Ariel H. Bierbaum, MCP, PhD

Assistant Professor
University of Maryland, College Park

Dr Ariel H. Bierbaum is an assistant professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work sits at the nexus of metropolitan inequality, planning practice, and K-12 public education. A leading scholar of cross-sector collaboration, public school closures, and school-centered community development, Dr Bierbaum investigates the institutional contexts, policy formation, and lived experiences of planning interventions. Her work builds understanding of how non-school systems support or hinder educational equity and racial justice, and how public schools play a role in urban planning and governance.

Alisha Butler

PhD Candidate
University of Maryland, College Park

Alisha Butler is a PhD Candidate in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her work draws on interdisciplinary perspectives to interrogate the overlapping ecologies of schools, neighborhoods, and cities that shape students’ and families’ experiences with schools and education. Her dissertation uses qualitative methods to investigate gentrification’s effects on urban schools, with a focus on how middle-class families in gentrifying communities select secondary schools for their children, how administrators and educators respond to changing school demographics, and how gentrification shapes the politics of family engagement in urban schools.

Erin S. O'Keefe, MPP

PhD Candidate, Urban Policy
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Erin S. O’Keefe, M.P.P. is the director of Loyola University Maryland’s York Road Initiative and Center for Community Service and Justice. She is a doctoral candidate in urban policy at the School of Public Policy at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. As an applied researcher and student of community and economic development, O’Keefe seeks to understand cultural, structural and systemic barriers to implementing equitable community development initiatives. Ms. O’Keefe is particularly interested in what it takes to leverage the assets of community residents, public agencies, community-based organizations and anchor institutions to effectively collaborate and move toward collective impact.

Natalie Miles

PhD Candidate
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne

Natalie Miles is a PhD candidate in the Building Connections: Schools as Community Hubs ARC Linkage project at Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) of the University of Melbourne. Natalie is researching ‘Spatial Analysis of School and Community Interaction, identifying and recording who, where, when and how community members are using school facilities.

Natalie is also a registered architect in Victoria and has been practicing architecture as an Associate at Austin Maynard Architects with several award-winning projects under her belt since completing her Master of Architecture in 2013. This PhD project sees a return to her interest in schools and education after her master’s thesis titled School/City.

Carolina Rivera Yevenes

PhD Candidate
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne

Carolina Rivera Yevenes is a PhD candidate in the Building Connections: Schools as Community Hubs ARC Linkage project at Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) of the University of Melbourne. Carolina's research focusses on how schools can be planned, designed, governed and managed to thrive as community hubs.

She holds a Master of education from the University of Melbourne and a degree in education and philosophy. She has more than ten years of experience as a teacher and is also working with schools as an academic consultant and formulating intervention programs. In 2012, she co-founded NGO Innovacien, Chilean organisation working in the development of 21st-century skills, technology and innovation in schools.

Robert Polglase

PhD Candidate
Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University

Joining the Building Connections team culminates Rob’s long held dream to collaborate to build research based evidence for sharing knowledge to influence policy settings, connected to planning, design, delivery of learning and community sites to meet diverse community needs as flourishing centres.

Rob’s research proposal is steeped in years of project work related to Building Connections objectives for evaluating policy-planning-design-governance settings. This experience includes education, health, community sectors, commercial, multi-residential, public realm, transport infrastructure, urban renewal and land development programs. These projects have incorporated urban policy development, strategic planning, funding submissions, setting site planning and development vision, concept to final agreed design, contract procurement to delivery with advocacy for clients, stakeholders, communities, and all levels of Government.

Rob has extensively participated in industry forums and academic teaching throughout his career. Rob’s recent teaching focus has included affordable, socially inclusive design for education, community health, housing density, connected neighbourhoods.

Dr Alexandra Fraser

Senior Research Advisor
Our Place – an initiative of the Colman Education Foundation

Alex joined Our Place in September 2018 as the Senior Research Advisor in the Research and Evaluation team. Alex’s current role involves leading the qualitative data collection and analysis program, capturing evidence and stories from across the Our Place communities to demonstrate change and impact. During her time at Our Place, Alex was also the inaugural Partnership Manager at Our Place’s Geelong site, overseeing its establishment. Alex holds a doctorate in Sociology and has a professional background in applied social, community and family research and evaluation, combined with program and project management experience within the local government and not-for-profit sectors.

Margaret Rutherford

Manager, Implementation Support
Our Place – an initiative of the Colman Education Foundation

Margaret joined the Our Place team in March 2019 as Implementation Support Manager. Margaret’s current role involves supporting the people implementing the Our Place approach across 10 locations in Victoria and developing resources, learning processes and systems to ensure ongoing fidelity to the approach and support continuous improvement. Margaret holds a degree in education, however has spent the past 20 years working in senior community development and partnership brokerage roles with a focus on complex, multi stakeholder partnerships for change.

Angela Branford

Principal
Calvary Lutheran Primary School

Angela is Principal at Calvary Lutheran Primary School and has served there for the past 9 years. She has been working in Lutheran Education in Australia since 1995 and has held teaching and leadership positions at Lutheran Schools and Colleges in NT, WA and SA. She has a Bachelor of Education, Junior Primary, Graduate Diploma in Theology and a Master of Education, Administration. Angela has a strong commitment to developing learning communities that focus on student agency and for working closely with school communities supporting authentic lifelong connections.

