I am a relatively recent addition to the academic research community, having spent most of my working life in metallurgical processing, as well as a wide range of other occupations. Unlike much of academia, I approach research with a systemic paradigm, developed through my upbringing, education and life experience.

My first tertiary degree in the 90s was in the field of social geography. From there, I went on to find employment predominantly in the metallurgical processing industry. In the early 2010’s, with a lifelong interest in human behaviour, I came back to tertiary education to complete my second degree  in psychological science. This experience left me feeling frustrated and confused in regard to the general approach of psychological scientific research and associated interventions which seemed to focus on separating people separate from their contexts and interventions focussed solely at the individual level.   As a systems thinker, I could not comprehend why mental health research applied such narrow boundaries and employed reductionist-based methodologies, methods and interventions to concepts that, from my perspective, were clearly both complex and systemic.

As described above, this led me to complete a doctorate focused on improving mental health through social change. I was fortunate to find a place to do this with CQUniversity's Office of Indigenous Heath Equity, and fortunate to have two supervisors who were willing to support and explore with me, a different path to the completion of my doctorate. 

I now work within the Jawun Research Institute, and continue to learn much from my colleagues and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities with whom we partner. I hope to be able to share such generosity on with any students undertaking their own research journey.

James Cook University (1990-1994)

Central Queensland University (2016-2024)

Central Queensland University

N/A

Academic career: 

Current: Researcher Jawun Institute of research.

Current project: Shared Power For Advocating For Rerform Collectively (SPARC). The aim of this research project is to collaborate with four community leadership groups, two government partners, and a dedicated research team to identify priorities and determine what approaches have the capacity to create shifts in the four reform areas for each community, and to co-design, implement, and evaluate a collective impact approach, working together with and across communities to drive meaningful change.

Previous Projects:

2017 - 2024 Doctorate project examining the complexity underlying the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth who attend remote boarding schools, as well as the challenges to these, and the complexity of taking a socio-ecological approach to improving their mental health and wellbeing. Thesis title: Same Mountain, Different View: A Systemic Exploration OF Mental Health, Participatory Research and Intentional Social Change

2020-2024: Promoting the Mental Health of Indigenous Children: Systems ­level Integration of Pathways to Care. This 5-year project was a partnership between CQUniversity’s Jawun Research Centre and two Aboriginal community-controlled organisations (ACCOs), Gurriny Yealamucka Health Service (Gurriny) and Deadly Inspiring Youth Doing Good (DIYDG), both in Far North Queensland. The project was focussed on improving the mental health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth. Together with our partners, we developed and promoted understanding of best practice preventive care; the structural barriers to such care; and a comprehensive framework for the positive mental health and wellbeing of young First Nations people. 

2022: Restoring & Reclaiming First Nations Wellbeing: A Creation of Change Model. A model of change developed with and for the National and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council on Family, Domestic and Sexual Violence. This model was developed through an intensive collaboration with key stakeholders and presented by Dr. Vicki Saunders for approval by the Council.

2021-2022: Preventing Secondary Harm: Scaffolding Healthcare Capacity to Promote Indigenous Adolescents’ Mental Health. A project partnering with the Schools Up North, Transition Support Services, Many Tracks and the Qld Gov Department of Education to produce a document aiming to provide a guideline/template for FNQ schools taking a whole-of-system approach to improving student wellbeing during and after the COVID pandemic.

2018 - 2019 - Research assistant Centre of Indigenous Health Equity Research (casual)

2017 - Coordinator Emotional Preparedness pilot project and student marking 

International Society for the Systems Sciences

The Systems School Australia

Academic output writing

Non-academic output writing (reports, non-academic journals and magazines, working papers, etc.)

Evaluation of programmes

Increasing impact of research projects

Training, implementation and adaptation of methods suitable for Indigenous applied research and complex social change efforts.

Social systems science

Positive psychology

Evaluation of and increasing impact in complex social change (i.e. "real world" change).

Development of the Remote Indigenous Student "Wellbeing Wheel" publication.

Co-development of the Creation of Change Model for Restoring & Reclaiming First Nations Wellbeing.

Development and publication of an easily accessible and understood systemic grounded theory method (Inductive Systemic Analysis) - in publication.

Completion of dissertation.

Development of the final report for the Systems Integration project: Restoring & Supporting The Mental Health & Wellbeing of First Nations Children & Youth: A Systemic Approach to Creating Positive Change.

NVivo

A collaborative strategic framework for supporting Indigenous student wellbeing: a new way forward for a COVID-endemic world

Restoring and supporting the mental health and wellbeing of First Nations children and youth: a systemic approach to creating positive change