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Pro Vice-Chancellor Social Justice & Inclusion

Professor Verity Firth is Pro Vice-Chancellor Social Justice and Inclusion at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and has over 15 years of experience at the highest levels of government and the not-for-profit sector in Australia.

Prior to her appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor (PVC), Prof. Firth was Executive Director of Social Justice at UTS, where she led the Centre for Social Justice & Inclusion (CSJI) and spearheaded the development of the UTS Social Impact Framework, a first of its kind in the Australian university sector.

Professor Firth was also previously the NSW Minister for Women (2007-2009), where she implemented sector-wide strategies to improve women’s recruitment, development and employment in the NSW public sector. As NSW Minister for Education and Training (2008-2011), she focused on equity in education, and how to best address educational disadvantage in low socioeconomic communities, including rural and remote indigenous communities.

Director, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research

Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology, Sydney.

She has a LLB and B.Juris from UNSW and a LLM and SJD from Harvard Law School. Larissa has a legal background with a strong track record in the areas of Indigenous law, policy, creative arts, education and research. She has held numerous judicial positions and sat on various community and arts organisation boards. Larissa is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia and a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She chaired the national review of Indigenous Higher Education, was the inaugural chair of National Indigenous Television and was the Chair of the Bangarra Dance Theatre. Larissa is an award-winning author and filmmaker. She was the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year.

Larissa also holds the inaugural Chair in Indigenous Research, a cross-university leadership position that advises the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) on Indigenous strategy. Alongside that of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement), the role is part of UTS’s commitment to advancing Indigenous achievement.

Among all this, she is also an award-winning author and filmmaker who finds time to contribute to the arts through her work with the Australia Council for the Arts’ Major Performing Arts Panel and the Sydney Festival, and her long association with Bangarra Dance Theatre. She was named 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year, is currently working on her third novel and recently won an Australian Director Guild award for her new film, After the Apology, looking at increased rates of Indigenous child removal since the Australian Government’s apology to the Stolen Generations in 2008.

Larissa has seen first-hand the power of education to reshape futures. With 26 Indigenous Higher Degree Research students — and around 300 Indigenous students in total — currently studying at UTS, she says there is a significant ripple effect into communities.

Industry Professor, Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research

Lindon has worked in Aboriginal Affairs for over 20 years in a range of positions. He is currently an Industry Professor at the Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education & Research at the University of Technology Sydney

Prior to joining UTS, Lindon was a Director at PwC’s Indigenous Consulting (PIC). Lindon has held leadership positions in Indigenous organisations as the CEO of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, a representative body that provides a national voice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and was also the CEO of Tranby Aboriginal College in Glebe, the oldest Indigenous education institution in Australia.

He has previously worked in a range of roles in the NSW Government. The last position held there was in the Senior Executive Service as Executive Director of Policy and Research at the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

He also worked for ATSIC and spent a number of years as Senior Policy Advisor to successive Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs in the NSW Government.