Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) CEO Kerry Hawkins was a keynote speaker at the William Glasser International Conference 2026, held in Coolangatta on the Gold Coast from 2 to 4 October 2026. The conference theme, Embracing Courage: Pathways to Connection and Wellbeing, brought together educators, researchers, mental health practitioners and leaders from Australia and around the world.
Kerry is a respected voice in Australian mental health reform, known for bold leadership and a clear vision for human rights driven change. She leads CMHA, the national body representing community managed mental health organisations at the federal level. She is a former three term National Mental Health Commissioner, a Churchill Fellow, and an alumna of Boston University’s Global Leadership Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Implementing Public Policy program.
Her keynote, Connection, Courage, and Collective Change: Reimagining Mental Health from the Ground Up, took the audience through the history of how we understand recovery. She covered decades of thinking, from institutional care to clinical recovery to personal recovery, and argued that the next step is relational recovery.
“For too long, our systems have located distress in the space between people’s ears. The evidence, and the lived experience of so many people, tells us it more often sits in the space between people,” Kerry said.
Drawing on international examples including Open Dialogue in Finland, the Trieste model in Italy and the Hearing Voices Movement, Kerry showed what becomes possible when connection, rights and lived experience sit at the centre of care. She also shared CMHA’s own work, including our research into the economic value of psychosocial support and our community outreach reaching tens of thousands of Australian households.
“Lived experience is legitimate evidence and expertise. When we start by asking ‘what happened to you?’ rather than ‘what’s wrong with you?’, we change the whole conversation, and we change what support looks like,” she said.
For a conference grounded in human rights and its focus on relationships, the message landed strongly. Kerry spoke about leadership and education in particular. Building a more connected mental health system takes leaders willing to change how they work, and it takes educating workers, teachers and communities to see distress in its social context.
“Values not lived are not values. Leadership in this space means having the courage to act on what we know and investing in education so the next generation of workers and leaders can do the same. That is a commitment CMHA takes seriously,” Kerry said.
Kerry shared the keynote program with Professor Selena Bartlett, Group Leader of Neuroscience and Neuroplasticity at the Translational Research Institute and Queensland University of Technology. Selena is an internationally recognised neuroscientist and expert in neuroplasticity. Her keynote, The Neuroscience of Courage, Wellbeing and Transformational Change, explored how the brain builds connection and resilience, and offered practical, evidence based tools for change. Together, the two presentations covered both the biological and social sides of wellbeing, and showed why both matter.
Following the keynote addresses, Kerry joined CMHA President Cathy O’Toole to deliver a workshop which explored the opportunities that lay ahead for the mental health sector.
CMHA thanks William Glasser International and Glasser Australia for the invitation, and everyone who joined us in Coolangatta and online.
