Our People

National Chief Investigator

University of New South Wales

Kevin Lowe is a Gubbi Gubbi man from southeast Queensland and is a Scientia Indigenous Fellow at UNSW. Kevin has had experience in education as a teacher, administrator and lecturer. He has expertise in working with Aboriginal community organisations on establishing Aboriginal language policy and school curriculum implementation. 

Kevin is the National Chief Investigator on the Culturally Nourishing Schooling (CNS) Project as we enter phase two of the project. 

National Research Manager

University of New South Wales

National Communications Manager

University of New South Wales

Jess is a communications and marketing specialist with over 12 years' experience working within the media landscape. Having led client project teams across multiple media companies, and with extensive experience in managing complex projects and stakeholders, she's now enjoying working with the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project out of UNSW as their Communications Lead. 

Jess's focus in this role is to bring to life the story of CNS and the incredible work that's been done on the project to date, through the team's research and practice results whilst helping bring to life the project for phase 2 as we move to a national program.

NSW Lead - Leadership Hub

The University of Sydney

Dr Claire Golledge is a Lecturer in Education and the co-ordinator of Humanities Curriculum (Secondary) in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. Prior to academia, Claire worked as a secondary school teacher, and in school executive leadership roles, leading teacher professional learning.

Claire is the NSW lead of our Leadership Hub for phase two, working with school and community leaders on sustaining and scaling the CNS project beyond our professional learning and CNS' involvement. Claire will be working with lead researchers in SA and VIC on implementing leadership across their states as we implement phase two of our project.

NSW Research Fellow

University of New South Wales

Sara is a non-Indigenous teacher-researcher specialist with a PhD in cross/inter-cultural education research between non-Indigenous people and First Nations Peoples in Australia. She grew up on Gundijtmara Country in Warrnambool and currently lives and works on Wadawurrung Country in Ballarat.  

Her research focuses on developing relational educational practices and professional development for teachers specifically within the secondary education space and discipline of History. Sara also specialises in learning and content design and user experience for diverse cohorts across a broad range of platforms; online, blended, face-to-face. 

Sara works on the Culturally Nourishing Schooling Project as the qualitative Postdoctoral expert. 

NSW Pedagogical Leader

University of New South Wales

Mary has more than 20 years of experience as a classroom teacher, deputy principal, literacy coach and consultant for schools. As a leader in education, she has developed and implemented workshops, facilitated community collaborations, and supported schools in making sustained change. 

In 2023, Mary joined the CNS project working at UNSW School of Education. She works with NSW schools as the pedagogical leader, building relationships with school staff and Aboriginal communities involved in the CNS project, providing professional learning and support for teachers.

NSW Project Coordinator

University of New South Wales

Lola Alexander is a non-Indigenous researcher and project coordinator, who has had the privilege of growing up on Bidjigal and Gadigal land in Sydney.

Lola has an interdisciplinary education in socio-legal studies (USYD), human rights (USYD), and art history and theory (Monash University). Prior to her doctoral research into Indigenous contemporary photographic practice, human rights, and survivance, Lola spent many years working with Indigenous-led, community, and non-for-profit organisations across the fields of education, youth work, health, and social justice in both remote and urban settings.

Lola is passionate about supporting and learning from culturally-safe projects and service provision, community connection, and Indigenous knowledge-sharing.   

Lola is the Project Coordinator for the Culturally Nourishing School Project. 

NSW Community Facilitator

University of New South Wales

NSW Quantitative Postdoctoral Research Fellow

University of New South Wales

Dr Hanchao Hou is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Education at UNSW and an Honorary Fellow at the Centre for Wellbeing Science, University of Melbourne. His research focuses on positive psychology and digital mental health, with a strong emphasis on quantitative research for school-based assessment and intervention. He has worked across Australian and Chinese school systems to evaluate learning, mental health, and wellbeing programs and to support evidence-informed practices. 

SA Project Investigator

University of Adelaide

Sam Schulz (she/her) is a settler Australian of Anglo heritage and Associate Professor of sociology of education at The University of Adelaide. Sam’s expertise includes culturally responsive and relational pedagogies, gender justice, critical race studies, and First Nations Education. Sam has taught and researched across a diversity of global contexts, including South Australia’s Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands, and is presently a lead CI for several research projects focused respectively on teachers’ work amidst the rise of divisive digital worlds, and culturally responsive schooling.

