Dianne Winkler

Biography

Di Winkler is an occupational therapist who has worked with people with severe brain injury for more than twenty years. Di was the Chief Occupational Therapist at Ivanhoe Manor Private Rehabilitation Hospital prior to developing a private practice working with people with brain injury in the community.

Di completed a Masters by Research at La Trobe University and a PhD at Monash University, which involved a series of studies that focused on young people in nursing homes. Di founded the Summer Foundation in January 2006 to solve the issue of young people with disability living in nursing homes. Summer Foundation is a systems entrepreneur organisation that uses research, stories, and prototypes to change health, disability, housing and aged care policy and practice.

Summer Foundation developed two housing demonstration projects for young people in nursing homes that bring people with severe disability back into the mainstream of society. In 2017 Di founded a for purpose business called Summer Housing. Summer Housing is partnering with residential developers to build apartments for people with severe disability that are peppered throughout mainstream developments across Australia. Summer Housing aims to commission 300 apartments for people with disability by 2022.

Di and her husband Craig founded a charitable Trust, which focusses on systems change and impact investment.