Find an expert

A/Prof Steve Bell is a senior social scientist at the Burnet Institute and has 22 years’ experience across South-East Asia (India, Nepal), Africa (Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe) and Western Pacific (Australia, Indonesia, PNG, Fiji) Regions. He works respectfully with not-for-profits, public institutions, businesses and community organisations, using innovative, inclusive, people-centred approaches to identify sustainable solutions to critical health challenges and accelerate health equity.

Steve’s work brings together lived experience, socio-ecological systems thinking and social theory to understand what works (or not) in global health and social development. He has researched and published widely on HIV, sexual and reproductive health, maternal health, neglected tropical diseases, TB and Indigenous health. He is particularly interested in understanding the socio-structural determinants of health and social inequities, and injustices associated with marginalisation due to gender, sexuality, age and geography. He has also published two books on interpretive and community-led approaches in research, design, monitoring and evaluation: ‘Peer research in health and social development: international perspectives on participatory research’ (2021), and ‘Monitoring and evaluation in health and social development: interpretive and ethnographic perspectives’ (2016). He is currently taking on new PhD students in these areas, so please do reach out to him at the Burnet Institute for a chat!

He holds associate professorial appointments at UNSW Sydney and The University of Queensland, is a Member of the International Editorial Board at Culture, Health & Sexuality, has been a Senior Advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, and has worked in research and consultancy roles with international governments, NGOs, UNAIDS, UNFPA and WHO.

Associate Professor Sarah Bennett is the Program Director, Bachelor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Queensland. Her research interests include evidence-based policing and practice, procedural justice and legitimacy, experimental criminology, and organisational practice. These interests are interwoven within three research aims to 1) advance the role of police and police training in improving outcomes for survivors, offenders and communities, 2) innovate and apply rigorous research methods in real world settings to inform policy and practice and 3) advance organisational facilitators and theories for effective practice. Sarah has significant and internationally unique expertise in delivering complex research projects with translational benefits to improve policing practice in the UK and Australia. Sarah is a Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology (AEC). Sarah is invested in strong partnerships to facilitate measurable and meaningful research outcomes.

Dr Damian Cox’s ares of research is Ethics, particularly ethical theory.

Dr Cox holds a BA(hons) (ANU); PhD (Melbourne).

His teaching areas include: Introduction to philosophy; Philosophy and Film; Cognitive science; and Ethics.

Dr Cox’s current research projects include:

• The moral and philosophical psychological character of integrity;
• Critiques of utilitarianism and agent-based virtue ethics; Ethics and decision theory; The limits of Moral Obligation.

Dr Kathy Ellem is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at The University of Queensland, Australia. She has previously practiced as a social worker in both government and non-government sectors, working with children, young people and their families in disability and child protection services. As a social worker, she has been actively involved in casework; case management; behavioural intervention; group work; community development; and individual, citizen and systems advocacy. She has taken on family leadership roles in the disability sector, including her former role as President of Queensland Parents for People with a Disability. She is a member of the Queensland board of the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability, and committee member of Queensland Advocacy Incorporated and Community Living Association.

Kathy completed her PhD in social work at the University of Queensland, researching the experiences of people with intellectual disability in the Queensland prison system. Her research expertise includes participatory research methodologies (including narrative, digital and arts-based research) with people with impaired cognitive capacity; the intersectionality of disability and the criminal justice system; disability workforce development; family-centred practice and capacity building of families who have a loved one with a disability; self-advocacy for people with an intellectual disability; and families who have been forced to relinquish care of their child with a disability. Her work focuses on how both teaching and research can influence positive change in social work practice and in the lives of vulnerable people.

Kathy currently leads the Honours research course for the Bachelor of Social Work (Hons) and supervises research higher degree students in the fields of disability, mental health and health.

Carmel Fleming is a mental health professional with the Queensland Eating Disorder Service (QuEDS) and conjoint Clinical Lecturer with Queensland Health and the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at the University of Queensland where she teaches in Advanced Practice in Health. At QuEDS Carmel is senior social worker, clinical educator, and clinical supervisor providing consultation and service development across Queensland as well as coordination of QuEDS family and carer services. Prior to this she developed and led the QuEDS statewide education and training program for ten years. Carmel has specialised in mental health and eating disorders since 1992 with a focus on low intensity and specialist interventions such as self help and cognitive behavioural programs as well as family work. Carmel completed her PhD into the effectiveness of services for families of adults affected by eating disorders and maintains a special interest in the clinical support and supervision of other health professionals.

My research focuses on the protection and wellbeing of children, young people and their families. I use research co-design methods to collaborate with people, communities, and agencies to build family and community inclusive responses to human and health needs.

My research fields are: child protection, out-of-home care, health equity and social inclusion.

My research themes are:

a) peer-parent and family advocacy in child protection, mental health and other health services.

b) promoting the social, emotional and cultural wellbeing of children, young people and families involved with child protection and out-of-home care services.

c) health equity and evidence-based approaches to family support in child protection, mental and other health services.

d) interprofessional health care to improve service access and equity with vulnerable populations.

In 2016, I was appointed a member of the Order of Australia (AM) for my contribution to social work in child protection, higher education and research. In September 2018, I was appointed Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Dr. Dorothee Hölscher is a social work lecturer in the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work at The University of Queensland and a research associate with the Department of Social Work & Criminology at the University of Pretoria. Previously, she worked at Griffith University in Australia and the Universities of KwaZulu Natal, and the Witwatersrand in South Africa.