SA Research Fellow

University of South Australia

Abigail is a sessional academic at the University of South Australia. She has worked on and off as a primary school teacher since 1993, and completed her PhD in 2022 as part of the ARC Discovery Project: Towards an Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Abigail’s research interests are around critical pedagogy, teacher professionalism, action research, culturally responsive pedagogies and affect theory. She is a settler colonial Australian and currently lives on unceded Kaurna and Peramangk Country.

SA Project Investigator

University of South Australia

Robyne Garrett (PhD) is a settler Australian living and working on unceded Kaurna land. She is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of South Australia where she teaches arts, physical education, and research methodologies in teacher education and doctoral programs. Her research focuses on gender, embodiment, culturally responsive and affective pedagogies. Her PhD thesis entitled: How Young Women Move, explored the construction of gender in physical activity contexts. The research employed a portrait style storytelling approach, now used for reflection in teacher training. Current projects include creative and body-based learning, socially just pedagogies, oracy, and cultural responsiveness. Her methodologies include action research, narrative storytelling, and ethnographic and arts-based approaches.

SA Researcher - Quantitative Lead

University of Adelaide

Ruth Aston is a Senior Lecturer in Education at the School of Education, University of Adelaide. Ruth has fifteen years of research experience and is currently working on several evaluations in education and health, including the Evaluation of the School Mental Health Fund and Menu initiative and the development of an Implementation Guide for Health Promoting Institutions in Malaysia. Ruth holds honorary appointments at the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. 

Ruth has a background in health systems and health services research, program evaluation and educational evaluation. Her research at the University of Auckland involved working primarily on a three-year national project investigating the workforce effectiveness of health promotion workers in New Zealand. Ruth completed her PhD in 2018, focussing on understanding implementation indicators of complex public health interventions taking action on the social determinants of health. She developed success criteria for articulating success in achieving outcomes in complex multi-level, multi-site interventions in communities aiming to achieve social change in health and education outcomes. 

SA Researcher - Quantitative Lead

University of Adelaide

YJ (Yoon Jeon) Kim is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Adelaide. Her research reimagines what and how we measure learning across formal and informal contexts, using play as a theoretical lens to rethink the purposes and practices of assessment. YJ’s work spans from co-designing learning analytics and dashboards with teachers for game-based assessment to developing unplugged, playful assessment activities for STEM classrooms.

Her scholarship has appeared in leading journals such as Computers & Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, Learning and Instruction, and the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. Previously, YJ was an Assistant Professor of Design, Creative, and Informal Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she directed the Playful Learning and Assessment for Impact (PLAI) Lab. Before that, she founded and directed the MIT Playful Journey Lab, leading an interdisciplinary team of game designers, developers, and researchers to create playful assessment tools for K–12 education.

SA Project Investigator

University of South Australia

Sam Osborne has worked in Aboriginal Education since 1995 including Principal at Ernabella Anangu School in the remote north west of South Australia. He has worked in school leadership programs and a range of roles including corporation interpreting, consulting, research and evaluation. 

From 2011-2015 he was a Senior Research Fellow (UniSA) within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) on the Remote Education Systems (RES) project. Completing a PhD in 2017, he is currently the Associate Director, Regional Engagement (APY Lands) coordinating UniSA's APY Hub and Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Language and Culture programs. 

Sam's current research focus includes Culturally Responsive Pedagogies, Aboriginal languages and remote Aboriginal education. 

SA Lead - Leadership Hub

Flinders University

Dr Steve Corrie is currently the Strategic Development Co-ordinator (Education) at Flinders University.

Steve has worked across primary, secondary and tertiary education contexts for more than 28 years. Educational research to date has focused upon prior experiences as a classroom teacher, middle school leader and principal to consider how educators can utilise cultural responsivity to better connect schooling to students' lives.

Areas of expertise include initial teacher education, Aboriginal education, remote education, cultural responsivity and educational leadership.

SA Project Investigator

University of South Australia

Associate Professor Joel Windle is a specialist in educational policy, sociology and sociolinguistics, and a member of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) located in Education Futures at the University of South Australia.

SA Community Facilitator

University of Adelaide

Anna is a proud Native Title Holder for the Kokatha and Arabana communities, with strong cultural and community ties to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara peoples. Born and raised on Kaurna Country with a deep respect for Country and culture, Anna has dedicated over 15 years to working in higher education, with a focus on outreach and equity.

