17/08/2026
Icons of Change International Awards 2026
Dr. Manisha Amin
Chief Executive Officer, Public Education Foundation
Founder & CEO, Inclusive Design Collective
Former CEO, Centre for Inclusive Design
SDG Focus: Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities
Changemaker for Inclusive Design, Accessibility, Disability Inclusion, and Human-Centred Leadership (Australia)
Dr. Manisha Amin is a distinguished social impact leader, inclusive design pioneer, author and educator whose more than three decades of work have been guided by a powerful belief: society becomes stronger when more people are given the opportunity to participate, contribute and flourish.
Across inclusion, education, technology, culture, social impact and organisational leadership, Dr. Amin has consistently challenged traditional ways of thinking about who gets to participate and whose experiences are considered when systems are designed. Her career demonstrates that inclusion is not simply about removing barriers, it is about redesigning systems so that human potential can be recognised and realised.
Transforming Inclusion Through Design
One of Dr. Amin's most significant contributions has been her leadership in the field of inclusive design.
As Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for Inclusive Design, she helped strengthen the organisation as a leading voice for inclusive design in Australia, working across government, industry, education and community sectors.
Under her leadership, inclusive design was positioned not merely as an accessibility requirement, but as an engine for innovation, better customer experiences and stronger social outcomes.
Her work demonstrated an important principle: solutions developed by listening to people who are often excluded can ultimately create better products, services and environments for everyone.
The impact of inclusive design can be seen in everyday innovations, from technologies and communications tools to products and services that were initially developed with people with disability in mind but ultimately benefited society as a whole.
Through this work, Dr. Amin helped organisations move beyond simply asking, How do we accommodate people? toward a more transformative question:
How can we design differently from the beginning so more people can belong?
Building the Inclusive Design Collective
In 2024, Dr. Amin founded the Inclusive Design Collective, creating a network of global inclusive design leaders and specialists who collaborate to address complex social and organisational challenges.
The Collective reflects her evolving vision of inclusion: bringing together expertise, lived experience, creativity and systems thinking to develop solutions that work across different communities and contexts.
Her leadership has helped position inclusive design as a strategic approach to organisational transformation, one that can influence products, services, technology, workplaces, education and community systems.
Advancing Accessible Technology and Digital Inclusion
Dr. Amin has been a strong advocate for making information, media and technology accessible to people who might otherwise be excluded.
Earlier in her career, as CEO of Media Access Australia, she led efforts to increase media accessibility for Australians with disability through advocacy, education, digital access services and practical training.
Her work connected government, industry, educators, consumer organisations and charities around the importance of accessibility in mainstream technology, online media, television, cinema, video, education and the arts.
She has also contributed to national conversations and initiatives involving audio description, inclusive digital practice and accessibility, helping bring the experiences of people with disability into discussions about technology and public participation.
For Dr. Amin, accessibility is not an optional addition to innovation. It is part of what responsible innovation should mean.
Putting Lived Experience at the Centre
At the heart of Dr. Amin's approach is a commitment to listening to people with lived experience.
Her work has consistently challenged organisations to move away from designing for communities and toward designing with them.
This philosophy has influenced her work across disability inclusion, cultural diversity, education, technology, community engagement and organisational change.
By placing lived experience at the centre of decision-making, she has helped demonstrate that people who have traditionally been treated as recipients of services can instead become co-designers, innovators and leaders of change.
Advancing Equity Through Education
Since 2025, Dr. Amin has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Public Education Foundation, where she leads an organisation dedicated to supporting students, families and educators in public schools through scholarships and strategic partnerships.
Her leadership focuses on strengthening equity and expanding educational opportunity for students experiencing disadvantage.
She is working to deepen the Foundation's impact, expand access to scholarships and support, engage communities and partners, and strengthen the organisation's contribution to a more inclusive public education system.
This work reflects her long-standing conviction that education can fundamentally change the trajectory of a person's life, and that opportunity should not be determined by circumstance.
A Career Rooted in Social Impact
Dr. Amin's leadership journey extends across some of Australia's most significant social impact organisations.
She previously served as Marketing and Fundraising Director at Barnardos Australia, supporting initiatives for disadvantaged children while overseeing fundraising, grants, brand, reputation and organisational development.
She also held senior communications and leadership roles at the Cancer Council NSW, Guide Dogs NSW, and the University of Technology Sydney.
These experiences have given her a rare understanding of how communications, organisational strategy, fundraising, education and social purpose can come together to create lasting impact.
Her leadership is therefore not confined to one sector. It exists at the intersection of people, systems and purpose.
Championing Diversity and Human-Centred Organisations
Dr. Amin has also contributed her expertise through board and advisory appointments, including work with organisations such as the Diversity Council Australia and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
These roles reflect her continuing contribution to conversations about diversity, culture, communication and social inclusion.
She has increasingly explored emerging questions surrounding artificial intelligence, inclusion and the future of human-centred organisations, recognising that technological transformation must remain connected to human values.
As AI and automation reshape workplaces and institutions, her perspective is particularly important: innovation should not simply make systems faster, it should make them more human, equitable and accessible.
Storytelling, Creativity and Human Flourishing
Beyond organisational leadership, Dr. Amin is an accomplished author and novelist.
Her book, Dancing to the Flute, published by Allen & Unwin, reflects another dimension of her contribution: the belief that stories can help people understand lives, cultures and experiences different from their own.
Her work as an educator, facilitator and writer brings together storytelling, creativity, reflection and social impact.
Increasingly, she has also explored the idea of “rewilding”, encouraging people, organisations and communities to move beyond narrow definitions of productivity and success and reconnect with purpose, possibility, relationships and human flourishing.
It is a philosophy that complements her inclusive design work: creating environments in which people are not merely productive, but are able to belong, contribute and thrive.
A New Vision of Leadership
Dr. Amin's leadership is ultimately about changing the questions organisations ask.
Instead of asking who fits into an existing system, she encourages leaders to consider how the system itself can change.
Instead of treating difference as a problem, she sees diversity as a source of insight and innovation.
Instead of designing solutions for communities, she advocates designing them with the people who experience the challenges firsthand.
And instead of measuring success solely through productivity, she invites organisations to consider human flourishing, connection, purpose and possibility.
A Changemaker for Reduced Inequalities
Dr. Manisha Amin embodies the Sustainable Development Goal 10 – Reduced Inequalities through her lifelong commitment to removing barriers to participation and ensuring that people from diverse backgrounds, abilities and circumstances have a meaningful voice in the systems that affect their lives.
Her impact can be seen in organisations transformed, communities heard, technologies made more accessible, students given new opportunities and leaders challenged to think differently about inclusion.
Recognition Earned Through Impact
As she is honoured at the Icons of Change International Awards 2026, Dr. Manisha Amin represents a powerful form of leadership, one that does not simply speak about inclusion, but redesigns the conditions that make inclusion possible.
For more than three decades, she has worked to ensure that disability, culture, diversity and lived experience are not afterthoughts in organisational and social decision-making.
She has built bridges between inclusion and innovation, accessibility and technology, education and opportunity, lived experience and leadership, and organisational success and human flourishing.
Her legacy is not simply a collection of positions held or organisations led. It is a growing body of work demonstrating that when we design with greater humanity, more people can participate, and everyone can benefit.
For her outstanding contributions to inclusive design, disability inclusion, accessibility, education, social innovation, diversity, human-centred leadership and the advancement of equitable participation, Dr. Manisha Amin is proudly recognised as a 2026 Icon of Change.
