Today in the Confessional, Sandy chats with brave and beautiful Melissa Griffith. Melissa is a transgender authority and advocate based in Melbourne. As a diversity and inclusion consultant, Melissa has managed to get a gender identity policy introduced at various horse racing clubs including the Victorian Racing Club. Melissa has also consulted with Cricket Australia in development of their Guidelines for inclusion of Gender Diverse and Transgender People in Cricket.
She is also currently a board director of Sydney based non-profit organisation JustSociale and previously a board director of Elder Rights Advocacy in Victoria.
Overcoming many challenges in her journey as a transgender female including overcoming the obstacles of transitioning in the workplace; society’s attitudes and many challenges that come with living day-to-day as a transgender female, Melissa received an Australia Day Achievement Award as well as the Rex Karmaveer Global Fellowship and Karmaveer Chakra Award instituted by ICONGO & the UN from India. Melissa was a finalist in the 2019 Australian LGBTI Awards in the Hero Category and a finalist in 2018 Women’s Agenda Women in Leadership Awards for Agenda Setter of the year. Melissa completed the first ever LGBTI Leadership Program in 2018 and was a finalist as LGBTI person of the year in the 2017 Victorian LGBTI Awards.
Melissa is a recognised Thought Leader who draws upon her experiences and expertise to consult to business and mentor individuals as well as speak out and be a voice for those whose voices are not heard.
Melissa is also a recipient of an Australia Day Achievement Award. Melissa was the keynote speaker at RMIT for International Women’s Day speaking about Organisational Gender Diversity and Policy. She also spoke at the National Employment Solutions Conference in 2018 presenting Transgender from All Angles talking about how all issues around a transgender person transitioning in the workplace.
You can follow Melissa here:
https://www.melissagriffiths.com.au
https://www.instagram.com/melissacgriffiths
https://www.facebook.com/melissagriffiths
Melissa is represented in Australia by:
BookSpeakersDirect – https://www.bookspeakersdirect.com/find-speaker/
Keynoteworthy Speaker’s Bureau – https://keynoteworthy.com.au/directory-diverse_dire/listing/melissa-griffiths/
Platinum Model Management – https://www.platinumpromotionsaustralia.com.au JustSociale: https://justsociale.org/
LGBTIQ+ Helplines:
Better Pride: https://betterpride.com.au/
Trans Hub NSW https://www.transhub.org.au/
Minus18 (LGBTIQ+ Youth Support) https://www.minus18.org.au/
Transgender Victoria: https://tgv.org.au/
Reach Out https://au.reachout.com/
https://www.yourcommunityhealth.org.au
