Participant Reference Group

What does the PRG do?

Meeting summaries

March 2025

Topics: Accountability statement, Long-term vision for changes to the NDIS.

April 2025

Topic: Therapy claiming.

May 2025

Topics: Accountability statement, Strengthening identity, Debt management, Improving the eligibility reassessment experience, Participant journey for New Framework Planning, Deputy Chief Executive Officer update, the new way of planning.

June 2025

Out of session – topic: Impairment information workshop 1.

Topic: Impairment information workshop 2.

Out of session – topic: Impairment information workshop 3.

July 2025

Topics: Strengthening identity and myGov.

For older meeting summaries, please contact [email protected].

August 2025

Topics: Accountability statement, acting CEO update, debt management, navigators, self service and improving interactions with the NDIS, mobile app budget tool, strategic change,

September 2025

Topics: NDIS support lists, NDIS funding periods, improving communication.

Meeting dates 2026

17-18 February (2-day face-to-face meeting)
11 March
8 April
13 May
17 June
8 July
5 August
2 September
28-29 October (2-day face-to-face meeting)
16 November
9 December

Members

Alexander (Alek) Luczak – NDIS Participant

Alek is a disability rights advocate. He is a board member of the Enabled Youth Disability Network and a member of the YMCA of South Australia Youth Parliament Taskforce. He is studying Law (Honours) and Political Science.

Cheryl Knight – NDIS Participant

Cheryl contributes to various community and advisory groups, particularly those focused on chronic health, NDIS, disability, and intersectionality. She uses her lived experience to help improve health literacy among vulnerable populations through the Sydney Health Literacy Lab.

Chris Klepacz – NDIS Participant

Chris advocates for people with a disability, especially school leavers and youths. He is a member of the Yooralla Partnership Advisory Committee. He has advised on organisational policies and presented at a state parliamentary inquiry on behalf of the organisation.

Claire Anderson – NDIS Participant

Claire has lived experience of physical disability and experience of navigating motherhood and the broader impacts of disability on families. Claire has a long and active involvement in local government, advocating for disability access, inclusion and employment.

Greg Skipper – NDIS Participant and carer of a NDIS participant

Greg has worked in the disability sector for 15 years helping people with medical consumables, AT equipment and OT work. Greg is keen to help shape the NDIS for people in whom it was designed for.

Jala Burton – NDIS Participant

Jala has lived experience of physical disability and epilepsy. She is a member of South Australian Council of Social Service's Policy Council and People's Health Voice Working Group. She holds a Bachelor of Community Services in Social Work and Social Planning.

Karen McEwan – NDIS Participant

Karen is Secretary on the Board of Autism NT. As a Financial Counsellor from Darwin, she brings perspective about the NDIS in remote regional areas where services are limited or non-existent.

Khanh Chi Vu - Parent Representative of NDIS Participant

Chi is a culturally diverse parent and raises awareness of the challenges CALD families with disability face. She is on several committees, including Carer Gateway, Victorian Committee for Families of Children with Disability, and Western Health Community Advisory Committee.

Lindsay Hayes – NDIS Participant

Lindsay lives and works in the NDIS space and has a keen interest in the health and sustainability of the NDIS. She wants to help shape the NDIS so those who need it can engage with it and understand it.

Melinda Brown – NDIS Participant

Melinda works at the South Australian Council on Intellectual Disability (SACID). She is a Peer Mentor for Our Voice SA. She wants to break down barriers in communication for people with intellectual disability so everyone can get accessible information.

Michelle Di Berardino - Parent Representative of NDIS Participant

Michelle is a member of the Stroke Foundation’s Childhood Stroke Lived Experience Advisory Group. She has experience using evidence to improve services for some of the community’s most vulnerable members.

Naomi Colville – Parent Representative of NDIS Participant

Naomi’s children live with disabilities. Naomi is part of multiple boards and organisations focused on equality and diversity for people with additional needs. She advocates for regional and rural families with additional needs who face limited-service provision and supports.

Nick Gleeson – NDIS Participant

Nick has a vision impairment and has overcome barriers within education, employment and society. Nick brings these lived experiences with an understanding of the critical importance of empowerment, inclusion and access to support networks to accomplish personal and career goals.

Rachel Crevatin-Gunn – Participant and Parent Representative of NDIS Participant

Rachel and her family live with intellectual and physical disabilities. She is a member of the Association for Children with Disability Tasmania and the Regional Autistic Engagement Network. She wants the lived experiences of people with disability to be at the very centre of every decision made to achieve change within the NDIA/ NDIS.

Sarah Curtis – NDIS Participant

Sarah is a current board member for Disability Resources Centre Advocacy. She lives with neurodiversity. Her knowledge of psychology and lived experience give her unique insight into current NDIS issues and creative suggestions for improvement.

Sarah Empey – NDIS Participant

Sarah represents Blind Citizens Australia. She has consulted in accessible, barrier-free, and inclusive design in Australia and Canada. She has a background in accessible design and is now focusing on audio descriptions to navigate museums and galleries.

Tiana Offord – NDIS Participant

Tiana brings lived experience of blindness and is a youth member of the PRG. She advocates for CALD communities, seeing the importance of ensuring these people have equal access to information and can understand supports.