Enhancing Equity Outcomes through structured Community Engagement

Jennifer Tredinnick is Manager- Community-engaged Projects and Programs at the Australian Catholic University. Her qualifications and work history encompasses design education, youth and community education and collaborative community engagement in both Australia and the United Kingdom. Jennifer has a deep passion for, and extensive experience in, participatory partnerships and collaborations in learning that support aspiration, promote active citizenship and strengthen communities.

Since 2013, Jennifer has worked within the university sector managing interdisciplinary student community engagement projects and in building university capacity for peer-to-peer support and Students as Partners initiatives. Her current role encompasses the Clemente Australia program– a university-level liberal arts certificate open to marginalised adults within our communities. Fostering safe, respectful, and supportive collaborative learning partnerships, this transformative program works to empower participants with hope and the skills, confidence, and knowledge they need to break cycles of inequity, inequality, and injustice.

Bronwyn’s heritage is from Avatele in Niue and Rarotonga and Aituataki in the Cook Islands. She has a 22-year career as an equity practitioner in universities across Australia and New Zealand. She leads the Pasifika Achievement to Higher Education (PATHE), Refugee New and Emerging Communities (NEC), and the First Foot Forward primary program at Western Sydney University. With a Master of Arts (Hons) and a Master of Literature, Bronwyn is passionate about empowering young learners in Australia. She co-founded and co-chairs the Australian Pasifika Educators Network and serves on the Equity Practitioners Higher Education Australasia Executive.

Katie Aguilera is the Associate Director of Engagement and Partnerships at Western Sydney University, where she has worked since 2005, accumulating nearly 19 years of continuous service. During her time at Western Sydney University, Katie has developed extensive experience and organisational knowledge, greatly benefiting the University and the Western Sydney community.

Katie holds the following tertiary qualifications:

Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology, Monash University, 2010
Graduate Certificate in International Relations, Macquarie University, 2010
Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), Western Sydney University, 2008
Katie’s career has consistently centred around service, a principle that remains integral to all her roles. She is passionate about enhancing the student experience, fostering meaningful partnerships, community engagement and creating opportunities for the people of Western Sydney.

Professor Bruce Watson is Pro Vice-Chancellor Inclusion at UNSW. He commenced as a lecturer at UNSW in 2001 in the Faculty of Built Environment, designing and convening first year design studio experiences, gaining faculty commendations for his teaching.

In 2014 Bruce designed and implemented the first of the Faculty’s alternate entry schemes broadening the entry reach beyond ATAR alone. The entry scheme now accounts for 20% of new students to the School of Built Environment, inspiring similar schemes across the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture. From 2014 -2016, Bruce chaired the international association of Interior Architects/Designer Educators Association (IDEA), a peak international body that supports the publication of Journals and Symposia and reviews and ensures design education standards are met. He was a council member of the Australia Council of Deans and Directors of the Creative Arts, (DDCA) a representative body for the creative arts in Australian Universities, providing advocacy and to inform, connect and amplify the voices of people and organisations responsible for scholarly and research leadership of the creative arts in higher education. In 2018-2023 Bruce became Head of School and Deputy Dean for the Faculty of Built Environment, and UNSW’s Faculty of Arts Design & Architecture stewarding the Faculties vision across 2500 students, seven Undergraduate programs and four post-graduate programs.

Chris leads CUC as CEO, he has worked in the higher education and not-for-profit sectors across the United States, New Zealand, and Australia with a focus on Regional, Rural and Remote higher education policy, student equity, widening participation and rural student transitions.

He holds a master’s degree from the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management at the University of Melbourne with a focus on Regional, Rural and Remote higher education policy and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD). Chris is the National President of the Society for the Provision in Education in Rural Australia (SPERA) and an Executive Member of Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia (EPHEA).

Jane is a daughter to Samoan parents who migrated to Australia from Samoa to provide the best future for their kids. Born and bred in Western Sydney, she has graduated with a Bachelor of Policing and a Master of International Criminology from Western Sydney University. It is through her studies that Jane developed a great passion for servicing and helping the Pacific community in Sydney. With 5+ years working with young students in both primary and high school, Jane has dedicate her efforts to fostering growth and providing guidance to young students. Currently, Jane is now in a role focused on advancing young Pacific students, encouraging them to explore a wide array of opportunities in tertiary education, helping to pave the way for their future success. Jane hopes to continue to inspire young Pasifika people to aim higher and occupy tertiary spaces.

