Nicola Knobel
Nicola Knobel is an autistic ADHDer (AuDHD) and one of New Zealand’s leading voices in health, safety, and strategic risk. As Health, Safety & Risk Manager at a Community Health Not-for-profit, she blends experience in human-centred design, systems thinking, and lived neurodivergent experience to humanise safety, making it more inclusive, practical, and grounded in people’s realities.
Nicola’s late AuDHD diagnosis reframed her understanding of resilience, burnout, and the “too much” label often given to women who mask and over-perform. Today, she uses both her professional platform and creative work to challenge those narratives, showing how neurodivergent leadership can drive innovation, equity, and authentic connection.
Nicola is often found researching and publishing on the topics that light her up, from Indigenous knowledge and intellectual property, to risk culture, to neuro-inclusive leadership.