PEOPLE
PEOPLE
Current Board Members
Dr Jim Ife
Jim Ife taught in social work schools in Australia from 1974 until 2002, when he became head of the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University, where he stayed until he retired in 2006. His main areas of interest have been community development and human rights, and he has written several books in these fields. He now lives in Melbourne where he remains involved in various community activities, and does sessional teaching at several universities.
Dr Rob Nabben: 20 years in research, policy, academia and youth services, including 10 years as Lecturer RMIT Youth Studies and currently at Deakin University. Social research expertise in evaluation and the development of quality systems for community development. Past projects focus on community inclusion for marginalised groups, using a whole-of-community approach, often in collaboration with the Municipal Association of Victoria. Current training and education role in Borderlands Cooperative and Oases’ Community Learning and Research Centre.
PhD - ‘People’s revolution or government imposition. Working the spaces between the contradictions of community development’
Master of Social Science - ‘More than managerialism? – The development of quality management systems in local government youth services’.
David Buller brings to his role on the Borderlands Board wide
experience in governance of non government organisations.
From International Aid Agencies in Australia and Aotearoa / New Zealand,
to smaller participant run programmes. He has initiated and managed teams
and ventures in a range of community development settings. These have
usually been on the margins of society, and include the fields of community
cultural development, ability/ disability services, social justice action
etc.
He was appointed to the National Consultative Committee on Disarmament, a NZ
Department of Foreign Affairs advisory body in preparation for the First
U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Disarmament. The N.C.C.D. tasked
David with the role of media spokesperson.
David was a core activist in the establishment of
Peace Movement New Zealand ( now Peace Movement Aotearoa), and the editor
of Peace News New Zealand. David was also the
founding arts worker of Vincents Arts Workshop. He represented the A.C.T.
in National Liaison Meetings with the Community Arts Board of the
Australia Council. David is currently completing a
Masters degree in Integrative and Transformative Studies (
www.oases.edu.au ), while painting, writing poetry and working on the
establishment of the Borderlands Centre for Nonviolence.
David is a Quaker in active membership of the
Northern Suburbs Local Meeting, Melbourne.( Wellington, N Z.)
Dr Olga Bursian. Early experience of living across cultures shaped interest in diverse paradigms for living and knowing. Social work qualifications, Masters thesis about youth & employment. My PhD explored the agency of migrant women and the role of the welfare state in facilitating self determination. My work included direct service, social policy and research, management, community development and cross cultural training. Currently lecturer at Monash University Gippsland campus, in social policy and regional community development. Research interests include multiculturalism, comparative welfare states, social policy; nexus between labour markets and families /young people; post-colonial theory; feminist and decolonising research methods; critical social work & advocacy.
Rezza:
Accountant and Treasurer
Others involved in Borderlands
Dr Jacques Boulet: founder of Borderlands. Originally from Flemish-Belgium, early inspiration by working and living with Congolese communities and later, in Germany, working with disadvantaged communities, including the Romani. These experiences shaped lifelong university teaching in social work, social research and community development in Germany, USA and Australia and an abiding interest in the importance of in-depth learning understood as ‘processes of mutually beneficial relating’. Former Senior Lecturer at Melbourne University and Assoc. Prof. RMIT Social Work and ongoing involvement in curriculum development in Hong Kong. PhD dissertation (Ann Arbor, Michigan US) about structure/agency theoretical and strategic underpinning for community development. Ongoing networks with European, Indian and Chinese university research centres. Head of School of the oases Graduate School, offering degrees in Integrative and Transformative Studies, as an antidote to the commercialisation and reductionism now inherent across education programs in Australia and elsewhere.
Ken Fernandes is a social activist and community development practitioner. With others he founded many groups, institutions and local and regional programmes. He has worked and continues to work closely with communities in several countries, including Australia, Cambodia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor and Fiji. He has spent the last thirty years reflecting and learning with low income communities and developing processes that improve living conditions. He has worked as a consultant to UN agencies and was on the UN experts panel that drafted Guidelines for Development Based Displacement in 1997. He has authored several books, reports, articles on community processes, housing rights and urban issues. He lectures at Victoria University in the international community development stream.
M.Sc Economics research thesis: Women in the survival economy,
Diploma in the Protection of Human Rights, from Abo Akademi, Finland.
Elyse Rider is dedicated to ecological and interfaith peace-building through education, community building and activism. She is the current Chair and co-founder of GreenFaith Australia, an eco-interfaith organisation that brings diverse Australians together to explore the spiritual, social and ecological aspects of our changing world.
Elyse has a long-term commitment to grass-roots community building and organising. Professionally, she has worked as a community development project worker and coordinator at Borderlands Cooperative. She is currently the Streets Ahead Officer for Brimbank City Council where she is working on developing initiatives for children's independent mobility and engagement with neighbourhood spaces. In addition, she has worked internationally on community development projects in Uganda (through Student Partnerships Worldwide), Nepal (through Duke of Edinburgh) and India (at Sadhanna Forest reforestation project). In a voluntary capacity Elyse has been active in local interfaith organisations and projects in Melbourne including the COMMON, Globalisation for the Common Good, and the Parliament of the World's Religions.
