Industry-university partnerships for SDG focused internships in Australia and India

Dr Monica Kennedy joined Austrade in early 2021 after a long career building international education partnerships in both the public and private sectors, working across pathways, ELICOS, vocational education and higher education and in a range of modalities in India, China, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Immediately prior to joining Austrade Monica held the position of Pro Vice-Chancellor International where she was responsible for expanding global capability in an Australian university, extending from her experience both as an academic and having led the Australasian University Partnerships Division for a leading multinational private education group.

With a PhD and a master’s qualification in education, an undergraduate qualification in organisational communication and experience as an academic in these disciplines, Monica’s academic background informs her approach to international education and partnership development and growth. Monica is published in international journals and books on international education and practice-based learning in higher education.

Professor Sutapa Pati is an accomplished industrial designer and academic who is currently Academic Dean, School of Sustainability, XIM University, Bhubaneswar. She completed her PhD in Sustainable Design from IIT Delhi. Prof. Pati is also a certified Griha professional and takes courses in Green Buildings and Sustainable Urban Development and Designing Organizations for Sustainability for students of Sustainability Management. She also teaches business model design and designing organisations for sustainability. Her specialisation is in ergonomics and design for safety. She has worked in the automotive industry as a Manager in the Research & Design Centre of Tata Motors, ERC, Pune and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, Gurgaon with specialization in Interiors Design and Ergonomics.

Mark Doggett is the National Sustainability Manager for ACU where he’s responsible for minimising the university’s environmental impact. Mark’s work has helped ACU to become Australia’s most energy efficient university and he is now leading ACU on a path to carbon neutrality.

Mark is a journalism graduate of RMIT, a graduate of Royal Military College, Duntroon, and has a Master of Environment from the University of Melbourne.

Dr Elizabeth Abba is Associate Professor in the School of Sustainability and Associate Dean of International Relations at XIM University, Odisha, India. She holds a PhD in Environmental Management from National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai. She was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Doctoral and Professional Research Scholarship during 2008-09 and spent 9-months at the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University (SDSU). Dr Abba has ten years of research experience at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Mumbai Zonal Laboratory, 9 years of teaching and 2 years of consultancy experience in Environmental Science. Prior to joining XIM University, she taught courses in Environmental Science and Management to postgraduate students at K.J. Somaiya College of Science and Commerce, Mumbai. Since 2013, she has hosted SDSU undergraduate students on study abroad programs in India every year.

Dr Pradeep Mehta holds a doctorate degree in Forestry from Kumaun University, Nainital and has done a short-term management course from Maastricht School of Management, The Netherlands. He has over two decades of experience in the development sector and has worked on a range of environmental issues as part of his professional stints with INGOs and Bilateral agencies including GIZ (German Development Cooperation), Earthwatch Institute, Clean Air Asia, Appropriate Technology Asia, to name a few. He has worked extensively with the communities in the Indian Himalayan Region over the years undertaking collaborative research on biodiversity & ecosystem services and development projects on livelihoods, conservation, energy, sustainability education & health at the community level. He specialises in participatory research, capacity development, and employee engagement.

He has received NUFFIC Fellowship from Netherlands and FAO Fellowships. He is a member of various IUCN Commission's and is also South Asia Representative of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) mountain specialist group committee. Dr Pradeep is Honorary Chairman CHINAR (Central Himalayan Institute for Nature & Applied Research) and recently joined as State Head United Nation Development Program. He is also the Strategic Academic Advisory Board (SAAB) member of School of Sustainability, XIM University

Dr Azordegan manages ACU’s national community engagement program, which provides students across disciplines with curriculum-based, community-embedded learning opportunities in conjunction with partners in the community and non-profit sectors.

She joined ACU in 2019 with over a decade of experience in teaching, research and project roles in Australian higher education, particularly in the area of teacher education. She was previously an education policy researcher in the US and trained as a primary school teacher. Her PhD research was a community-engaged, sociological exploration of the connections between an Australian primary school and parents from an refugee background.

Jen is passionate about the role of educational institutions in building social cohesion and fostering greater inclusion of children, youth, and families from diverse and marginalised communities in the educational process.

Victor began his career as a management consultant specialising in HR, Change Management and Corporate Volunteering.

In 2009, he became Chief Operating Officer of Australia’s first online mental health community at Reachout, before making his mark as the General Manager of Australia’s largest Community Legal Centre.

Since 2018, Victor has been the CEO and Co-Founder of Communiteer; a social enterprise with a mission to facilitate social impact through cross-sector collaboration. The social GOOD network, bringing corporates, charities & purpose driven people together to do more social good. Communiteer leverages the technology behind social media platforms to create deeper engage with change-makers. Through the power of crowd-sourcing, Communiteer mobilises purpose-driven individuals to contribute towards the SDGs in their own way.

Hayley Bolding OAM has an extensive background in international development, education and volunteering in Australia and Asia. At the age of 23, Hayley founded a non-profit organisation in India called Atma (www.atma.org.in).

Under Hayley’s leadership, Atma has moved from a start-up to a well-respected non-profit organisation engaging multiple partner organisations which impact over 1.2M beneficiaries.

Continuing her passion for promoting people-to-people exchange Hayley has led international youth programs for the Australia India Institute and Foundation for Youth Australians and edtech Practera. She currently works at Hnry a financial technology company supporting self-employed Australians with tax and finance automation.

Hayley was awarded Young Australian of the Year (Victoria) in 2013. She is a Board member of the Australia India Youth Dialogue (AIYD), and is a Alumni of the Asialink Leaders Program. Hayley was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2019.