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Megan Gilmour

@megantgilmour

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🌟 Innovator @missingschool_org
🤖 Robots x Humans @robots4good
🏅 2025 ACT AOTY
🎓 #churchill Impact and Deakin Honorary Fellow
🎤 Speak/Write/Media

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As part of @australianoftheyear, last week and this week I did interviews on ABC Breakfast TV and ABC Overnights radio program with Rod Quinn. Really loved sharing what @missingschool_org is up to in keeping kids with health challenges connected to school. Last week, I forgot to get pics at the studio, so the good people at @abccanberra helped me rectify this week! Just me casually posing at the news desk (pen in hand, of course!) 👏 🤩 by @megantgilmour

We did it together 😂

#ausoftheyear @australianoftheyear by @megantgilmour

Government Whip, @david.smith.mp makes a statement on @missingschool_org's work in the Commonwealth Parliament this week. Thank you, David Smith. It's great to have the support of our ACT Federal MPs on this "sleeping giant" issue.

Did you know that 40% of kids who don't complete year 12 in Australia have a chronic illness? School connection counts.

senkatyg @andrewleighmp @aliciapayne_cbr @davidpocock @missingschool_org @australianoftheyear by @megantgilmour

17 years married to this epic human ❤️ by @megantgilmour

Tune in to hear @megantgilmour, Australian of the Year (ACT) and CEO of @missingschool_org talk about the 40% of Aussie kids isolated from school because of illness, disability, or mental health challenges.

🎧links in bio

#MissingSchool #SeenAndHeard #Education #InclusionMatters #Belonging ChronicIllness Neurodiversity YouthMentalHealth UnLtd NoOrdinaryPeople by @megantgilmour

What happens when a child gets seriously sick?

Their whole world stops, including school.
And that isolation can be more damaging than the illness itself.

This week on No Ordinary People, I sit down with the incredible @megantgilmour, CEO of @missingschool_org, to talk belonging, telepresence robots, sick kids, hope, and the fight to make sure no child is ever left behind again.

If you care about kids, equity, education or systems change, this one matters.

💛 Listen via the links in bio.

#NoOrdinaryPeople #MissingSchool #Education #InclusionMatters by @megantgilmour

My sabbatical is over! December-January you were lovely. by @megantgilmour

Back in the @novaentaus studio for 2026 and kicking off with the incredible @megantgilmour, Co-founder and CEO of @missingschool_org

When her son survived a life-threatening illness, Megan vowed to make sure no child felt the isolation he did. She went on to co-author Australia’s first national report on school isolation, influence federal policy, and pioneer a world-first school telepresence robot service — reconnecting thousands of classmates for learning and belonging.

🎧 Episode 4 dropping soon. by @megantgilmour

Behind every 'chronically absent' student is often a family trying to hold everything together. We need to talk about this.

I was interviewed last year on Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families podcast about school absence and the challenges facing so many families today.

We discussed the rise in numbers, the profound impact on children's wellbeing and development, and why flexible, connection-focused solutions are critical for many kids who can't be in the classroom due to illness, anxiety, or other challenges.

My answers took the audience beyond the title for this podcast (chosen by the host), and I was grateful for another opportunity to broaden the perspective.

The episode notes single out this "quote of the episode":

“Wherever school absence starts -- illness, anxiety, or overwhelm -- the long-term impacts on a child’s wellbeing and future are profound. Connection is everything.”

At the time of recording, the national data showed that an average of over 40% of students were not attending school for 10% or more of time. The conversation around how we support these children -- and their families -- is more important than ever.

This time of year is particularly challenging for so many kids and families.

You can listen here: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/school-avoidance-the-anxiety-the-struggles/id1082244480?i=1000725767218 by @megantgilmour

Early November, I met with Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC.

It was a gorgeous spring day, and the grounds of Government House were spectacular (they always are!).

I was energised to sit with Her Excellency to discuss my work, my love of kids and, most of all, my desire for change. She is a compassionate listener and generous in her consideration. I looked forward most to her perspective, as she is, above all, an impressive changemaker ... someone I hoped to meet long before she took the country’s top job (btw as only the second woman to do so).

It was a meeting that didn’t disappoint.

At the end of our conversation, the Governor-General presented me with her beautiful medallion to recognise my contribution and -- yes -- of course my eyes leaked. I will cherish it, and it now sits on my desk as a reminder to stay courageous and stay my course.

As we left her office, the Governor-General paused to point out a piece of artwork she had chosen to place just inside the door, so she would see it every time she entered or left the room ... a modern painting of a young girl. She said it was to remind her of the future we’re building for young Australians. I added that, soon enough, they’ll be building ours.

This is one for the memory palace. 💭 by @megantgilmour

by @megantgilmour

My speaker bio lists Deloitte, Apple ANZ, TEDx, schools, etc etc. What it doesn't say?

The most common question that follows me off stage ...

It's not the question about women in leadership. Not EdTech nor policy. Stranger still, not the headlining global school crisis.

Every keynote, whether to corporate execs, universities, government departments, women in leadership, or my favourite ~kiddos~, they ask:

"How did you not give up?"

When I make a point in every keynote to say, with complete honesty:
"At least once a day I want to give up. This work is hard." (Present tense.),
I never expect that to be the main takeaway.

Is this the holy grail of being human? It always makes me wonder how many everyday conversations about giving up we're missing.

Admittedly, it's not a neat fit with fashionable productivity goals or one-of-many numbered lists I imagine myself slaying (but only in January 😉).

It's not about me.
It's a plea for what to do when giving up feels inevitable.

(I’ve even had people tell me that one line in my pressie made them rethink leaving their business, their job ... returning to ~whatever~)

Is it for the sake of sanity that acknowledging the desire to quit is powerful?

Sure ... non-disclosing the existence of obstacles from stage ~or performing positivity~ helps no one. It’s awful.

Because (to me) the change process mostly feels like attempting something worthwhile, then removing one imaginable/unimaginable obstacle after another to see it IRL.

Maybe we should call it "excavating change" instead of the more romanticised "creating" it?

Anyway, this is why I bring WOOP to the stage. Psychologist Gabriele Oettingen's framework (WOOP) reckons people who mentally contrast goals with obstacles have a better chance of achieving them. I WOOP a lot - do you? On the other hand, Jim Collins calls it productive paranoia <> this much is true 😅

It's never the absence of obstacles that sustains transformation. It's precisely their catalysing interference.

So, our audiences want some real talk about the alternative to giving up in the face of obstacles.

Neural mirroring?
Moral support?
A touch of shared humanity?

I'm here to help 🥰 by @megantgilmour