Professor The Hon. Verity Firth AM is the inaugural Vice-President Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement. Prof. Firth has over twenty years’ experience at the very highest levels of government and education sectors in Australia. She has strong public policy experience and a proven capacity to drive large scale reform across a range of organisations.

Prior to her role at UNSW, Prof. Firth was the Pro Vice-Chancellor Social Justice and Inclusion at the University of Technology Sydney (2015-2022). She developed and delivered the UTS Social Impact Framework, a first of its kind for the Australian university sector and founded the the UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion. She was instrumental in the establishment of the UTS Human Technology Institute.

Prof. Firth was NSW Minister for Education and Training from 2008 – 2011, where she focused on equity in education, and how to best address educational disadvantage in low socio-economic communities, including rural and remote Indigenous communities. As NSW Minister for Women (2007-2009) Prof. Firth implemented sector wide strategies to improve women’s recruitment, development and employment in the NSW public sector, and delivered the NSW Government’s first Domestic Violence Strategy.

As Chief Executive of the Public Education Foundation (2011-2014), Prof. Firth led the Foundation’s transformation from a fledgling organisation into a major provider of scholarships and support for teachers and students in public education. Prof. Firth was the Member for the state seat of Balmain from 2007 – 2011. Before her parliamentary career, Prof. Firth worked as a lawyer and was Deputy Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney.

Dr Matthew Pink is the Head of ACU Engagement at Australian Catholic University. His research areas of interest include the transformational processes of university-community engagement, sport for positive youth development in developing, and developed nations, higher education, and athlete welfare and development.

Matthew is passionate about harnessing the power of universities and communities to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes that transform society. Matthew was personally transformed by a community engagement experience working with youth and soccer in Timor Leste as a student and has since always made time for community engagement in his higher education career spanning 14 years with Australian Catholic University. He has co-authored 16 publications across the community engagement and service-learning, higher education, sport for development, and sport and exercise psychology fields and was lead academic in developing the 3×3 model of student learning and well-being during international community engagement. Matthew received his doctorate from ACU in 2016 and was co-academic-lead in establishing the ACU and DePaul University (Chicago) Conference on Community Engagement and Service-learning which is now a biennial tradition between the two institutions. Matthew also led ACU’s involvement in the first phase of the Uniservitate Global program for service-learning in Catholic Higher Education. In his teaching career, Matthew has received two citations for the quality of his teaching and in particular for showing empathy and support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Liliane, born and raised in Rwanda, holds a Bachelor of Education with Science from Rwanda and a Master of Environmental Management from the University of New South Wales. Before relocating to Australia in 2011 on an Australian Government Scholarship, she served as the Director for Education and then Vice Mayor in charge of Social Affairs in her local district in Rwanda. Building on her passion to support young people to achieve their full potential, Liliane worked at UNSW as a Project Officer, delivering programs for primary and high school students to support their access to higher education. Now, as the Senior Project Support Officer for the Western Sydney University Refugee and Emerging Communities (NEC) program, she leverages her extensive experience to make a significant impact in the lives of refugees and emerging communities.

Professor Ian Li joined Curtin University in 2023 as Director of Research and Policy at the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success. Previously, he was Associate Professor of Health and Labour Economics at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia where he also served as Director of the Undergraduate Public Health Program, and as an elected member on the UWA Academic Board and SPGH School Board.

Ian serves as co-editor of the Australian Journal of Labour Economics and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. He has served on grant assessment panels for the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund, and as assessor for the Australian Research Council.

Ian has held visiting appointments at Harvard University, Swansea University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. He is a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics, University of Bonn and a Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia.

Sonal Singh is an experienced equity practitioner with 15 years of expertise in higher education and the social sector. Currently, she serves as the Executive Manager of Student Equity at the Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion at UTS and holds the position of Vice President at EPHEA, where she advocates for equity in higher education. Sonal has led significant national research projects focused on refugee educational outcomes, culturally inclusive methodologies, and digital literacy in Australia. Her work emphasizes cross-university collaboration, including leading the Bridges to Higher Education evaluation for Macquarie University. She also serves as the UTS Lead for the NSW Equity Consortium and co-chairs the Learning Creates Tertiary Pathways project, aimed at breaking systemic barriers to higher education.