Dr Ann O’Neill AO

About Ann

Dr Ann O'Neill AO's story is one of the most remarkable journeys in Australian public life. Having survived severe domestic violence and hardship, she turned her own experience of recovery and resilience into a life's work dedicated to understanding trauma, protecting vulnerable people, and helping organisations and communities respond more effectively to family violence. Inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame in 2018 and featured on the ABC's Australian Story, her path from victim to national advocate and expert is one of profound courage and hard-won wisdom.

Today, Dr O'Neill works at the intersection of lived experience and clinical expertise. Her TEDx talk, “Turning Surviving into Thriving Through HOPE,” has reached audiences around the world, and her advisory, research and clinical roles span trauma recovery, domestic violence prevention, risk assessment and organisational responses to workplace harassment. She brings to every engagement a depth of understanding that cannot be learned from textbooks — it is earned through survival, through study and through decades of work on the front lines of some of Australia’s most challenging social issues.

For conferences, leadership programs and workplace culture events, Dr Ann O'Neill AO delivers presentations that are simultaneously challenging and deeply human. Whether addressing mental health, family violence, women’s wellbeing or trauma-informed approaches in the workplace, she speaks with the authority of someone who has lived, studied and transformed some of the most difficult human experiences. Audiences leave not just informed but moved — and in many cases, changed.