SA
Contact the Enlighten Education head office – [email protected]
Enlighten's Founders
Dannielle Miller, OAM. CEO, Enlighten Education
Bachelor of Education (Secondary), Graduate Certificate in Management (Professional Practice), Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training
“When working with teenagers, it is important to engage them emotionally; if you can capture their hearts, their minds will follow. I am incredibly proud of the work we do and passionate about acting as a catalyst for change.”
Dannielle Miller began her career as a high school teacher, then took on a role as a senior educator to develop an innovative program for students at risk of dropping out of school, The Lighthouse Project.
Dannielle is now the co-founder and CEO of Enlighten Education, Australia’s leading provider of in-school workshops for teens since 2003. Enlighten conducts workshops with more than 25,000 young people each year in Australia, New Zealand, and south-east Asia.
Danni has been the parenting expert for channel 9’s breakfast programs, she is the author of five books including the best-selling The Butterfly Effect: A Positive New Approach to Raising Happy, Confident Teen Girls (Random House), a weekend newspaper columnist for the Daily Telegraph, and is a regular feature writer for Body + Soul magazine.
Dannielle is also the Director of Education and Special Projects at Women’s Community Shelters and initiated and created both their Walk The Talk schools program, and their new corporate domestic and family violence literacy program which centres survivor’s voices and has a clear call to action.
Other presenting highlights include delivering keynotes on women’s leadership for Mercer nationally and in Singapore, and presenting at the All About Women festival at the Sydney Opera House twice – once on the main stage alongside Germain Greer, Eva Cox and Tara Moss.
In 2021 Dannielle was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to education, to woman, and youth. In 2018 she was one of four Finalists for the NSW Premier’s Award for Woman of the Year, and the winner of the Suicide Prevention Australia Life Award for excellence in media reporting. She has been named the NSW/ACT Small Business Champion Entrepreneur (2007) and received an Australian Leadership Award by the Davos Foundation (2012).
Giving back to community is important to Dannielle. She has been an Ambassador for various charities, a pro bono board member for a women’s refuge, and also launched a social change initiative, The School Toilet Project which has gone global (this aims at encouraging schools to let students reimagine these often bleak spaces).
Rachell Dade – Senior Presenter
“My greatest joy is connecting with people – in dance, in a huge chat, and in making people laugh.”
Rachell is a dancer and choreographer (her recent work includes being Dance Coordinator for Solange Knowles on her Sydney Vivid tour at the Opera House), drummer and DJ. She was awarded Oceanic Dancehall Queen in 2017 and Australian Dancehall Queen 2024. (Dancehall is a form of Jamaican street dance.) Rachell is also the founder of Full Body, a platform aimed at engaging women of all sizes in exercise and movement that encourages them to “exist loudly”.
Testimonials from local schools
The girls had such a fantastic day! They are still coming up to me to ask when they can do another day. I have also spoken to a few parents who couldn’t believe how excited their daughters came home that day! Dannielle knew how to keep the girls engaged and entertained with her stories and outgoing personality. She made every girl feel special with her warm nature. The girls had an amazing time and it was a wonderful opportunity for our female students to work together, build on existing knowledge and develop friendships. I would highly recommend the full day workshop.
At Scotch we wanted to further develop the culture of success for our current Year 10 students. We brought Enlighten in to work with our students to explore the distinctiveness of the cohort and as part of that to encourage greater connection amongst the girls. The program was an important step in our wider leadership process and really contributed to the growth of strong and purposeful community. Enlighten played a key role in getting the conversation underway and challenging where things were at – thank you.
It was great! The feedback comments from the girls are beautiful – I have photocopied them and passed them on to the DP and the Principal. I’ll be in touch next year and possibly lock in another year level too.
Congratulations on the positive interaction with students – many with intellectual disabilities. Was impressed to see the interaction from normally passive students. A positive and very interactive day for the girls who are considered to be very “at risk” due to cognitive and social restrictions. Good work in particular on handling personal presentation and body image. I was delighted with the involvement and the responses you were able to elicit from the students. I think the girls took away many valuable lessons. I was pleased that students who would not normally participate in a group setting felt comfortable by the middle of the session to be involved. I enjoyed all the sessions.
Great workshop. Jane really related to the girls and their age group. We will run this again next year.
Thank you so much for your amazing workshops on Thursday. I’ve read the feedback, and it just supports what the girls had already told me on Friday. They absolutely loved it, and so did I. I think there are so many powerful messages that they get out of it and you present it in just the right way which really gets through to them. I hope to see you back here again soon!
Such an amazing day in the life of our school! I have staff lined up to participate they love it for themselves and love seeing the students experience the day. The information is life changing and presented in a way it will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Such an important and powerful message. Great PD for staff involved in fact a staff PD event would be wonderful so that staff are up to date and informed to speak appropriately to the situations our students are faced with. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Can’t wait for it all to happen again next year!
Kathryn Keley, Pastoral Care/Girls Coordinator, Trinity College North
Christine was so efficient to deal with when organising the events and there was no fuss at all, very smooth. The girls absolutely loved the day and went home and spoke about it to their parents and that has filtered back to us. After seeing the impact Danni had on the girls I’d like to do it every year.
Charlotte Weigold, School Counsellor, Pulteney Grammar School
Danni was fantastic…our year 9 girls loved her workshops and were still ‘buzzing’ two days later…! The talk amongst the girls since has been so positive which is great to hear. I would definitely like to have Danni back again to run workshops with other year levels.
Nicki Schuster, School Counsellor, Faith Lutheran School
We are proud to work with these schools
Concordia College
Elizabeth Vale
Faith Lutheran School
Immanuel College
Loreto College
Mary MacKillop College
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
Portside Christian School
Pulteney Grammar School
Salisbury High School
Scotch College
St Thomas School – Goodwood
St Dominics Priory
Seaford 6-12 School
Semaphore Dominican
Seymour College
Tenison Woods College
Trinity College North
Trinity College South
Unity College
Westminster School
Wilderness School
St Michael’s College (Yr7, 8, 9)
SEDA College
Cardijn College
Mt Carmel College
St Francis of Assissi
St Ignatius
Walford Anglican School for Girls
Glen Osmond Primary