Dorothee began her social work education in Germany, followed by the completion of a Master of Social Science (cum laude) and a Ph.D. (by publication) in South Africa. Her practice experience comprises social work with refugees and other cross-border migrants, community development, and child protection.

Dorothee’s research areas are applied ethics (with a focus on justice), anti-oppressive social work theory and practice, and social work with migrants and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Her research skill set comprises a wide range of qualitative and post-qualitative methodologies. To date, she published a total of 40 books and edited collections, book chapters, and scholarly articles; serves as a reviewer for eight local and international journals and presents regularly at local and international conferences.

A co-founder and a longstanding executive member of the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA), Dorothee currently serves on the editorial board of the journal, Ethics & Social Welfare (ESW), and has recently completed - with Profs Richard Hugman from the University of New South Wales and Donna McAuliffe from Griffith University - an edited volume on social work theories and ethics with Springer Nature (June 2023).

Dr Martin O’Flahertyis a research fellow in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Children and Families over the Life Course located in the Institute for Social Science Research. Martin has made important contributions to the evaluation of nationally significant social policy, often working with the Department of Social Services. Notable highlights include designing the impact evaluation for the $90 million Try, Test, and Learn Fund and leading the evaluation of the Building Capacity in Australia’s Parents trial and the National Community Awareness Raising initiative. He is the quantitative lead for recently announced Community Refugee Integration and Sponsorship Pilot, funded by the Department of Home Affairs, which is investigating the feasibility of alternative settlement pathways for unlinked humanitarian migrants.

Martin’s broader research centres on the intersection of family, health, and disadvantage over the life course, using advanced quantitative methods to unlock causal and longitudinal perspectives on important social problems. Recent work has investigated patterns and determinants of children’s and adolescents’ time-use, including for adolescents with disability and LGBTQ adolescents. He has also led research using state-of-the-art machine learning methodology to study heterogeneous effects of teenage motherhood on later life mental health. Martin’s current research is primarily focussed on understanding the nature, causes of, and solutions to, poverty and financial insecurity among children with disabilities and their families. His work has appeared in leading international journals including Demography, Child Development, and The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health among others.

Cameron is an Australian Research Council Industry Fellow in partnership with Micah Projects.

His work examines multiple forms of exclusion and social harms. Cameron's research focuses on the nature and experience of poverty, homelessness, and domestic and family violence. He is interested in understanding what societies do to respond to these problems, and what societies ought to do differently to address them. In collaboration with researchers and partners from not-for-profit organisations, Cameron’s program of research seeks to identify how citizens experiencing exclusion and practitioners working with them can work with governments to bring about systematic societal change.

In his first book, The Homeless Person in Contemporary Society, Cameron sought to highlight how the representation of people who are homeless as distinct informs a policy and practice agenda that he characterised as a poverty of ambition. Cameron's second book with Andrew Clarke and Francisco (Paco) Perales, Charity and Poverty in Advanced Welfare States, takes on the question how can we be just by soothing the consequences of poverty without addressing the causes of poverty.

Cameron's most recent book published by Polity Press, Homelessness, demonstrates that homelessness is a punishing, predictable, yet solvable social problem.https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=9781509554492

Maree's program of research centres on older people experiencing disadvantage. Underpinning her research is the recognition of the rights of older people to participate in healthy ageing, and as such be housed well with access to community aged care services. Her work incorporates a number of themes but the central aim is to use research to improve the delivery of health and welfare services in the context of elder abuse, housing, homelessness with particular emphasis on the intersection of the policy areas of housing, health and income security necessary for ensuring wellbeing as people as they age. The results from her research have implications for how we think about older people without access to their rights, and living in poverty and at risk of homelessness with restricted access to community aged care and support.

Dr Lynda Shevellar joined The University of Queensland in 2009. Based in the School of Social Science, Lynda won an early career award for teaching excellence in 2011, a University of Queensland Award for Teaching Excellence in 2019 and an Australian Award for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2019). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, the Principal Practitioner - Participation and Engagement (Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation), and is currently one of the Deputy Associate Deans (Academic) for the HASS Faculty. Lynda has previously held roles in government and the community sector and is influenced by over thirty years of experience in community development, the disability sector, mental health, education, and psychology.

Lynda's research explores three closely aligned agendas: understanding the experience of people who live with heightened vulnerability; developing the awareness, agency and capacity of communities to respond to social disadvantage and inequality; and aligning community development theory and education to inform practice in working alongside people who live with heightened vulnerability. Lynda has a particular interest in the development of inclusive learning communities, through creative teaching practices, participative research strategies, and engaged citizenship.

Lynda coordinates the courses SOSC2288: Community Development - Local and International Practice; and SOCY1070: Inequality, Society and the Self.

Dr Jemma Venables is a social work lecturer and joined the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at UQ in 2017. Her research explores the policy-practice interface in child, youth and family practice. In particular, Jemma’s research focuses on the intersection of statutory child protection, family support services, domestic and family violence (DFV) and transition from out-of-home care support. Underpinning her research is a key interest in collaboration, inter-agency working and justice. Within the school, Jemma draws on her research and practice experience to teach into undergraduate and post-graduate courses that explore the interface of law, policy and social work practice.