The team
Dr. Lucas Walsh
Director of Research
As current director of The Foundation for Young Australians, Dr Walsh co-ordinates, commissions and conducts research as part of a national agenda for policy change. His PhD (Monash) examined the impact of education policy reform on Australian democracy during the latter twentieth century.
Lucas has held three academic research fellowships in areas such as international education, technology and political participation, e-learning and citizenship and democracy. He was research fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University, Monash Centre for Research in International Education (MCRIE) and postdoctoral research fellow of Democracy and New Media in the School of Communications and Multimedia at Edith Cowan University. He also managed the Online Curriculum Centre within the International Baccalaureate Organisation in the UK.
Lucas has research and applied expertise in education, technology, and its political implications – particularly in the areas of e-government, e-learning and new forms of political participation. He has worked as consultant for and been invited to speak to local and international bodies on areas of participation, education and technological innovation such as the Australian Government Information Office, the Citizen Access and Transformation unit of the Victorian Department of Innovation Industry and Regional Development, United World College Singapore and the ITU World Summit on the Information Society, as well as local government initiatives in the use of ICTs for community building, such as Darebin eForum. In 2009 he was commissioned by the National Curriculum Board to write an advisory paper on online curriculum modelling for the national curriculum and was a speaker at the National Curriculum Board Learning for the 21st Century forum.
See all publications by Dr. Lucas Walsh
Rosalyn Black
Senior Manager, Research & Evaluation
Rosalyn Black is the Senior Research Manager with The Foundation for Young Australians, having joined its Education Foundation division in 2001.
Rosalyn’s career has combined teaching, policy development and research across the school, government and nonprofit sectors. A central focus of her research has been the systemic, policy and school-based conditions that perpetuate educational inequity for young Australians facing disadvantage as well as the creation of new networks and partnerships that can build the capacity of schools in low socioeconomic contexts.
Her research also concerns the role of young people in leading community and social change. As a PhD Candidate with the Australian Youth Research Centre at The University of Melbourne, she will investigate the experience of young people from low socioeconomic backgrounds in creating positive change within their communities and how their schools support them in doing so.
Rosalyn’s book, Beyond the Classroom: Building new school networks, is published by ACER Press. Her next book, co-authored with Dr Lucas Walsh, will be published by ACER Press in 2010.
See all publications by Rosalyn Black
Dr Naomi Berman
Manager, Policy & Evaluation
Naomi recently completed her PhD on ‘The Transformation of Self aboard an Australian Sail Training Program’ (University of Sydney). Her previous work includes Research Fellow for an evaluation of VicHealth’s Community Arts Development Scheme measuring the impact of participation in arts activities on mental health and wellbeing, and Social and Field Research Manager for the BBC’s Digital Switchover Help Scheme. She has also worked on two national inquiries; mental health care in the Australian Defence Force, and suicide in the veteran community. Naomi is Associate Editor of the UNESCO Observatory Multidisciplinary Research in the Arts e-journal and has taught at the University of Sydney, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of New England.
See all publications by Dr Naomi Berman
Dr Barbara Lemon
Facilitator, Research and Policy
Dr Barbara Lemon was appointed Facilitator, Research and Policy for The Foundation for Young Australians in mid-2009. Her PhD thesis (University of Melbourne) documented the history of Australian women philanthropists from 1880 to 2005, and she is regularly called upon to speak and publish on the subject of philanthropy.
Previously, Barbara worked as a project manager, researcher and tutor in the tertiary sector. With Dr. Nikki Henningham and the National Foundation for Australian Women, she spent four years developing the Australian Women’s Archives Project, an online research tool providing biographical information, images, publication and archival details for over 4,000 women. As part of the project, she produced two major online exhibitions: In Her Gift: Women Philanthropists in Australian History and Unbroken Spirit: Women in Broken Hill. Barbara has a strong association with the History Council of Victoria and has travelled to schools throughout regional Victoria with the Council’s Roadshow program, delivering lectures and seminars to VCE students of Australian History. She has participated in several mentoring programs for high school and university students.
As an adjunct to her research activities, Barbara works as a freelance producer for ABC Radio National’s social history program, ‘Hindsight’. Two documentaries, A Great Form of Love: Women Philanthropists in Australian History and The Word in the Stone: Sculptor Ola Cohn, were broadcast in 2008.
See all publications by Dr. Barbara Lemon
Prof Jack Keating
Jack Keating is a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Thought Leadership Fellow at The Foundation for Young Australians. He has extensive experience in and knowledge of school education in Victoria, Australia and at the international level. He has undertaken developmental work in school education for most Australian governments, the OECD, the World Bank, the International Labour Office, UNESCO and the Welsh Government. He currently delivers Masters level programs in school leadership and education policy.
His areas of work include qualifications and qualifications systems, post – 16 education and training, education and the labour market, school curriculum, and education policy. He was the main author of the Kirby Report on post compulsory pathways, has been a member of a number of Victorian education boards and committees, and has acted in advisory roles to Victorian education ministers and senior officials.
Emily Mellon
Emily Mellon has worked at FYA since June 2008. She graduated from La Trobe University with a BA majoring in Anthropology and Sociology. It was here where she completed Ethnographic research on a local drop-in centre for youth and marginalised community members. Currently at FYA, as part of the Research team, Emily is working on past and present project Evaluations including the pilot of the Young Social Pioneers program. She has supported the research team in several initiatives including the ongoing, A New Federalism in Australian Education. She is extremely passionate about the wellbeing of young people and believes in an education system where genuine ‘life-choices’ are provided for all as she strives to live in an equitable and just society. Emily is on the board of EastWeb and is a member of the Fitzroy Learning Network.
Contact FYA Research at lucas.walsh@fya.org.au
