ACU Engagement

Dr. Matthew Pink

Head of ACU Engagement - Brisbane

Dr Matthew Pink is the head of ACU Engagement. Matthew's areas of interest include the transformational, logistical, and reciprocal processes of university-community engagement, and the pairing of sport/exercise with educational opportunities for groups who have experienced disadvantage or marginalisation. Matthew has worked with ACU since 2011 in various academic and community engagement roles and received his doctorate from ACU in 2016.

Dr. Jen Azordegan

Manager, Community-Engaged Learning - Brisbane

Dr Jen Azordegan joined ACU in 2019 with over a decade of experience in teaching, research, and project roles in Australian higher education, primarily in the areas of teacher education and preparing teachers for diverse classrooms. 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 university-community relationships; the role of higher education in building social cohesion; and inclusion of children, youth, and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in educational communities.

Kimberley Fort

Senior Community Engagement Officer - Brisbane

Kimberley Fort is a former High School Teacher who brings a passion for education and community service to her role at ACU Engagement. She also has a background in youth mental health, a subject she is passionate about highlighting in her work with ACU students. Providing support to the ACU community and local communities who experience disadvantage, Kimberley is keen to provide greater opportunities for the two sectors to engage and establish a hub of mutually beneficial and sustainable support on and off the Brisbane campus.

Miranda Bush

Senior Community Engagement Officer - North Sydney
(On parental leave)

Miranda joined ACU Engagement on the North Sydney Campus in 2018, coming to ACU from the not-for-profit sector, having worked in community-focused organisations for the past 10 years. Miranda is passionate about education and social impact initiatives and enjoys being part of a team that strives to have a positive impact on the lives of others.

Patricia Garcia

Senior Community Engagement Officer - Strathfield

Patricia joined ACU Engagement in 2020, she highly values education, equity and community. Having worked in Widening Participation in the tertiary sector for over 8 years, Patricia has extensive knowledge on the diversity of the student cohort and the differing needs of individuals and their communities. With a background in Social Work and Sociology as well as currently undertaking a Master of Social and Public Policy, Patricia is dedicated to exposing structural barriers that hinder individuals and communities in reaching their full potential to then thrive.

Caroline Allen

Senior Community Engagement Officer - Blacktown

Caroline joined ACU Engagement in 2020 working at the Blacktown campus. Originally from the UK, she is passionate about community engagement and the impact that working with community has on students. Caroline spent seven years at Western Sydney University working for The Academy program and most recently in community engagement. Prior to that, she worked for over a decade in marketing and program management for the State Government. She graduated with a Masters of Education (Social Ecology) in 2019.

Nicola Tait

Senior Community Engagement Officer - Canberra

Nicola joined ACU Engagement in 2018 as the Senior Community Engagement Officer at the Canberra campus. She has a strong background in accessibility and inclusion for tertiary students, including the role of Disability Advisor at ACU where she was able to build relationships with students, staff and the community.

Nicola is passionate about supporting people experiencing marginalisation and disadvantage and enthusiastic to connect staff and students with engagement opportunities in the local community.

Lisa Carzino

Senior Community Engagement Officer - Melbourne

Lisa Carzino is the Senior Community Engagement Officer at Melbourne campus. She has over fourteen years’ experience across the education sector in a variety of student services, communications, partnership and administration roles.

Lisa is passionate about education which engages students in their learning and connects them to the broader community. She currently manages partnerships with community organisations across Melbourne and supports students and staff in undertaking community-engaged learning.

Eleanor Duggan

Senior Community Engagement Officer - Melbourne

Eleanor joined the ACU Engagement team in Melbourne during July 2019 from the education sector. She is an accomplished educational program manager with over ten years of experience. Eleanor is driven to empower our young (and the ‘young at heart’!) to reach their potential through the provision of educational programs and pathways. Working in community engagement, Eleanor will be putting her passion into practice by supporting programs and placements for both staff and students of ACU.

