Working on Bidjigal and Gadigal Lands
A strategist, social designer and researcher, Melanie is passionate about using design-led innovation to tackle social change. Her almost 20 year career spans both strategic design and social innovation, meaning she’s the perfect person to lead our Social Innovation Consulting team.
Melanie is grateful for the new experiences that living in the UK and Japan has brought to her practice. Before joining TACSI in 2020, she led the Service Design team at UK children’s charity Barnardo’s, held a number of strategic design positions with global management consultants in Sydney, Tokyo and London and was the Centre Manager of Designing Out Crime, a social innovation research centre at UTS Sydney.
Across this time, she also has enjoyed working in academia teaching at the Royal College of Art, London, UNSW Sydney, UTS and Billy Blue College across Service Design, Social Design and Social Entrepreneurship.
At TACSI, Melanie supports the evolution of social innovation consulting, and is committed to cultivating the conditions for new ways of partnering for positive social change. She strives to enhance the way we imagine what’s possible for our communities and environment, and is skilled at building new organisations, structures and capabilities that can help us on that journey.
Melanie’s superpower is moving obstacles to make way for success, helping people find new perspectives and unlocking knowledge to be used in new ways.
She can be found at the beach most days enjoying a swim (casually nervous about the potential of sharks) or supporting the Nippers.
Qualifications
Bachelor of Arts (Visual Communication) Western Sydney University
Masters of Design, University of Technology Sydney
Masters of Public Policy, University of Bath UK (exp 2022)