Her work has consistently centred on closing the gap to university access for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, advocating for culturally safe pathways and inclusive practices across the sector. Anna commitment to community is reflected in her tireless efforts to support students, families, and Elders, ensuring that Aboriginal voices are heard and respected in educational spaces.

With a passion for empowering First Nations communities through education, Anna brings a wealth of experience, cultural knowledge, and leadership to every role she takes on. She continues to champion systemic change that uplifts and honours Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander aspirations, rights, and futures.

SA Pedagogical Lead

University of Adelaide

With a career in education that has spanned almost thirty years, Philippa has held diverse roles, including teaching, head of faculty, and facilitating in the culturally responsive and relational pedagogy space.  For the past fifteen years in Aotearoa/New Zealand, she has focused on developing teacher pedagogy to achieve equity and excellence for Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand). She maintains strong connections to her local tribe through both family and professional work. 

Moving to Adelaide, she is excited to join the Culturally Nourishing Schools (CNS) project.  Philippa is eager to apply her experience with indigenous students to the Australian context, while simultaneously embracing the new knowledge that the CNS project offers, building on her commitment to making sustained, culturally-informed change in schools.

Cathie Burgess is a lecturer/researcher in Aboriginal Studies/Education, Aboriginal Community Engagement, Learning from Country and Leadership in Aboriginal Education programs at the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney.

She has extensive teaching and leadership experience in secondary schools and maintains strong connections with school-communities through teacher professional learning and research projects.

Cathie’s work in Aboriginal Education/Aboriginal Studies is acknowledged through an Honorary Life Member, NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and Life Member, Aboriginal Studies Association NSW. 

Cathie is a CNS research lead at Alexandria Park Community School. 

Univesity of New South Wales

Andrew J. Martin, PhD, is Scientia Professor, Professor of Educational Psychology, and Chair of the Educational Psychology Research Group in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He specialises in motivation, engagement, achievement, and quantitative research methods. 

Andrew is a CNS quantitative research lead. 

BIO + LINK + IMG

University of New South Wales

Tracy Durksen is a non-Indigenous scholar who worked as a primary school teacher in Canada. She is a Scientia Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at UNSW.

Her research aims to impact the learning and development of students and teachers with a focus on interpersonal interactions and psychological characteristics like motivation and adaptability. She is a mixed methods researcher grounded in social cognitive and self-determination theories with expertise in community-based research and evaluation.  

Tracy is the CNS research lead at Condobolin Public School and Condobolin High School. 

Research Assistant

David is a non-Indigenous scholar of public policy, focusing on topics related to First Nations health, employment and education. He grew up on Dharug Country in the NW suburbs of Sydney. He now lives and works on Bedegal and Gadigal Country. David is part of the research team on the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project and is also Senior Advisor, Academic Quality and Strategy at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).  

In 2019, he completed his PhD in Aboriginal health policy at UNSW. David has taught and researched in the academic disciplines of public policy and administration, Indigenous studies, and teacher education. Before coming to academia, David worked as a Spanish interpreter. 

Born in the Tupinambá lands of Pindorama (Brazil), Aline is a mixed-race researcher of European, African, and Indigenous heritage. She has lived for many years in Aotearoa New Zealand and recently moved to Guruk, the traditional lands of the Birpai peoples. Aline is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Education, working on the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project at UNSW. Her research explores the intersections of social justice, decolonisation, cultural studies, and the experiences of the Global South. She examines how critical theory and decolonial frameworks can challenge colonial legacies, focusing on how education can foster inclusive, equitable, and culturally responsive practices that centre the needs and perspectives of historically oppressed communities. 

Aline is a trained psychologist with a PhD in Communication and Cultural Studies from the University of Queensland, AU, and a Master of Arts from Otago University, Aotearoa NZ. She has extensive experience in qualitative research and has worked in universities, colleges, NGOs, and government departments across Brazil, Aotearoa NZ, and Australia. Prior to joining CNS, Aline was a Senior Research and Policy Advisor at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Aline works on the Culturally Nourishing Schooling Project as qualitative Postdoctoral fellow.

CNS/HDR Research Assistant

Shanna is a non-Aboriginal researcher at the UNSW School of Education. Before moving into the field of education she worked in the refugee sector and on issues of environmental justice for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

Her research focuses on the pathways to teachers becoming community-focused, culturally responsive educators. She has taught at UNSW and the University of Sydney in socio-political contexts of education and leadership in Aboriginal education.  

Shanna is a CNS researcher at Alexandria Park Community School and Oak Flats High School.