ELISE LAVERS
Elise Lavers is a South Australian outdoor educator, adventure guide and founder of Enliven Outdoor Adventures, a women-focused outdoor education business helping women build the connection, craft and confidence to become more capable outdoors. With more than a decade working across outdoor education and tourism, Elise has guided everything from bushwalking and kayaking to surfing, snorkelling and shark cage diving. Her own adventures have taken her by sea kayak across South Australia’s gulfs and along Tasmania’s north coast, and more recently along Western Australia’s 1,000km Bibbulmun Track, completing the final 650km solo. Through Enliven, Elise is passionate about making adventure feel less intimidating, more inclusive and a whole lot more fun for women. She’s now bringing that philosophy to a wider audience through Hike Ready, her new online program helping women plan and prepare for their own self-led multi-day hikes.
Catch her in Adelaide
JENNIFER WILLIS
Jen Willis is a Melbourne-based adventurer, educator and speaker, and the first Australian living with Multiple Sclerosis to summit Mt Everest. Nothing about Jen’s early life suggested she would one day stand on top of the world. Never a natural athlete and more likely to be picked last for PE than marked out for sporting success, she lost much of her confidence through childhood bullying. It was through journeys into the outdoors that Jen gradually rebuilt her sense of self, eventually becoming an outdoor education teacher and ski instructor. Years later, after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, she returned to a childhood dream of climbing mountains. In 2026, at the age of 54, Jen stood on the summit of Mt Everest, guided by fellow female adventurer Phunjo Lama of Nepal. Phunjo holds the world record for the fastest Everest ascent by a woman, climbing from Base Camp to the summit in just 14 hours and 31 minutes. Jen’s own summit came three years after her first Everest attempt ended at 8,000 metres. A mother of three, Jen is passionate about the power of adventure to challenge the limits we place on ourselves and expand our sense of what might be possible. When she’s not adventuring, she’s usually planning the next one.
Catch her in Melbourne