Jake Stavrou

Community Engagement Officer - Melbourne

Jake joined ACU Engagement in 2022. He has a diverse background in sport and event management working with a wide variety of groups. Jake has a passion for connecting young people with organisations to improve the community. He is currently running the ‘Read to Learn’ program and other ACU Engagement community engagement initiatives within the Melbourne Community.

Maggie Muller

Community Engagement Officer - Ballarat

Maggie joined the ACU Engagement team during December 2022, as the Community Engagement Officer for Ballarat. With experience in the not-for-profit space across administration, events and project support, Maggie is passionate about supporting her local community and fostering mutually beneficial partnerships between ACU and other community-focussed organisations.

Heba Allouche

Senior Community Engagement Officer - North Sydney

Heba joined ACU in 2023, bringing over eight years of experience in training and development, with a strong focus on peer mentoring and student retention. She is passionate about fostering meaningful connections within the community and supporting students. With her wealth of knowledge and expertise, Heba approaches her role with a holistic perspective, ensuring impactful community engagement initiatives.

Hasret Mehmedali

Manager, Community-Engaged Research - North Sydney

Hasret comes to ACU E, with a diverse background spanning early years education, community engagement, and project management roles. 

She is passionate about empowering individuals and communities to achieve the most sustainable and impactful results using authentic, asset-based approaches with a significance on place-based solutions and best practice principles.

Hasret has a deep commitment to collaboration and a comprehensive understanding of complex intersectional lived experiences across communities combined with knowledge and experience in impactful research that makes substantial differences to communities in Australia and beyond.

Dr. Jillian Cox

Administration and Research Officer - Melbourne

Jill provides project and research support to SESU projects. She brings to ACU over 10 years’ experience in research, teaching and administrative roles in the tertiary education sector.

With a background in theology, history and gender studies, she is passionate about research that produces outcomes that create opportunity and fullness of life for communities experiencing disadvantage.

Jill is committed to working with new and existing community partners and can be contacted to discuss proposals for community-based research and staff involvement on SESU projects.

Mel Macklin

Graphic Designer and Creative Services Administrator – Melbourne

Mel is the Graphic Designer and Creative Services Administrator to the Stakeholder Engaged Scholarship Unit (SESU). Mel works alongside SESU partners and academics to design visually compelling reports and promotional collateral that evaluate the good work and commitment of organisations dedicated to creating change in and for our communities.

Mel has a background in visual arts and secondary education. She is committed to using her skills to help others recognise beauty, develop their own creativity, and aspire towards meaningful collaborative acts that make a difference.

Jennifer Tredennick

Manager, Community-Engaged Projects and Programs - Brisbane

Jennifer (Jen) joined the ACU Engagement team in October 2022. She brings significant experience in youth and community education, visual communication, staff and volunteer management and project development across community, government, and education sectors. In guiding community-engaged outreach at ACU, Jen encourages and supports authentic partnerships amongst staff, students and communities that are underpinned by the principles of social justice.

Samuel Zifchak

Program Advisor - Melbourne

Samuel Zifcak is the program advisor for Clemente Fitzroy at Australian Catholic University. After graduating from his BA (Hon) in Philosophy and Creative Writing at University of Melbourne, he completed a Masters in Poetry at the University of East Anglia, before undertaking and completing a second Masters in Editing and Publishing at University of Melbourne. Samuel also completed a CELTA qualification and has taught across the ESL curriculum, including English for Academic Purposes and IELTS, at English Schools in Melbourne and Trinity College. He is just embarking on a PhD exploring the impact of Liberal Arts studies on those experiencing social exclusion.

As well as Coordinating the Clemente Fitzroy program, Samuel also works as a tutor for Jim-Baa-Yer under the FPEP directorate, and has tutored the creative writing unit WRIT101 as well as the core units UNCC100 and UNCC300 at ACU for many years.