Peter Moeck

Architect
Peter Moeck Architect

Peter is a sole practitioner Registered Architect in South Australia. He has been in practice for 35 years with a passionate interest in people and place, particularly the development of community and social infrastructure. His work portfolio includes public libraries, ecclesiastical and education sector commissions. Long term relationships have led to repeat commissions for a range of independent sector schools. Peter has been collaborating with Calvary Lutheran Primary School for 8 years and this has led to the development of Concept Designs in response to the needs of a thriving ‘Family Zone’ Community Hub.

Leigh Goodenough

Senior Manager Community Development (former)
Lutheran Community Care (former)

Leigh Goodenough is a graduate of the University of South Australia and has worked for over 20 years in the fields of youth work and community development. In the past decade he has undertaken independent research into early childhood development and the engagement of vulnerable and isolated community cohorts in complex service delivery. This research has supported the development of practical and innovative approaches in various service contexts including refugee settlement, child protection, intergenerational poverty and domestic & family violence. Leigh lives in Nairne, South Australia with his wife and two sons.

Tony Matthews

Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning
School of Environment and Science, Griffith University

Dr Tony Matthews MRTPI is an award-winning Urban and Environmental Planner, with portfolios in academia, practice and the media. He is an active scholar, public writer, speaker and broadcaster. His research interests include responding to new forms of urban change, community-led planning and institutional, governance and policy change processes. Tony has won three Awards for Excellence from the Planning Institute of Australia and was named one of Australia’s leading thinkers by The Conversation.

Mirko Guaralda

Lecturer
QUT School of Design

Mirko Guaralda (Ph.D., MHEd, DArch) is an academic at the Queensland University of Technology. His work focuses on people-place interaction, enquiring into the complex issues of urban density, place quality and community engagement. He was researcher at the United States Study Centre of Sydney in 2012; in 2017 he has been visiting professor at the Thammasat University of Bangkok, Thailand. Since 2018 he has been engaged also in research and teaching at the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (China).

Ben Coulston

Architect/Urban designer

Ben is Sydney based registered architect and urban designer within the practice Designinc. His work has focused on the realisation of masterplan and precinct visions but has included the delivery of a broad range of building typologies including education and housing. His research has focused on the intersection of policy and built outcome, from the spatial organisation of cities through to housing policy.

Fatemeh Aminpour

Academic, Research Assistant
University of New South Wales

Fatemeh Aminpour PhD is a research assistant and sessional academic in the Faculty of Built Environment at the University of New South Wales. Her principal area of design and research interest is children’s and young people’s environments. She has extensive experience of research on school environments with particular interest in participatory methodologies in research with children. She holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales in Environment–Behaviour research and her Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture from the University of Tehran, Iran.

Cindi Hron

Designer/Studio artist

Originally from California, Cindi studied fine arts at Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles where she earned a BFA degree, and later at California College of Art in Oakland, where she earned an MFA. Her work seeks to encompass the social and cultural history of landscape and place, which has served as a catalyst for her many drawings, sculptures, and public projects. Her more recent venture into landscape architecture has led to an MLA degree from Penn State University.

Julia Atkin

Director
Learning by Design

Doctor Julia Atkin is universally recognised for her rich understanding of learning and thinking and providing practical ways to support teachers and leaders in enhancing learning for all. Julia works extensively with individual schools as well as with education systems to help transform how they design the learning landscape - both pedagogically and physically. Her international work includes NZ, USA, UK, OECD and the World Bank.

Julia believes she has avoided a ‘use by date’ by focusing on what is fundamental and universal in learning, leading and design.

David Tordoff

Director
Hayball

A director at Hayball, David plays a key role in the practice’s national education and commercial projects, working with state governments and private clients. With a deep understanding of site contexts, education design and communities, he has led multiple award-winning education and civic commissions that are recognised as exemplars in learning environment planning and community alignment.

Nationally recognised for design excellence, David’s work is a recipient of the prestigious Australian Institute of Architects Sulman Medal and numerous accolades from the Learning Environments Australasia (LEA). He is sitting member of North Sydney Design Excellence Panel and a juror for the 2020 LEA NSW Awards.

Martin Brennan

Senior Research Fellow
Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of Melbourne

Martin Brennan was the Community Education Officer at the Princes Hill School Park Centre (1978 – 1985) and Community Education Director, Straits Area Community Education, St Ignace Area Schools, Michigan, USA (1983). Martin has a long political and professional record of seeking community empowerment and sustainable solutions for cities at the local, national and international level as a Melbourne City Councillor and a professional working in the local government sector. He is the former Regional Director, ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability – Oceania and is currently a Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Linus Tan

PhD Candidate
Swinburne University of Technology

Linus Tan researches design and management strategies that enhance collaborations, to help architects work effectively as a team and with different stakeholders. His experience includes managing service operations in a digital fabrication laboratory and coordinating operations in an air force squadron. He is a Master of Architecture graduate from the University of Melbourne and is currently completing his PhD degree at Swinburne University of Technology.

