Reimagining the way we innovate
We're radically curious. We believe systems transformation starts with shifting mindsets to envision new possibilities. We are capability-builders, convenors and critical friends.
Our work is diverse. But through every project we touch, every program we design, we have one constant intention: to push the boundaries of innovation to get us closer to better, more hopeful horizons.
How we work
From academia and public service, to social enterprise start-ups and global corporations our team brings diverse experience and ways of working.
Continually learning
Radically flexible
Sharp-eyed focus
Open and transparent
Give a damn
Make good happen
We celebrate our different perspectives and are united by our desire for fairness and justice and to contribute to improved outcomes for people, place and planet. We want to be pathfinders for a better world.
Our nature is to do first, learn through doing, share what works, and generate insights on what might be possible next.
We’re prepared to take risks in order to test ideas and create new knowledge. We don’t shy away from the complex, invisible work. We look for partners willing to face it together.
To understand us a little more we wrote this ‘Manual of We’. It’s part user-manual for team members and partners, and part working-out-loud to share the way we’re rehearsing what it means to work towards systems transitions in the 2020s.
Who we are
Strategic Communication Lead
With nearly 20 years’ experience in internal and external communication Athanasia loves to share our stories and build community. She's passionate about how we gather well, and distributed and open ways of working and collaborating. Her experience spans continents and all manner of industries and she's glad to be back in her hometown helping to convene systems change actors.
Lecturer & HDR Candidate
Cathy is passionate about the wellbeing of people and places and has designed, implemented, researched and led the evaluation of place-based initiatives locally and internationally. With extensive experience in community, State and Local Government , Cathy draws on her diverse experiences to deliver transformational learning and applied research with students, community and academic partners.
Director
Ingrid is a social innovator, a maker, a big picture thinker. She draws experience from fields as diverse as finance, social work and design into a focus on systems innovation. Ingrid has a passion for innovating the ‘boring’ – underlying civic and institutional capabilities and infrastructures to enable society to co-create positive futures. Her research and work have contributed to the design of policy and processes across many fields including procurement and impact investment..
Senior Research Assistant
Jai brings over 20 years of experience working with diverse actors to make the most of disruptive change. From a solid technical grounding, Jai enjoys facilitating others to effectively engage and collaborate in the complex realities of societal transformation. He's put these skills to use in many trans-disciplinary action-research programs, from regional NSW to regional economic development in the face of de-carbonising global markets.
Deputy Director
Since 2000 Joanne has worked with institutional actors to design and implement change programs for real-world impact. Her expertise is working at the boundaries between actors, capability building and enabling ecosystems to support social innovation and alternative economic organising. Much of her recent focus is on action research across diverse impact economy settings. Joanne is a Founding Director of the Community Economies Institute and a Churchill Fellow (2008).
Systems Innovation Action Researcher
Katie Stubley is passionate about ecosystem practices and combining systems thinking with design-led approaches to create impact. For over 15 years she has worked within communities and across sectors on complex global issues. She works between several organisations, including ours, to drive positive change through community and network building, facilitation, and capability building.
Centre Manager
Neiewa has rich experience working in administration and with the Australian Government’s economic program in the south-western Pacific. She is passionate about bringing and sharing the knowledge of migrant Indigenous cultures around building community and caring for our environment.
Project and Engagement Officer
Michelle has a background in account management and relationship management, and thrives in an environment where she can connect people and solve problems. She is indeed our chief problem-solver! Michelle has experience in a wide variety of industries including FMCG, arts and education and brings a great industry lens to our work.
Learning Designer
Rena is a Program and Learning Designer with over 25 years experience in national and international contexts. She believes in co-creating learning experiences that develop critical thinking skills, reflexivity, and build collaborative relationships. Rena holds a second Master’s Degree in Leadership in Global Development and devotes her energies to creating meaningful impact in community and education contexts. She currently joins us a day a week to design and review learning journeys for partners.
Administrative Officer
Suzie has over 30 years experience providing high-level administrative support across many departments at Griffith University, and has had valuable front-line experience in some of the very systems we’re looking to innovate. She is passionate about her volunteer work, social justice, equity issues and work-life choices.
Snr Lecturer, Learning & Teaching Lead
Sidsel's research and teaching focuses on how organisations and businesses collaborate and innovate to be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. She has been involved for many years in research and teaching about cooperatives and mutuals which offer collaborative, innovative, distributive and resilient business models for pursuing sustainable development goals.
