Meet the Members of PWDA’s Access to Enterprise Project Advisory Board
We’re pleased to introduce the Advisory Board for our Access to Enterprise project.
This initiative is designed to support women and feminine-identifying people with disability to grow strong, sustainable micro and small businesses.
Access to Enterprise is designed to
- connect women with disability to mentoring, training and networking opportunities, and
- strengthen pathways to sustainable self-employment.
The project will be delivered through a hybrid, disability-led model, with a strong focus on building confidence, skills, networks and business acumen.
Learn more at the Access to Enterprise Project page.
Supporting women with disability in small business
Research shows people with disability are 40% more likely to be self-employed or entrepreneurial than those without disability (UTS, 2020). Self-employment can offer greater flexibility, autonomy and financial independence, with pathways that can be tailored to individual strengths, lifestyles and access needs.
Role of the Advisory Board
The project is grounded in lived experience. The Advisory Board ensures the voices of women and feminine-identifying people with disability remain central to the design and delivery of the project. Members provide expertise in entrepreneurship across diverse sectors and are committed to strengthening opportunities for women with disability through guidance, knowledge-sharing and access to influential networks.
About our Advisory Board members
We’re pleased to have selected this group of incredible leaders, advocates and changemakers.
- Caitlin Blanch
- Michelle Brown
- Stacey Copas
- Felicity Hearnden
- Heidi La Paglia
- Amberwren Long
- Laura Pettenuzzo
- Sharon Zivkovic
Each member brings valuable expertise and lived experience that will strengthen the project and help ensure it delivers meaningful impact.
Caitlin Blanch
Caitlin is a 20-year-old student and advocate, passionate about youth voice, inclusivity, and disability and human rights. She brings lived experience and intersectionality as a young person with disability to her roles with organisations such as Children and Young People with Disability Australia and Project Rockit’s National Youth Collective, Government advisory positions and various projects that align with her expertise. As Co-President of the award-winning grassroots movement We Are Not Alone, she helps amplify the voices of regional, rural and remote young people with disability.
Stacey Copas
Stacey Copas is the founder of the Academy of Resilience and author of How to Be Resilient. A woman with lived experience of disability, Stacey has run her own business since 2011 and co-founded another the following year. She co-designed and co-facilitated a Certificate III in Microbusiness for people with disability, and holds a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment, with further training in facilitation and entrepreneurship. With expertise in keynote speaking, coaching, mentoring, marketing, and podcasting, Stacey brings a blend of practical experience and lived insight to support women with disability in business.
Michelle Brown
Michelle Brown is a dedicated community practitioner with over nine years’ experience in the disability sector, spanning advocacy, program development, co-design, and lived experience leadership. As a professional artist, her inclusive art studio business provided creative learning opportunities for people with disability. Michelle supported entrepreneurs with disability through the IgniteAbility program helping to develop and deliver training, as well as leading lived experience working groups. She co-led initiatives focused on improving employment outcomes for people with disability and has extensive experience in public speaking and MC roles.
Felicity Hearnden
Felicity Hearnden (she/her) is a professional organiser and decluttering coach, and the founder of Thriving Difference. As an AuDHD (Autistic, ADHD) disabled woman, who lives with multiple chronic illnesses, she specialises in supporting people with practical strategies that work with their energy and capacity. With a background in professional learning and development, specialising in inclusion and accessibility, she is passionate about sharing her experience and knowledge with others.
Heidi La Paglia Reid
Heidi La Paglia Reid is a disability rights consultant, advocate, and community organiser with extensive experience in self-employment and sector leadership. She is the founder of Heidi La Paglia – Disability Rights Consulting, where she provides strategic advice, facilitation, and lived-experience engagement to government, service providers, and peak bodies.
Heidi has played key roles in building cross-movement coalitions and governance structures at both state and national levels. She currently serves on the Steering Committee of Every Australian Counts, the board of the Regional Autistic Engagement Network in Tasmania and contributes to national advocacy through the Nobody Worse Off Coalition and the Australian Neurodivergent Parents Association.
Heidi is passionate about enabling people with disability to shape policy, run their own enterprises, and build sustainable careers on their own terms.
Amberwren Long
Amberwren Long is a professional creative, coach, and counsellor whose work spans media, wellbeing, faith and social advocacy. With a background in award winning film art, television, radio, podcasting, writing, and online production; she brings a deeply human, purpose driven approach to all she creates.
As a speaker and advocate, she has worked with non-profits and community groups, supporting individuals facing systemic challenges such as disability, discrimination, coercive control, and homelessness. She is completing a course in AI and data intelligence in order to help shape inclusive, ethical futures in the creative, legislative, government, disability and digital sectors.
Laura Pettenuzzo
Laura Pettenuzzo is a disabled writer, speaker and accessible communications professional. She has worked in a variety of disability organisations and delivers plain language and Easy Read content through her business, All for Access. You can usually find her with a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other.
Sharon Zivkovic
Dr Sharon Zivkovic has been working in the social enterprise sector for over 25 years. In 2001 she received an Enterprising Woman of the Year Award for ‘making communities more enterprising, taking advantage of their communal strength’, and in 2021 her work in Applied Complexity (Social Entrepreneurship & Wicked Problems) was recognised on the Map of the Complexity Sciences. Sharon is the Founder and CEO of the social enterprise Community Capacity Builders which builds the capacity of individuals and communities to address complex social policy problems. Through Community Capacity Builders, Sharon was contracted to deliver the University of Adelaide’s social entrepreneurship and social enterprise courses for over 14 years. Recently, Community Capacity Builders has established a Centre for Autistic Social Entrepreneurship. This Centre delivers a Program for Autistic Innovators, Systemisers and Social Entrepreneurs and has created a Directory and Marketplace for Autistic Owned and Led Social Enterprises. In addition to a PhD, Sharon holds Masters Degrees in Entrepreneurship and Autism, and a Graduate Certificate in Research Commercialisation.
What the group will focus on
The Advisory Group will help to guide the design and delivery of the project, contribute to key decisions, and help keep the work accountable to the community it serves.
What’s next?
Expressions of interest are now open to join the Access to Enterprise Online Mentoring Program.
We are seeking mentors and mentees in NSW for the mentoring program that will run from April 2026 – February 2027 and offer a unique opportunity to learn, connect, and grow.
Participants will gain access to E-learning modules, 1:1 and group mentoring, online workshops as well as an online networking event.
Learning content will be delivered by business experts with lived experience of disability and cover modules based on three main topics including Business Foundations, Future Planning & Scaling Your Business and Strategic Influence, Visibility & Relationship Building.
Expressions of interest will close 5:00pm Friday 13 February 2025.
Learn more and apply at PWDA’s Small Business Mentoring Program for Women with Disability.
We’ll continue to share more updates as the project develops, including more opportunities to get involved and details about upcoming activities.
If you have questions, email us at projects@pwd.org.au or call 1800 422 015.
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