RESEARCH COMMITTEE

Kate Davies is the Research Director at the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW. She is passionate about the power of rigorous and robust research to contribute to social justice. In particular, Kate’s work has explored the value of evidence that is shaped by lived experience, practice, policy and research wisdom. Her research has examined issues and strengths related to homelessness, mental health, disability and child protection using a range of mixed methods, participatory and creative methodologies.

Kate has worked throughout the Asia Pacific region in research and community development roles. She is currently a Conjoint Senior Lecturer at the University of Newcastle and the Public Officer for the Community Disability Alliance Hunter. Kate lives on the beautiful unceded lands of the Awabakal and Worimi people (Newcastle). She holds a PhD in Sociology, Master of Public Policy and Management, and Graduate Certificate in Alcohol and Other Drugs.

Elroy Dearn is a research fellow at RMIT University who has held senior policy roles in state government and at the Victorian Office of the Public Advocate. In 2022, Elroy graduated with a PhD from RMIT University, which explored the experience of choice and control for people with psychosocial disability living in institutions during the first 18 months of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Their research interests include institutionalisation, housing, disability and mental health policy, and human rights. Elroy’s research applies qualitative methodology and inclusive research methods with people with disability.

Alexandra Devine is a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. Her research focuses on maximising inclusion within systems and societies to drive improvements in the life outcomes of people with disability across Australian and International contexts. Having worked in research and development practice for the past 20 years, Alex partners closely with people with disability and their representative organisations to implement projects in health, mental health, employment, and the NDIS.

Recent projects include Bina Gurri which builds on the NDRP funded Hey! Hear me out! project, to help improve understanding about hearing loss as experienced by First Nations people who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. She currently co-leads the Improving Mental health through Policy ACTion (impact) Project, to identify policy solutions to improve mental health outcomes for Australians with disability. Alex continues to provide technical assistance to the Australian Government funded Kiribati Australia Skills for Employment Partnership.

Helen Dickinson is Professor of Public Service Research in the Public Service Research Group at the School of Business, University of New South Wales, Canberra. Her expertise is in policy implementation and evaluation, with a particular interest in disability policies and programs. Helen has published twenty books and over one hundred peer-reviewed journal articles on these topics and is also a frequent commentator within the mainstream media. 

In 2015 Helen was made a Victorian Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and in 2019 awarded a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2021 Helen was named one of Apolitical’s 100 most influential academics in government. She has worked with a range of different levels of government, community organisations and private organisations in Australia, UK, New Zealand and Europe on research and consultancy programs. 

John is a Yuin man from the NSW South Coast and is a professor of Indigenous health and disability, specialising primarily in disability studies. John has worked in disability and ageing research and community development with Aboriginal communities, government, and non-government stakeholders for most of his life. He is the first person to create Indigenous research methodologies in disability research.

John is passionate about Aboriginal owned and driven research as means to influence policy. John has led many research projects in urban and rural/remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

Professor Anne Kavanagh is a social epidemiologist who is an international leader in health inequalities research. She is the inaugural Chair of Disability and Health and Head of the Disability and Health Unit in the Centre for Health Equity, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health. She leads a team that analyses population-based data to understand how social determinants of health, such as employment or discrimination, shape the health of people with disability and model alternate policy solutions that promote health and wellbeing. 
 

Anne's research focusses on identifying policy solutions to enable people with disability to live flourishing lives. She works closely with advocates, governments, people with disability, and allies so that her research is translatable to policy, practice and advocacy. Her work is enriched by her lived experience of disability. She has a chronic disabling condition and is a parent of a young man who has a disability. 

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Anne was Co-Chair of the NDRP Working Party from 2020 to 2023 and is now on the NDRP Board of Directors. 

Dr Jade McEwen is an experienced researcher and evaluator specialising in social policy, political science and human rights. Her special interests include regulation, knowledge translation, implementation science and quality assurance in human services, particularly for people with disability. Jade completed her PhD in Social Policy with La Trobe’s Living with Disability Research Centre, she possesses a Masters in Disability Studies and several qualifications in management and health and social care.

