I’m passionate about changing the systems that hold problems in place. I work in the gaps, connecting up research, policy and practice. For me, ‘applied’ social policy can create real change when it draws on research and practice; is grounded in community, and recasts relationships of power.

I’m a Principal Research Fellow at the Social Policy and Research Centre, Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL).

I lead the Youth Opportunity team that conducts research, applied social policy, and evaluation in the areas of employment, education, place-based approaches and homelessness. I also teach in the Masters of Social Policy at the University of Melbourne and was the the inaugural Applied Sociology portfolio leader on The Australian Sociological Association (TASA) executive.

I was awarded my PhD in sociology from Flinders University in 2005. Since then I’ve worked in academia, research institutes, and not-for-profit organisations. I’ve been at the BSL since 2011. Before that, I was a Research Fellow at the Australian Drug Foundation and a Senior Researcher at the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction at Flinders University.