My career objective is to undertake research with real-world impacts and direct relevance to the communities I work with. My goal is to use research as a tool to improve outcomes for those living at the margins by developing, using and promoting participatory approaches. I am excited about working in the space where good quality research methods meet community participation. I am also a course facilitator for the Contribution Analysis for Impact Evaluation short course.

• I have over a decade of experience in designing and implementing methodologies to evaluate interventions for various underserved communities.
• My doctoral research investigated the tensions between the use of participatory approaches and evaluation of complex community-based interventions with three Australian Aboriginal communities.
• In my post-doctoral research to date I have used participatory methods to inform the development of an intervention for Australian Aboriginal adolescents. These methods integrated action research and visual and digital approaches such as photovoice, role-playing, digitial story telling, focus groups and semi-structured interviews.

I am continuing to expand my growing expertise in participatory methods in the development and evaluation of complex interventions. I am particularly interested in continuing to explore the use of culturally appropriate, decolonising and creative research designs that align with participants’ world views and can make research an empowering process.