Meaghan Burkett is the Director of Ethical Fields. Meaghan and the Ethical Fields team build regenerative places, industries and community wealth in partnership with local councils, development agencies, government, business and the community. Community wealth building is a development model that has proven to foster local autonomy, resilience, broad wealth and prosperity; deliver local and regenerative solutions and industries; and transform the investment and capital logic to enable local people & their economies to thrive. Meaghan has worked across the public, private and non-government sectors in policy, governance, program development and delivery, regional and local development, corporate social responsibility, new economies, sustainability, climate change and now community wealth building. Meaghan holds a Master of Government Law and Regulation, Graduate Diploma in Environmental Policy and a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in Finance and Accounting. Her life’s work is to help create a thriving and empowered local Australia and an earth centred society.
Joanne McNeill is an Associate Professor and, Research Lead at The Yunus Centre Griffith University. Since 2000 Joanne has worked within and through large institutional actors to design and implement different kinds of change programs focused on improving real-world impact. Her key expertise is working at the boundaries or interfaces between actors, with a particular focus on capability building and enabling ecosystems to support social innovation and alternative economic organising activity. For almost a decade, she has been performing this work primarily through action research initiatives, across a diverse range of impact economy settings. Joanne is also a Founding Director of the Community Economies Institute and a Churchill Fellow (awarded in 2008).
Emily Davies O'Sullivan is the City Activation Officer at the City of Newcastle. Emily has a passion for solution focused economic development. She has been a member of the City of Newcastle Economic Development Team for over two years. During that time she has delivered multiple strategic projects for the City. Working within the broader group of Innovation and Futures she applies innovative thinking to traditional Economic Development problems. She was part of the team who wrote the Newcastle Economic Development Strategy and is currently in the process of working on the City of Newcastle Circular Economy Action Plan. Emily leverages her background in Urban Planning and community engagement to deliver equitable and sustainable cities for all. She is currently an Australian Certified Economic Developer and member of the Planning Institute of Australia and Co-chairs the State Practitioners Network for the NSW EDA.
Patrick Fensham is a Principal & Partner and National Leader for Urban Policy & Governance at SGS. Pat specialises in metropolitan and local strategic planning, infrastructure planning and funding analysis, housing and employment lands planning, regional and community economic development, and development feasibility analysis. His contributions to metropolitan and strategic planning over many years in all the states and territories of Australia include economic and employment land studies; housing and residential market analysis; and analysis of potential growth scenarios for various levels of government. He is focused on addressing social disadvantage in urban and regional contexts and aims to challenge clients with new policy solutions and innovations for progressive change. Having spent time with the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and their partner councils in the UK, Pat has a keen interest in Community Wealth Building and driving a reform agenda that favours fairer economic outcomes, read more here.
