Who we are

The Social Inclusion Unit are responsible for developing, supporting and monitoring the implementation of the University's strategic direction for social inclusion activities. We liaise with faculties, central departments and organisations throughout the University, as well as establishing and maintaining external partnerships to support widening participation.

Annette Cairnduff

Director, Social Inclusion Unit

Annette has been working on equity related issues at the University since 2006. Formerly a primary school teacher, she has more than 20 years experience in capacity building and community development programs in the government and non-government sectors.

She is particularly interested how engagement during the primary school years can impact the expectations of children for higher education access and participation, as well as the expectations of their parents and teachers.

Miriam Pellicano

Team Leader, Schools and Community Development

Miriam’s extensive community development experience provided the Social Inclusion Unit and especially the Compass program with a solid foundation on which to build its embedded educational and volunteering programs within Compass partner schools.

Her background in development and passion for working with young people has resulted in Miriam undertaking assignments to work on programs in refugee camps in the Middle East.

Having established our volunteer program, Miriam looks forward to extending the Compass program further and developing even greater community engagement.

Mary Teague

Manager, Widening Participation Program

Mary has been working in equity and Student Support Services (Disability) at the University since 2006. She has a background in education and fine arts and has previously worked as an academic at the University of New South Wales.

She has also worked in the NSW secondary schools sector, implementing specialist programs and Department of Education and Training initiatives which focused on student wellbeing and inclusive teaching and learning.

Her interests are in programs that examine inclusion and exclusion in learning environments and specifically institutional responses to change.

Hannah Forsyth

Post Doctoral Fellow - Educational

Hannah Forsyth is a historian who completed her PhD in the History Department at the University of Sydney in 2012 on "The Ownership of Knowledge in Higher Education in Australia, 1939-1996".

With a background in higher education, Hannah has published in university learning and teaching as well as in Australian educational and urban history. Hannah has also worked with the Sydney history department developing its social inclusion program, which involved developing partnerships and projects with history teachers in disadvantaged schools in Sydney and in regional Australia, also conducting research on ways to make history more inclusive, in the classroom and beyond.

Hannah's postdoctoral fellowship explores the history of professional knowledge in Australia, considering the ways that regulating knowledge, particularly through education, has created pathways or erected barriers to professional work for diverse groups of Australians. In 2013, this project begins with a case study of work and knowledge in the Broken Hill region, identifying issues with work and education for local young people. She also looks forward to working with staff to help develop a scholarship of social inclusion in higher education.