Steve Else

Program Advisor - Ballarat

Steve Else oversees the Clemente program on the Ballarat campus. He has taught in schools and universities in both England and Australia. His primary subject is Philosophy in which he holds a PhD, having also taught Education and Theology at ACU. He is particularly interested in the effects of education, academic or otherwise, on the mind and emotions.

Janine Quine

Program Advisor - Brisbane

Janine Quine is the program advisor for Clemente Brisbane at Australian Catholic University. After graduating from her BA Education, Janine taught in schools for 10 years before starting her Masters of Arts. In 2010, she worked for 3 years at ACU as a research assistant in remote Aboriginal schools before taking up the role of Community Engagement Facilitator for ACUs Institute for Advancing Community Engagement where she has worked with diverse communities. Janine has been project leader for Narratives of Hope for 3 years and has been the Clemente Advisor for 8 years since.

Youssef Taouk

Program Advisor – Blacktown

Youssef is the Advisor for Clemente Blacktown. He has been in the role since early 2020 and was instrumental in setting up a new Clemente site in Blacktown. He is also a historian who has been a lecturer-in-charge of various history units. As well as being an advisor for Clemente Blacktown, Youssef currently also lectures in history in Clemente Australia in Sydney.

Anna Vandierendonck

Project Officer – Melbourne

Anna joined the ACU Engagement Melbourne team in 2021. She has a strong background in program and project management across not-for-profit and major events sectors working with a wide range of groups, including school students, corporate teams, elite athletes, and veterans. Anna established the Order of Malta and ACU Community Hub in 2022, which operates within the Darebin LGA. The Hub runs place-based programs leveraging the skills and expertise of community members, ACU staff & students, and Members of the Order of Malta, to improve social, mental and physical health and wellbeing outcomes of people experiencing disadvantage and marginalisation.

Dr Benedicta Rousseau

Coordinator, International Community-Engaged Research - Melbourne

Benedicta joined ACU Engagement in 2024 to co-ordinate international projects undertaken through the Stakeholder-Engaged Scholarship Unit (SESU). She is passionate about collaborative research that makes a difference in the lives of all involved, bringing 20 years’ experience in ethnographic research to her role. Trained as a social anthropologist, her own research has focused on issues around land access, youth development, legal pluralism, and indigenous community leadership in the urban Pacific. She has also worked in the research development space, helping academics at universities across Australia plan and realise their research goals.

Felicity Rose

Team Leader, Operations - Melbourne

Felicity Rose joined ACU in 2013 as an Executive Officer in the Office of the Provost, and then in 2018 joined the ACU Engagement team. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Philosophy and an Advanced Diploma of Business (Legal Practice) and prior to ACU worked in a variety of administrative and other roles in the legal, environment and tertiary education sectors.

She has a strong desire to use her skills to help address disadvantage in society, and enjoys being part of a team which makes a meaningful difference to the world in which we live.

Annie Dunn

Community Engagement Administration Officer – Brisbane

Annie joined ACU Engagement in 2020 and brings with her a background in working with young people and families in schools and community-based organisations. Having worked in the not-for-profit sector for a number of years Annie is passionate about organisations working together to build strong and thriving communities. Annie will be supporting the Community Engagement team in Brisbane.

Donna-Lee Stanes

Finance and Administration Officer – Melbourne

Donna-Lee Stanes is the Finance and Administration Officer for ACU Engagement on the Melbourne campus. Donna-Lee joined ACU in 2021 supporting the operations in ACU Engagement, has an Advanced Diploma of Business (Accounting) and brings over 30 years’ experience in a variety of administrative and financial roles across different industries, including 14 years in the Tertiary sector. Donna-Lee enjoys working in an environment where she can utilise her diverse skill set in making a difference.

Julie Peries

Administration Officer - Brisbane

Julie has worked within the tertiary education sector in administration, student services support and teaching roles.  Her background is in teaching English as a second language; language, literacy and numeracy; and primary school education. Julie has particularly enjoyed working with students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.  She also has qualifications and experience in human resources management. She has a strong interest in wellbeing and really enjoys working in initiatives which help to enrich lives.