Profile - Kate Davies

 

Kate Davies
Doctoral Candidate
The University of Newcastle
University Drive
Callaghan,  NSW  2308
Fax: +61 2 4921 7818
Email: Kate.Davies@newcastle.edu.au

 

 

 

Profile:

Kate Davies is a PhD candidate supervised by Professor Stephen Webb and Professor Mel Gray. She is an Australian Postgraduate Award recipient. Her PhD research will examine the value of evidence  to consumers of social and welfare services and the potential for consumer participation in Evidence-based Practice.

Kate completed a Master of Public Policy and Management at Monash University in 2004, for which she examined government and community sector relationships, youth policy and completed a research work on 'Juvenile justice policy in Mongolia'. She has also completed a Graduate Certificate in Alcohol and Other Drug Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Griffith University Communications Medal recipient 1999).

Kate has always worked in roles that aim to improve the social and physical wellbeing of communities. She started her career working with early school leavers and unemployed young people in Victoria, using creative arts and community development strategies to engage young people in pathways to work and study. She has also lived and worked in Mongolia and Fiji, working on programs to address long-term poverty and enhance the wellbeing of young people in detention, streetchildren and other vulnerable groups. In Aceh, Indonesia she worked with the Australian Red Cross managing public health and livelihoods programs as part of the tsunami rehabilitation program. Kate spent a number of years working in the Northern Territory with Commonwealth and local government bodies, on a range of initiatives including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health care system reform, drug and alcohol prevention programs and community services. The communities and local staff she has worked and lived with in these diverse settings have taught Kate a great deal about the complexity of social wellbeing and the importance of respecting and learning from those you seek to help. Kate currently serves on the Board of the Hunter Region Working Women's Group.

Kate's research interests include community led processes of social change, improving the use of research in social and welfare services, relationships between government and community sectors, turning policy into practice and community development in cross-cultural environments.

 

Conferences:

2009 - Presenting at 'The International Social Work & Society Academy' (TiSSA) pre-conference in Vilnius, Lithuania: ‘Consumer perspectives on evidence: A tool for shaping human services?’

2005 - Presenter at the National Outdoor Conference in Gold Coast, Australia: 'Can swinging from trees reduce poverty?: outdoor education in developing countries'