Global Connections in Community Engaged Systems Thinking for Health and Wellbeing
Join us for the Faculty of Health’s International Research Partnerships Colloquium Series 2025.
Each month we feature one of our international partners, with presentations from a Deakin and partner researcher on their latest collaborative work. These 50-minute Zoom sessions (20-minute presentation plus 30-minute Q&A) highlight the great research within our strategic partnerships. They provide an opportunity for staff, HDR and other research students to learn more about our major international partners, the key researchers involved and the opportunities that exist to engage.
Our February session showcases our collaboration with Washington University and the University of Bergen.
Session details
Date: Tuesday 11 February 2025
Session time: 5pm AEDT, 7am CET, 12am PST
Keynote speakers
Assistant Professor Ellis Ballard
Ellis Ballard is Assistant Professor of Practice in social work and public health, and Director of the Social System Design Lab at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Assistant Professor Ballard teaches future cohorts of social work and public health practitioners to apply system dynamics simulation modeling and participatory group model building in their work. He is also Founding Partner at Tributary Design, a strategic design partnership. Assistant Professor Ballard has led work in his home community of St. Louis, Missouri as well as globally in places like Brazil, Peru, Malawi, Afghanistan and New Zealand.
Professor Birgit Kopainsky
Birgit Kopainsky is professor in system dynamics at the University of Bergen. Her research explores the role that systems thinking and modeling can play in facilitating sustainability transitions. From negotiating a shared understanding among stakeholders with conflicting views and priorities, to the use of simulation models as learning tools to assist stakeholders cope with change and uncertainty. She has extensive empirical research and project management experience in a variety of sustainable development domains, across scientific disciplines, geographical contexts and societal actors.
Andrew Brown
Andrew Brown is a lecturer in social work at Deakin University. His work focuses on applying community development and systems thinking to health and social problems. He works with communities to build systems thinking capacity by co-creating maps and simulation models representing problems of interest they want to act on. He also builds capacity through community-based training workshops on systems thinking and in his teaching on community development. He has worked on several projects internationally, on topics including food systems, family violence prevention and mental health promotion.
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