SPECIALIST AREAS | COMMUNICATION SKILLS – LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT – DIVERSITY & INCLUSION – CHANGE MANAGEMENT
With almost two decades of experience, Alissa Holton has led and facilitated training deliveries in a wide range of contexts across continents. Her broad expertise include grassroots community development, national not-for-profits, local government, social innovation, adults learning, as well as traditional and non-traditional education contexts. She thrives collaborating with a range of ages, professions and group sizes.
The thread tying her eclectic career together has always been a desire to support people who seek personal and/or professional growth to reach their potential, paired with a desire to contribute to society in socially responsible and educationally progressive ways.
Her deep practical and theoretical knowledge has equipped her with the necessary skills required to design and deliver innovative educational experiences for diverse stakeholders.
Early in her career as a young and ardent leader Alissa founded a centre for people with special needs; s.p.a.c.e was the first universally designed community centre in Queensland. Here, she facilitated a large community collaboration to mine insights that informed an evidence-based community development and outreach program. Experiences in her speaking and facilitation career include being a panel member to an audience of 300 for the Apple Innovation Series, facilitating groups of 20 to 2,000 in events like the Accelerator Program for the Foundation for Young Australian and speaking twice to TEDx audiences of 200.
In Singapore, she taught children at The Singapore Australian International School, where she designed learning experiences and facilitated student progress for the learning and enrichment team.
More recently, she worked for a global consulting firm in the USA that specialises in corporate strategy development through the lens of mindset shifts and leadership capabilities. Her clients included Mondelez, ServiceNow, Lenovo, Microsoft, Salesforce and Rio Tinto.
Qualifications & awards
- QUT (Queensland University of Technology), Masters of Teaching Education, –
- Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, Executive Coaching, Level 1, 2014
- Southbank Institute of TAFE, Innovation Practice and Process, 2014
Queensland Finalist Young Australian of the Year, Australian National Government, 2009
Top Emerging Leader: Society, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Weekend Australian and Microsoft, Jun 2009
Alissa’s philosophy
“The foremost insight that I take away from a decade of experience is the knowledge that conversation – when facilitated in a thoughtful and strategic manner – can be a powerful catalyst for change.”