Elyse is on an Independent Spiritual Path and has a faith in panpsychism as the manifestation of the divine in the world. She works to realise this potential in the creation of cultures of peace for all living beings.
PhD Candidate in the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies - researching the emerging intersection between the interfaith dialogue and eco-faith movements at the grassroots level.
B.A Political Science and Development Studies,
Combined Honours in Political Science and Gender Studies.
Mish Colla is a Qualitative Action Researcher and Social Worker. She is currently a Project Coordinator at Borderlands and holds the Communications Directors Portfolio. At Borderlands, Mish dedicates her time to action research and participatory project evaluations, as well assisting in the promotion of Borderlands Cooperative. Mish is also a part-time contractor for Action Learning Action Research Association (ALARA) in which she designs and promotes the ALARA World Congress 2010 (held in Melbourne).
Mish is the Managing Director of her own new (2009) small business ‘Regeneration X’ which specialises in restaurant food waste environmental solutions, vegetable gardens, children’s gardens, children’s environmental parties and environmental education. Mish has a long-term commitment to grass-roots community agency and organisation; being previously been involved in Food Not Bombs waste management, St Mary’s house of Welcome, St Vincent De Paul and being the curator of art mixed-media exhibitions (including music).
B.A. Social Work
Linette
Hawkins
has been a participant in the Borderlands Cooperative since its origin.
Borderlands has auspiced several groups with which she is engaged :
Community Links with Cambodia, the Victorian Branch of the IACD
(International Association for Community Development), New Community
Quarterly and a group of Women Writers. In her position as BSW Field
Education Coordinator at RMIT affiliation with Borderlands has enabled
numerous students to engage in unique field placements. Linette is committed
to community development, participatory action research, flexible learning
and living which promotes collective approaches to community activism and
social justice.
Dr Lucy Healy: professional nursing practice, PhD in Anthropology; academic at Melbourne and Monash Universities in gender studies, anthropology and development studies; consultancies in social research, evaluation, organisational development in Australia, PNG & Malaysia; poverty, volunteering, bushfire relief and community services delivery systems. Involved in Borderlands since 2001, director and major staff member for the Projects Portfolio.
Martha Hills: I came to Borderlands by way of Permaculture Melbourne, who has sublet office space from Borderlands. Learning about and moving toward sustainability on a personal and a group level are important to me. These days, however, my activities are managing the cataloguing of the library and keeping the membership list and office organised (hopefully).
Deb Salvagno: I first visited Borderlands in 2003 whilst studying Community
Development and was blown away by the diversity of activities and the sense of welcome extended by everyone. I also felt a deep level of solidarity and commonality with Borderlanders and realised I wasn’t the only one hoping for alternatives to the mainstream economic paradigm. As a place for exploring new ideas, learning from one another and putting into practice what I learned during my studies, Borderlands has reinforced my commitment to working for social change and provides a safe and nurturing space from which to do it! I’ve done various things during my time here like this newsletter, events and helping with the finances. For two years now I’ve been working in the Oases Program which is an expression of Borderlands’ and Augustine’s commitment to finding ways to create a better world. Aren’t I lucky!
Dr Tricia Hiley: MBus (OrgChange&Devt), PhD, is a lifelong learner and director of Potential Space, a micro-business which fosters learning practices for living and working in our complex and dynamic world. Tricia teaches in Oases and serves as Chair of the Academic Board.
Martha Hills: I came to Borderlands by way of Permaculture Melbourne, who has sublet office space from Borderlands. Learning about and moving toward sustainability on a personal and a group level are important to me. These days, however, my activities are managing the cataloguing of the library and keeping the membership list and office organised (hopefully).
Jose Ramos: is currently undertaking PhD research into counter-globalisation. He researches and writes in the areas of action research, foresight, ecological sustainability, media and globalisation.
Dr Kristin Diemer: Twenty years of quantitative and qualitative research experience across government, local community and academia. Periodically lecturing in self and identity, photographic representations of life and research methodology at Oases Graduate School, as well as family studies at the Australian Catholic University, she currently holds a Post Doc Research Fellowship at Melbourne University for the Victorian Family Violence Reform Research Program. As a sociologist, she specialises in research methodology and SPSS data analysis within the arena of family violence, sexual assault and child abuse, working with both large government department database and smaller agency specific case files. Research interests include vulnerable communities, multiculturalism, self and society, photography and feminist research methods.
Dimity Fifer: CEO Australian Volunteers International
John Mackenzie
Ben Leehman
Dr Supriya Pattanayak: DFID Orissa India
Dr Yoland Wadsworth