Current Community Fellows
Community Fellows 2025
Mary Reema Antony
Women’s Health Goulburn North East
Project: Mapping the Maze: Women’s Experience of Navigating Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in Goulburn Valley and Northeast Victoria
Academic Mentors: Professor Jane Tomnay, Centre for Excellence in Rural Sexual Health and Dr Teralynn Ludwick, Melbourne School of Population and Global HealthGoulburn Valley Fellow
Miriam Forte
Wongutha CAPS
Project: Creating a School-to-Work Employment Pathway Program for Remote Indigenous Young People: A Community and Stakeholder Consultation and Co-Design Project
Academic Mentor: Professor Barry Judd, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous)
Tori Haar
Reframing Autism
Project: Enhancing and Better Measuring the Impact of Lived Experience in Community Education about Autism
Academic Mentor: Associate Professor Matthew Harrison, Faculty of Education / The Neurodiversity Project
Supported by Melbourne Disability Institute
Karryne Hearn
WRISC Family Violence Support
Project: Empowered to be Seen and Felt: Developing Outcome and Evaluation Frameworks for Young People Impacted by Family Violence in WRISC’s Feeling Visible Program
Academic Mentor: Dr Katitza Marinkovic Chavez, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Mish Kumar-Jonson
The Iceberg Foundation
Project: Can Dance Decolonise EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) Practices with Marginalised Communities Navigating Trauma and Displacement
Academic Mentor: Dr Derrick Brown-Appenzeller, Victorian College of the Arts
Geoffrey Lim
Cypher Culture
Project: Breaking Ground: The Case for Public Spaces for Creative Communities
Academic Mentor: Dr Sabina Andron, Melbourne Centre for Cities
Jimi Muirhead
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre
Project: Reintegration into the Community: The Lack of Evidence‐based Transitional Support for People Released from Immigration Detention and Learnings from the Criminal Justice System
Academic Mentor: Katie Robertson, Melbourne Law School / Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness
Sarah Pain
Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Project
Project: A Connected Community – Understanding the Place-based Work of Greater Shepparton Lighthouse Project
Academic Mentor: Dr Joanne Qian-Khoo, Melbourne Social Equity Institute
Goulburn Valley Fellow
Hayley Rowan
The Bridge Youth Service
Project: Activating the CALD Youth Voice in Universal Community Service Organisation Engagement Practices – A model of Culturally Safe CALD youth engagement for Regional Organisations.
Academic Mentor: Associate Professor Karen Block, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
Goulburn Valley Fellow
Alana Starr
Disability Advocacy Network Australia
Project: Valuing Expertise: An Evaluation Tool to Support Lived Experience Consulting
Academic Mentor: Dr Lauren Kosta, Department of Social Work
Supported by Melbourne Disability Institute
Jane Templeton
Drummond Street Services
Project: How Can We Create Effective Pathways for the NDIS to Play an Integral Role in the Recovery of Woman Pre and Post Incarceration
Academic Mentor: Dr Aaron Hart, School of Social and Political Sciences
Preethi Vergis
Edusymphony Consortium
Project: Design and Implementation of an Accountability to Affected Persons Framework for Migrants and Refugees: Sustained Capacity Building and Participatory Evaluation as Tools for Empowerment
Academic Mentor: Dr Matthew Mabefam , School of Social and Political Sciences
In 2025, Melbourne Social Equity Institute is also partnering with Lord Mayor's Charitable Foundation to pilot an Evaluation Fellows Program.