ANZSOG Information Session: Working with First Nations: Delivering on the Priority Reforms

Catherine is the ANZSOG Chair of Public Service Leadership and Reform at the University of New South Wales (Canberra) and is the Deputy Dean (Teaching and Learning) at ANZSOG. Catherine was the lead for ANZSOG’s Executive Fellows Program and has been made an Extraordinary Professor at the University of Pretoria for her work in Indigenous public administration and leadership.

Her academic training is in economics, politics and public policy and she specialises in working with First Peoples communities across Canada, Australia, Aotearoa-New Zealand and South Africa focusing on the leadership contributions of Indigenous public servants and opportunities to learn from and enact Indigenous ways of knowing and being in policymaking.

Her recent co-authored book Leading from Between: Indigenous Participation and Leadership in the Public Service is the first international comparative volume centering the voices, stories and insights of Canadian and Australian Indigenous public servants.

Catherine is an Honorary Member of the South Asian Network for Public Administration (SANPA) and International Advisory Member of the John Templeton Islamic Public Value project. She is a University Medallist and winner of an Australia Day Medal for services provided through Queensland Treasury.

ANZSOG programs

• Co-Director of Working with First Nations: Delivering on the Priority Reforms

Geoff is a descendant of the Meriam people of Murray Island (Mer) in the Torres Strait and the Kuku Yalanji/Djabugay peoples of Cape York and Atherton Tablelands in North Queensland.

Prior to his retirement in late 2017, Geoff had a 40-year career in the Australian Public Service, all in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs portfolio, including 22 years at the Senior Executive Services level.

He has worked extensively across a broad range of program and policy areas and has been responsible for cross departmental advice on community engagement, cultural protocols, cultural appreciation and awareness, and engagement with the community development sector.

In 2014, Geoff was appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor (The University of Queensland).

In 2018, Geoff established ‘First Nations Development Services’, to continue his work connecting Governments with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Geoff was awarded a Public Service Medal in recognition of his service to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in 2019.

Geoff is now focused on providing cultural education programs and strategic advice on community engagement to government departments, agencies, not for profits and the corporate sector. He co-designed and co-delivers ANZSOG’s Working with First Nations - Delivering on the Priority Reforms Program over several years, which has now attracted over 500 participants and assisted public servants to implement the National Agreement on Closing the Gap.

Geoff has a role on several national bodies:

• Remote Area Health Corps, a Federally funded not-for-profit that attracted and deployed health professionals to remote communities in the Northern Territory

• Reserve Bank’s First Nations Advisory Panel

• Australian Public Service-Learning Board

• ANZSOG’s First Nations Reference Group