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Over her 23-year career, Jade has worked in a variety of disability services across Australia and overseas, in both frontline practice and leadership positions. Jade has lived experience of disability and values codesign and evaluation practices that produce evidence that can be successfully applied in real world contexts.

Sally Robinson is Professor of Disability and Community Inclusion at Flinders University. Her research is focused on opportunities and barriers to safe and inclusive lives for people with disability. Sally’s work is co-produced with people with disability and generated from their priorities on key social policy concerns such as violence, abuse and personal safety, wellbeing, social inclusion and quality in community services. As a disabled woman, Sally draws on her own embedded understanding in her research.  

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Sally has attracted over 35 research and evaluation grants across state and federal governments, non-government organisations and Category 1 grants through the Australian Research Council and ANROWS. This research agenda draws on well-developed partnerships with key academic, industry and community partners both in Australia and internationally to complete mixed-method research in a range of human service environments.  

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Sally draws on knowledge exchange frameworks to ensure her research program links academic rigour with policy and community engagement and accessible outputs for a range of audiences. As a result, her research is being used to underpin national and state policy on key social policy issues for people with disability, particularly the NDIS, child protection policy and safeguarding policy for people with disability, as well as in high-quality international journals and scholarly communities.

Jackie Leach Scully is Professor of Bioethics and Director of the Disability Innovation Institute at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. With a background in biomedical science, social science, philosophy and psychology, she has worked in the UK, Switzerland and now in Australia. As a bioethicist her research interests have focused on the impact of new healthcare practices and biotechnologies on people with disability.

She is currently a member of the NHMRC’s Australian Health Ethics Committee and Embryo Research Licensing Committee, and chairs the Health Ethics Advisory Panel of NSW Health. She is a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Social Sciences and Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Society of New South Wales. Jackie has been deaf since childhood and now lives with a chronic health condition.

Tahlia-Rose Vanissum is a proud Woppaburra woman with disability, a carer for her mum and Traditional Owner of the Keppel Islands. Tahlia-Rose is dedicated to making visible the institutional and systemic discrimination that perpetrates cycles of violence, exploitation, and marginalisation of her community. She has worked across government, private and community sectors to improve policy, programs and services for First Nations women, girls, and mob with disability. She has expertise in Indigenous feminisms, governance, intersectional analysis, policy, government, family safety, education, and social justice.  

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Tahlia-Rose is the inaugural Head of Policy at First Peoples Disability Network (FPDN), Chairperson of Sisters in Spirit Aboriginal Corporation, Board Member of the Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) and CIT Solutions. In her spare time Tahlia-Rose is undertaking a Master of Applied Anthropology and Development (Advanced) at the Australian National University (ANU). She also holds tertiary qualifications in government, business, leadership, human resources management and a Bachelor of Criminology from the ANU. 

Robbi is the founding CEO of the Julia Farr Association, a peer-governed organisation based in Adelaide. Through its work as  JFA PurpleOrange, the organisation has a long-established track record in disability policy research, systemic advocacy, peer networks, and codesign.  

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In addition to advocacy, Robbi’s career across several countries has included closing institutional services and commissioning individualised community-based supports. He has worked at all levels of support provision, and has played leading roles in disability and mental health reform. 

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In his current and previous roles, Robbi has undertaken and commissioned research and evaluation on a range of topics related to disability, voice, and inclusion. This has included action research on themes such as inclusive education, inclusive employment, and supported decision-making. 

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Robbi is the author of the Model of Citizenhood Support, a framework for people and agencies to think about the nature of helpfulness towards good inclusive lives. 

Professor Erin Wilson has a lengthy history in research in the field of disability and inclusion. Over twenty years, she has focused on developing research methods that enable children and adults with diverse disabilities to self report about their views and experiences. These methods have included co-research approaches as well as visual, tactile and aural methods. Her work with colleagues has won the international Zero Innovative Practice Award in 2016 for inclusive methods with children with disabilities.

Currently, she is the Director of the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology, where her work is focused on outcomes and impact research, as well as researching effective models to support employment of people with disability.