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Associate Professor Ruth McCausland (PhD, MISD, BA Hons 1) is Director of Yuwaya Ngarra-li at UNSW. Her research focuses on systemic critiques and community-led responses to the criminalisation and incarceration of women, young people, people with disability and Aboriginal peoples. Ruth was a researcher on the Indigenous Australians with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System (IAMHDCD) Project that involved collaboration with the Dharriwaa Elders Group and Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service from 2011-2015, and has been involved in building the Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership at the UNSW end since then. Ruth’s PhD was on evaluation and the diversion of Aboriginal women from prison, and she also has a Masters in International Social Development. Ruth has previously worked as an evaluation consultant for government and non-government agencies, a senior research fellow at Jumbunna, UTS, and policy officer at the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board and Australian Human Rights Commission.

(BA/LLB; Grad. Dip Legal Prac; LLM) is a Kalkutungu and South Sea Islander lawyer and researcher, and the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Senior Research Fellow focused on legal and justice issues based at UNSW. Peta has worked as a researcher on a range of criminology, legal services and community-development projects in NSW and across Australia. Peta was a Field Researcher and Project Manager for the Indigenous Australians with Mental Health Disorders and Cognitive Disability in the Criminal Justice System (IAMHDCD) Project, which first introduced her to the Dharriwaa Elders Group. Peta’s area of legal practice specialisation is the legal needs of children and young people, particularly those experiencing social and economic disadvantage. Peta is passionate about Indigenous children and young people’s participation in community development work.

Dr Rebecca Reeve (BEc Hons., PhD) is a Senior Research Fellow with Yuwaya Ngarra-li at UNSW and a specialist consultant with the Social Outcomes Lab (SOULAB). She is an applied econometrician who is committed to using her skills to help improve wellbeing and social justice, through evidence-based research and evaluation.  Rebecca has fifteen years’ research experience in academia and the not-for-profit sector, working on a range of mixed-methods projects.  She has particular expertise in using linked administrative data for longitudinal analyses relating to health, education, and criminology.  In her spare time Rebecca is an advocate for refugees and people seeking asylum.  

Samantha Rich is a Wiradjuri Graduate of Architecture, Adjunct Lecturer at UNSW and a researcher dedicated to embedding First Nations worldview into the design of buildings and the broader built environment. Samantha has a focus on addressing systemic housing needs facing many remote and regional communities. She has worked with Yuwaya Ngarra-li for the last few years looking at multiple housing needs in the Walgett community. She is interested in the role that housing can play in supporting reciprocal relationships embedded in Indigenous culture to care for people, communities and Country.

May Miller-Dawkins is a researcher, advocate and facilitator with over twenty years’ experience working in and with social movements, community organisations, international civil society, universities and foundations with a focus on community leadership, systemic change and action learning. She is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at UNSW. 

Alicia Dunning is a proud Bundjalung dietitian with a Bachelor of Science (Nutrition) and a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics with Distinction. She spent the first 8 years of her career working as a clinical dietitian in NSW public hospitals gaining vital dietetic, communication and counselling skills. After working in the hospital system through the COVID-19 pandemic, she moved to Canada for a working holiday. While there, she learned about First Nations people of Canada and how colonisation had impacted them, as well as how nutrition research was unethically conducted on them. She realised the similarities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, which re-ignited her passion for research and her desire to return to Australia to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. She joined the Food and Water for Life program in mid-2023 as a research associate and is focused on improving food and water security in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. 

Alicia is an Adjunct Fellow with the UNSW Division of Societal Impact, Equity & Engagement.

Ashley Shepherd is a Wiradjuri Social Work Researcher and the Senior Project Officer at Yuwaya Ngarra-li. She is a current PhD at UTS, focusing on Aboriginal and Torres Strait LGBTQIA+SB young people's mental health. She has experience working across governmental areas, including her recent work on Closing the Gap Priority Reform Four—Data Sharing with Aboriginal Communities and as Department Liaison Officer for the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. She is passionate about improving outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and being led by community.

Yssy Burton-Clark is Yuwaya Ngarra-li's Project Officer at UNSW Sydney. Yssy holds qualifications in Communications and Criminology & Criminal Justice, and has previously worked in stakeholder engagement, communications, administration and customer service, as well as completing a placement in disability research at the UNSW Social Policy Research Centre. He is also currently completing Honours in Criminology, incorporating crip theory and cultural criminology in a critical analysis of pop culture depictions of psychosocial disability. 

Evangeline is a Research Assistant as part of the Global Water Institute and the Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership. She has a Bachelor of Science (Hons), focusing on ecology and stable isotope analysis. She previously worked within the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES) at UNSW Sydney, focusing on waterbird diet.