Mother Maya Tiwari Mother Maya (Maya Tiwari) is an outstanding spiritual leader/teacher who has been praised by the Parliament of World Religion’s for her global work in fostering wellness, peace and inter-faith understanding. An acclaimed author, founder of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda and Mother Om Mission, Mother also survived the odyssey of ovarian cancer at the age of 23. Belonging to the ancient wisdom tradition of Veda Vyasa, India, she walks a simple, accessible life in service of all. Maya received the prestigious Dhanvantari International Award and Rishi Award for her quarter-century long pioneering work in Ayurveda. Click here for Mother's story and here for her website.

Annabel McGoldrick Annabel McGoldrick is pioneer in the field of peace journalism. A former journalist, turned psychotherapist, she’s passionate about how information can help us understand ourselves and each other. Annabel is currently a PhD candidate and a part-time lecturer at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, specialising in Peace Journalism and the Psychology of Peace. Her television career included reporting for World News Australia, on SBS Television. Credits include the Sunday programme, on Channel Nine TV, with an exclusive filmed report about the activities of Australian mining companies in the southern Philippines. Annabel presented and chaired Reporting the World, a series of high-profile, on-the-record discussions involving editors and senior reporters in London, on issues of representation and responsibility in the coverage of conflict. She has led professional training workshops for journalists and peace workers in many countries, including the US, UK, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nepal, Armenia and Norway.

Benson Saulo Benson Saulo is the 2011 Australian youth representative for the United Nations. Benson is passionate about youth leadership and the positive impact young people can have on their communities, nations and the world. As the youth represntative to the United Nations, Benson travels across Australia, engaging young people to better understand what drives them and what young people are passionate about. Benson is the first Aboriginal Australian to hold this position, and feels it reflects our drive for an inclusive/equal Australia.

Kathy Kelly Kathy Kelly, 59, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) - a campaign to end US military and economic warfare.  Since May 2010, she has visited Afghanistan five times with small delegations intent on learning more about conditions faced by ordinary people in a country afflicted by three decades of warfare.  Voices for Creative Nonviolence has been working closely with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in search of non-military solutions to end the war.  In 2009, she lived in Gaza during the final days of the Operation Cast Lead bombing; later that year, Voices formed another small delegation to visit Pakistan, aiming to learn more about the effects of US drone warfare on the civilian population and to better understand consequences of US foreign policy in Pakistan. From 1996 – 2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kathy and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 "Shock and Awe" bombing.  She was sentenced to one year in federal prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites (1988-89) and spent three months in prison, in 2004, for crossing the line at Fort Benning's military training school. As a war tax refuser, she has refused payment of all forms of federal income tax since 1980. She and her companions at the Voices office in Chicago believe that non-violence necessarily involves simplicity, service, sharing of resources and non-violent direct action in resistance to war and oppression.

Mark Williamson Mark Williamson is the director of Action for Happiness He has a long-standing interest in the area of happiness and well-being and is passionate about creating a more balanced, collaborative society that focuses less on consumption and material wealth and more on the things that really matter. Mark brings a diverse range of experience across private and non-profit sectors, from start-ups through to large multi-national companies. He was most recently Director of the Innovation unit at the Carbon Trust, where he led a team developing and demonstrating solutions for a low-carbon future. He was also a non-executive director of Solar Press, a start-up designing low-cost solar cells for use in the developing world, and founder of What You Can Do, an online initiative encouraging personal action on climate change.

Jay Hoad Fijian born South Australian musician Jay Hoad has two internationally-released albums to his credit, "Stories For The Soul" and "Warmth In The White". The didgeridoo and stringed instrument virtuoso performs both as a solo artist, with an enormous “one man band” set up, and also fronts the high energy seven piece Jay Hoad Band. Jay has spent the last seven years touring the globe, following the sun and his inspiration for music throughout the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, Bali, Fiji, Canada and North America, keeping up a relentless performance schedule and performing at some of the worlds most prestigious festivals including WOMAD, Uprising Festival (FIJI), Bob Marley Music Fest (USA), Spiegeltent(AUS), Musikfest (USA) amongst many others.

Simon Mckeon Simon McKeon is the 2011 Australian of the year. Simon McKeon is a prominent investment banker and record breaking yachtsman, but it’s his efforts to support multiple Australian and international charities which has earned him great admiration. While enjoying a successful corporate career, Simon decided he didn’t want to put off serious engagement with the community sector until his most productive years were behind him. So in 1994 he transitioned into a part-time role as Executive Chairman of Macquarie Group’s Melbourne office, enabling him to support a range of causes and organisations, including joining the board of World Vision Australia. Simon is currently Chairman of the CSIRO and Business for Millennium Development, which encourages business to engage with the developing world. Together with crewman Tim Daddo, Simon has held the World Speed Sailing Record for most of the last two decades. A leading social entrepreneur, Simon demonstrates how business and philanthropy go hand in hand, giving tremendously of his time and energy to many organisations.