Ravi Bessabava

Design Technical Officer
Swinburne University of Technology

Ravi is a design technical officer in Swinburne University of Technology's Protolab where he coaches architecture, industrial design and product design engineering students in the areas of design, fabrication and advanced manufacturing. His skill sets allow him to work fluidly across multiple disciplines at multiple scales, while his passion for sharing knowledge particularly around digital to physical workflows, geometry rationalisation, design thinking and manufacturing. He holds a Master of Architecture from the University of Melbourne.

Kristen Hebden

PhD Candidate
Swinburne University of Technology

Kristen is currently researching makerspaces in high schools, with a focus on the impact they have on students' self-concept. She has experience running a high school makerspace, as well as teaching STEM, maths and physics at a range of schools. Her previous careers as a science communicator, and as an engineer, have given her an appreciation of the need to increase diversity in STEM fields, and an indication to the barriers stopping it. Kristen is currently working on her PhD degree at Swinburne University of Technology.

Lee Callum

Former School Principal and Retired Executive Director in Queensland Government

Lee Callum has extensive senior leadership experience in education and other social service agencies. She established the Community Hubs and Partnerships Program (CHaPs).

This innovative program, the first of its kind in Australia, facilities collaborative social service and infrastructure planning to improve community access to the services they need and maximise investment. Prior to establishing the CHaPs program, Lee was leading strategic infrastructure planning for state schools and TAFE assets across Queensland.

Lee’s career began as a primary school teacher and then a principal initially primary and then secondary schools. She is very passionate about the role schools can play in establishing and supporting communities so that children and families can thrive

Ben Cleveland

Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture, Building & Planning
The University of Melbourne

Dr Ben Cleveland is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne, where he is a Co-Director of the Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN). His current research activity includes leading the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project, ‘Building Connections: Schools as Community Hubs’ (2019-2022) and actively contributing as a Chief Investigator to the ARC Linkage Project ‘Innovative Learning Environments + Teacher Change’ (2016-2019). He recently led a three-year program of learning environment evaluation for Catholic Education Melbourne and Catholic Diocese of Parramatta and reviewed the Victorian Department of Education and Training’s school area standards, resulting in significant policy updates including the development of new School Facility Area Schedules. Ben teaches a range of cross-disciplinary subjects and supervises more than ten PhD and Masters students in the field of Learning Environments Research. Ben has consulted widely on the design of new school facilities in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory, and New Zealand. He is immediate past Chair of the Victorian Chapter of Learning Environments Australasia.

Clare Newton

Associate Professor in Learning Environments
The University of Melbourne

Clare, an architect and Doctor of Education, led two Australian Research Council Linkage Projects on learning space design. She is currently a Chief Investigator on two further Linkage Projects. Clare, a Co-Director and founding member of LEaRN, helped instigate the annual Talking Spaces symposia. Clare was Director of the Bachelor of Environments with over 2,000 students. She has been a Board Member of the Architects Registration Board of Victoria; elected Council member for the Australian Institute of Architects; elected President of the Association of Architectural Schools of Australasia; and Chair of the Validation Executive Committee for the Commonwealth Association of Architects.

Janet Clinton

Director of the Centre for Program Evaluation and Director of the International Teacher Education Effectiveness Research Hub, Melbourne Graduate School of Education
The University of Melbourne

Professor Janet Clinton is Director of the Centre for Program Evaluation and Director of the International Teacher Education Effectiveness Research Hub, at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. She has wide national and international experience as an evaluator, psychologist, and educator, and has an extensive publication record. Recently she was the principal evaluator for the Australian Professional Standards for Teaching, and the Real-time captioning pilot in Victorian Schools. She currently leads the Visible Classroom initiative as well as directs the Teacher Capability Assessment Tool project. Overall, she has led over 100 national and international evaluation projects.

Ian McShane

Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research
RMIT University

Associate Professor Ian McShane is the Deputy Director and Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University's Centre for Urban Research. His research focuses on informal and formal education systems (especially museums, libraries and schools), local infrastructure and community services, and digital technologies. Ian is currently researching shared use community infrastructure and service co-ordination, the development of publicly accessible wireless networks in Australia and internationally, and the representational politics of cultural diversity in Australian museums. Ian has had a long involvement with the Australian museum sector, working as a senior curator at the National Museum of Australia and consulting to other levels of government on museums and culture.

In 2013 Ian was appointed to UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network external evaluation panel.

Philippa Chandler

Research Fellow, Building Connections
The University of Melbourne

Dr Philippa (Pippa) Chandler is Research Fellow with Learning Environments Applied Research Network (LEaRN) where she is investigating how schools can double-up as community hubs. Philippa is a member of the Institute of Australian Geographers and is particularly interested in how people ‘perform’ community in everyday Australian life. Her recent PhD explored place-attachment, community and environmental conflict among return visitors to the Ningaloo Reef region of Western Australia. In her spare time, Philippa dabbles with journalism and occasionally contributes articles about arts and culture to Guardian Australia.