Emma L Donaldson
Founder and Director
Emma is passionate about business and sustainable education partnerships for diversity, equity and inclusion. She has furthered her education completing an EMBA with distinction. In 2010, she was named Victorian State Finalist in the Telstra Women's Business Awards for her work in the field of autism and disability. In 2012 she was awarded the CEDA Leadership award during her business study. Emma is a blueVoice member, representing carers on the National Mental Health Consumer and Carer Forum.
Early in her career, she co-created PLIESE, which is now used by accredited trained allied health professionals in the UK, USA, South America and the Caribbean. In 2015, Emma co-created the world first Autism MOOC at Swinburne University, engaging participants from 82 countries.
Emma has previous experience within Early Intervention, Sector and Policy Development. Seeing a gap in education support about Autism, she left teaching and became the first Victorian State Leader for the Helping Children with Autism Package and also created and directed a Registered Training Organisation for Autism Victoria (now Amaze). Emma says that experiencing the challenges of disability/disadvantage in education and her personal life drives her to seek better solutions.
She is a well respected expert on neurodiversity and inclusion, all of which has led to further research and understanding of education and mental health. She has been interviewed on International TV prime time programs, radio, magazines, writes for online parenting and teacher publications and was also invited to speak at TEDxSevenMileBeach. Emma has completed research in the field of self regulated learning for disaffected youth. She is now currently studying a PhD focussed on the effectiveness of a co-designed MOOC for vulnerable communities . She is a lecturer in post graduate teacher education at an international university, leading autism and mental health course development and facilitating subjects in special education and innovation and change.
Emma’s role at COG Matters is to manage and engage partners specific to projects whilst providing inclusive community expertise.
For all COG Matters clients, a range of consultants are available for specific projects, all offering the specialised and tailored support specific to the community.