Robert Biswas-Diener Dr. Biswas-Diener is widely known as the “Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology” because his research on happiness has taken him to such far-flung places as Greenland, India, Kenya and Israel. Dr. Biswas-Diener is a leading authority on strengths, culture, courage, and happiness. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and half a dozen books on diverse psychological topics. He is best known for his pioneering work in the application of positive psychology. Dr. Biswas-Diener is the foremost authority on positive psychology coaching and has consulted with a wide range of international organizations on performance management and leadership development.He is managing director of Positive Acorn (USA). www.positiveacorn.com

Movin Melvin Brown Movin' Melvin" Brown is truly a Renaissance man. He is a wonderful singer, dancer, writer, philosopher and man of peace. His energy and his spirit light up any room. He has devoted his life to sharing his joy with the world. His sound has often been compared to such great entertainers as Otis Redding, Ray Charles, The Platters, Louis Armstrong, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Sam Cooke, Harry BeLaFonte, Sammy Davis Jr., and many gospel greats!

Pat Lamanna Pat Lamanna is the 2009 Senior Australian of the year. Italian-born, Pat immigrated to Australia as a sixteen-year-old with little education and no English. He first worked picking potatoes near Colac, but subsequently took a job in a fruit shop because he was keen to learn the language of his new home. In 1972 he formed the successful wholesale company La Manna Bananas; in the same year he founded the Lions Club of the Melbourne Markets, which became the highest fundraising Lions Club in Australia. LaManna’s own experience of economic adversity has inspired his support of many charities in Australia and overseas. After suffering a stroke in his late sixties, he formed the Pat LaManna Cancer and Stroke Foundation, which has raised over $1.5 million for scientific research. He now has many of his own charities and is recognised as a giving philanthropist.

Miriam Castilla Miriam Castilla is an award winning mortgage adviser who started her working life as a Petroleum Engineer, with a variety of different businesses and careers along the way. Born in Germany and emigrating to Australia in her teens as the daughter of a Greek diplomat, she's fluent in three languages and sees herself as a 'citizen of the world'. Her passion is to empower and support others to achieve their personal, business and financial goals. Through her work with Advantage SA's  'Speakers In Schools' program she's able to impact and inspire young people with the message that it's ok to expect to achieve your dreams. Concerned with the amount of stress most people have around money and the lack financial literacy in our country, she's particularly focused on this area.  She first and foremost encourages people to take a fresh look at their relationship with money.

Jeremy Donovan Jeremy Donovan stands on the stages of the world sharing the 60,000 year old wisdom and understandings of his culture, heritage and ancestry. Through his captivating and informative presentations, he unites the many worlds that we all come from. His background could have entrapped him into a life of insignificance, however his choices, his connections and rediscovery of his culture allowed him to confront his life’s direction and to consciously make changes. Jeremy is a talented artist and musician and is one of Australia’s most celebrated keynote speakers.

Madison Stewart   Madison 'Pip' Stewart is a passionate young conservationist working to protect sharks and educate society about the beauty behind the beast. While others fear sharks, Madison chooses to dive with them, in an attempt to show society that it is sharks who should, and do, fear us. Her message is simple - we are killing more than 100 million sharks every year, while on average just five people die from shark attacks annually. She is passionate and quietly confident, and has already done so much to show the importance these creatures have to the oceans and ourselves. Please see her incredible films at http://www.youtube.com/user/elements5pip

Thomas Franklin Thomas Franklin, otherwise known as 'Dancing Tommy' has dedicated his life to putting a smile on peoples faces, and sharing the gift he has been given, joy and happiness. But he is a man that needs to be seen to be believed, so watch and read more about Dancing Tommy click here or here

Peter Croft Peter Croft is a former Director of the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth Project for the SA Government and has extensive project management experience in the public sector. Now retired, his volunteer interests include being a member of the Oxfam Australia Board, volunteer submissions writer for the Conservation Council of South Australia, and member of the Community Sustainability Advisory Group of the City of Unley. Current projects include helping develop a Food Security Strategy for the City of Unley and arguing for water for South Australia's Lower Lakes in the Basin Plan being developed by the Federal Government.