Biography [for external use]

Angelica Ojinnaka-Psillakis (she/her) is a pioneering global youth affairs leader, public speaker, and public health researcher. Driven by social change, she has led advocacy, research, and creative projects exploring areas including youth agency, access and participation rights, social inequalities experienced by children and young people, mental health, global and planetary health, violence against children, racial and gender justice, civic and political leadership, and international youth development. Most recently, her work includes serving as the 2022 Australian Youth Representative to the United Nations and she is the current Oceania Representative on the World Federation of United Nations Associations Youth Advisory Council 2023-2026.

She is a Founding Member of the African Australian Youth Suicide Prevention Group, Founding Director of the Museum of Youth, and a current Youth Advocate with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. She served as a Secretary and Board Director for One Eighty Inc. and former Youth Activist for Plan International Australia. In 2021, she was the recipient of the NSW Premier’s Youth Medal in recognition of her youth wellbeing and gender advocacy and was named one of the United Nations' 23 Young People Leading Resilient Recovery in the Decade of Action.

"LET young  people    build  these tables      not for you     but     with you     because       these        are  our      tables too."

~ Quote from Angelica’s Official Statement to the Third Committee at the 77th Session of the United Nations General Assembly