Meet the 2025 Community Fellows
Melbourne Social Equity Institute is delighted to introduce its sixth cohort of Community Fellows and welcome its inaugural cohort of Evaluation Fellows.
Image: The Community Fellows and Evaluation Fellows with Program Director Charlene Edwards at their orientation at the University of Melbourne.
A signature program fostering community-engaged and coproductive research, Melbourne Social Equity Institute’s Community Fellows Program recognises that community organisations are often best placed to undertake the research most relevant to their organisation and the communities they serve. It is the only program of its kind in Australia and provides staff from small to medium-sized community organisations with the capacity, time and resources to test, codify and share their knowledge.
In 2025 we are pleased to welcome 12 new Community Fellows who will conduct their own research projects and participate in a range of academic and professional development activities to develop their research skills. In the new cohort, three Fellows have been specifically selected from the wider Goulburn Valley region and two Fellowships have been funded and supported by the Melbourne Disability Institute.
In an exciting new initiative this year made possible due to the generous support of the Percy Baxter Charitable Trust, Melbourne Social Equity Institute is partnering with Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation to pilot an initiative to support small and medium-sized community organisations to develop their internal evaluation and outcomes measurement capabilities. The five Evaluation Fellows will form a small cohort that will receive group-based mentoring and support from Professor Jo Barraket AM and Dr Joanne Qian-Khoo.
Last week, the 17 new Fellows participated in a three-day orientation at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus. In the coming months they will be involved with a range of workshops and masterclasses, as well as receiving personalised mentoring by University of Melbourne academics with expertise in their areas of interest.
The inaugural Evaluation Fellows are:
Jack Howes
HoMie
Ronella Gomez
The Community Grocer
Skye Gooch
Djirra
Jessica M'Baya
Cultivating Community
Rosie Tran
YLab
The 2025 Community Fellows are:
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 Health
Goulburn 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 Mentors: Dr Aaron Hart, School of Social and Political Sciences and Dr Panos Karanikolas, Melbourne Social Equity Institute
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
To learn more about the Community Fellows Program, watch the video below or visit the program website.