Impact partners
One way we deepen our interdisciplinary approach to impact is to build an ecology of diverse partnerships. We work with people already making significant impact in their sector who are interested in understanding how they might deepen that impact. It may be an adjunct role, an executive-in-residence or a secondment.
Dr Glenda Stanley
Glenda has worked extensively over the past two decades facilitating complex community and government forums while developing and supporting place-based initiatives to create systemic change. Together we’re exploring ways to collaborate around this in Logan, in particular, related to her work developing holistic school hubs with FamilyLinQ.
Alex Hannant
Alex brings a breadth of experience in the impact space from impact investment and innovation process, to convening and collective action approaches. After being a founding Co-director of the Centre we now collaborate on explorations into systems capital theory and practice.
Gael Surgenor
With Gael we're exploring how to unlock the imagination of public servants to grapple with complex intergenerational wellbeing and equity challenges. We partnered with Gael when she led The Southern Initiative and admire her work on the Review for The Future of Local Government in NZ.
Kate Rich
Kate is an artist, trader and feral economist with 30+ years lived experience in and outside formal institutions. Her work specialises in opening up room to move in spaces that often seem stuck. Kate shares our fascination with the 'boring bits' and together we'll continue to explore day-to-day administration as a place where real change might be leveraged.
Meaghan Burkett
Meaghan is dedicated to enabling local places and communities to take hold of their economic agency and thrive. As Executive Director of Ethical Fields she does this via Community Wealth Building strategies and developing the Place-Based Capital Program (of which GCSI is a partner). We are extending this partnership with Meaghan as Adjunct Industry Fellow to continue to explore these concepts in the Australian context.
Justin Sacks
Justin has over two decades of experience in developing methods and products to support community activists to increase their power in economic decision-making. We'll be exploring with Justin his current focus on developing an accelerator and impact fund for "commonspreneurs" .
Higher Degree Research students
- Cathy Boorman: How place-based initiatives mature and contribute to improved community wellbeing
- Grace O’Connor: Regenerative food systems
- Geoff Ebbs: Framework for developing and ensuring sustainable practice in business
- Celeste Alcaraz: The role of social enterprise for humanitarian settlers’ employment pathways in Logan
- Vince Sherry: Regional employment and wellbeing
- Jim Hogan: Neurodiverse models of innovation
Resources
Learn more about our organisation culture in systems innovation.
Manual of We Ethics Guide (PDF) How we Gather (PDF) Chimes blogs
Our history
How we got here informs where we are now.
Our transition towards systems innovation as a focus comes full circle with a name change to Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation.
We hand over delivery of Impact-economy focused undergraduate courses to colleagues in the Business School and continue with delivery of MBA courses Innovation for Impact and Demonstrating Impact for Good.
We collaborate with Adjuncts including Gael Surgenor, Dr Glenda Stanley and invite Craig North back again.
Through our work and explorations we strengthen our focus on systems innovation and evolve our areas of focus (Challenges) to swap out Circular Economy (which has great momentum behind it already) to a focus on Institutional Innovation – growing the capabilities, mindsets and infrastructures for organisations fit for transitions. Co-Director Alex Hannant returns to New Zealand, staying on as Executive in Residence, A/Prof Joanne McNeill accepts position as Deputy Director.
We appoint a diverse group of Executives in Residence and Adjuncts to explore our Challenge areas with, including:
- Jimmy Pham
- Timothy O'Brien
- Jacob Birch
- Alex Hannant
Among other major pieces of work we launch Homebase – a place-based innovation platform in partnership with City of Logan and other partners. An initial 2-year grant was truncated to 1-year due to government moves.
The Centre's work is increasingly influenced by mission-oriented approaches (which we have since named Challenge-led) because of its practical ambition to address complex challenges with collective efforts.
We identify three 'challenge' areas to direct our focus and appointed Executives-In-Residence to explore them alongside us:
- Civic Innovation (with a team at The Southern Initiative)
- Systems Capital (with Craig North from Indigenous Impact)
- Circular Economy (with the founders of Coreo)
Co-directors Alex Hannant and Ingrid Burkett appointed.
We operate as an 'enterprise' within the university with a focus on the 'business of social impact' focused on the skillsets, organisational models and ecosystems that would enable more people to participate in the 'impact economy'.
We appoint inaugural Fellows, all leading figures in the impact space, to inform our practice and learning opportunities including Emma-Kate Rose, Tom Allen, Josh Murchie, Anna Guenther, Tony Sharp.
Griffith University signs an MoU with Muhammad Yunus' Yunus Centre to pursue ideas of social business. The Yunus Centre at Griffith University is established and Celeste Alcaraz is appointed its first team member.