day Week Australia.

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Dr Gen Ford is a research management professional based in Melbourne. Since 2011 she has specialised in all aspects of higher education research funding including coordinating major bids to the ARC, NHMRC, CRC Program, state and federal governments and philanthropic funders. Gen provides high level strategic and editing advice on all ARC schemes, has particular expertise in research impact and draws on her professional development qualifications and skills to support early and mid-career researchers with developing their research ambitions.

Gen has a broad understanding of the higher education landscape more generally, research ethics and integrity matters, RHD candidature management, budgeting and forecasting, strategic research reporting, research contract negotiation and designing and implementing research strategy. Her academic qualifications are in International Relations, History and Politics.

Gen is also a credentialled Life Coach, budding permaculturist and singlehood advocate. She demonstrated her dedication to singlehood advocacy during the Covid pandemic in Victoria by mounting and extended campaign to secure Bubble Buddies for Victorians living alone during the extended lockdowns.

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Donna Ward has worked in community management, social research and policy development in a number of social services including Anglicare (WA), Western Australian Council of Social Services, and The Brotherhood of St Laurence. She was the Founding Chair of Fitzroy Learning Committee, a Board Member of Prahran City Mission, the Inaugural President of Out of the Asylum Writers Group in Fremantle, and is a founding member of the International Singles Studies Association. During the 1990s she established a private psychotherapy practice which included an organisational consultancy focussing on strategic planning, conflict resolution, research and report writing. In her retirement she established, Indigo: the Journal of Western Australian Creative Writing, and the micro-press Inkerman & Blunt. Her prose has appeared in Island, Westerly, and Southerly Magazines, GriffithReview, Huffington Post, The Big Issue, and The Victorian Writer. Her memoir, She I Dare Not Name: A Spinster’s Meditations on Life, was released by Allen & Unwin in 2020. Throughout 2022, she campaigned on the unique challenges facing single people, particularly women without children. In 2024 she presented at the Third International Singles Studies Conference in Boston, USA, established Singlehood Australia, and instigated the International Singlehood Advocacy Network. Donna is an Australian authority and thought leader on singlehood, she is affiliated with Antwerp University, and passionately dedicated to the economic equality and social inclusion of all single people, particularly single women without children.