AES Board

Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Ruanui, Ngāi Tahu

Kiri is a Māori health research and evaluation contractor living on Kabi Kabi country, Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Kiri’s work is focused on advancing the health and wellbeing of indigenous populations. Her work predominantly takes her back to her homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand. A personal commitment to see her people flourish is what drives her enthusiasm for her work. Kiri a PhD candidate with Massey University, Aotearoa and is currently exploring ngā kaupapa tuku iho (values passed down from our ancestors) and how we can better express these important concepts in a modern world to maintain wellness. As manuhiri (a guest) in this beautiful land of Australia, Kiri is honoured to work alongside First Nations Australians and others from the South Pacific region to promote and strengthen the work of indigenous evaluators.

Dr Anne Stephens, (PhD, MBA) specialises in social evaluation and research. Anne has worked in senior positions with the Queensland and Victorian governments, as well as for Australian and International NGOs in evaluation consultancy. Anne is a sociologist who’s social and theoretical work has been used in community and government for family violence prevention; adult and infant head trauma prevention; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vocational training for workforce development, and substance use harm reduction and treatment. Anne is the author of UN Women’s Inclusive Systemic Evaluation for Gender Equality, Environments and Marginalized Voices (ISE4GEMs): A New Approach for the SDG Era (2018) and over 50 journal articles, evaluation reports and conference papers. She is an Adjunct Senior Researcher at James Cook University, an Endeavour Research Fellow and was a Visiting Scholar at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, New York, in 2016.

Carina is Managing Director and Principal Consultant at Clear Horizon. She has a Masters in Evaluation as well as qualifications in Public Policy and Applied Science and has 20 years of professional experience working within and consulting to government and not-for-profit organisation. The combination gives her the breadth of skills and knowledge to work adaptively across a range of specialist fields.

As a Principal Consultant, she has been involved in many complex evaluations involving qualitative and quantitative methods and in program design and planning. She has an in-depth understanding of public policy and program design and implementation and is a strong advocate for utilisation-focused approaches that supports organisational learning and contributes to positive social and environmental change. She is passionate about helping organisations to see the real value of good measurement and evaluation practice.

Since 1999, Carina has been an active member of the AES and is the Treasurer on the current AES Board.

Doyen is a Yamatji Naaguja Wajarri man from the Midwest Region of Western Australia. Doyen is a community minded individual with a passion for empowering Indigenous communities to reach their real potential to improve quality of life, health, social and economic wellbeing, and inclusion within Australian society.

Presently Doyen works as a Regional Manager with Community First Development based in Perth, WA and was former Regional Manager for the Darwin office. Doyen oversees community developments activities in WA and is working towards to delivering global best practice community development works with First Nation communities.

Doyen is a director to the Australian Evaluation Society and former Vice President of AES. The purpose of his appointment is to strengthen and build Indigenous and non-Indigenous capacity in culturally safe evaluation theory, practice, and use. Doyen is a member of AES Indigenous Culture and Diversity Committee (ICDC) and supported the development of AES First Nation Cultural Safety Framework and AES Reconciliation Action Plan.

In 2020, Doyen was appointed to the Interim Nomination Committee working with the Forum for Directors of Indigenous Organisations to oversee process to selecting independent directors for Yamatji Southern Regional Corporation Ltd prescribed body corporate.

Doyen is also a director of two community based Indigenous corporations – Naaguja Warangkarri Aboriginal Corporation and Marr Koodjal Aboriginal Corporation.

Nicole Tujague is a First Nations woman of Australia, descendant of the Kabi Kabi people of Southeast Queensland and the South Sea Islander peoples of Gaua Island, Vanuatu. Nicole is the founder of The Seedling Group Consultancy, a 100% Indigenous owned company registered with Supply Nation. She is also Lecturer, First Nations Health, Department of Medical Education at Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne.

Nicole is passionate about supporting the AES strategy to build First Nation peoples’ evaluation capacity in culturally safe evaluation theory, practice and use. As a recipient of the AES conference support grant Nicole understands the impact of the First Nations evaluator initiatives offered by the AES.

Recently, Nicole has been working with other AES Indigenous members to develop the AES First Nations Culture Safety Framework. Nicole's PhD research (due to be finished at the end of 2021) asks the question 'What do Aboriginal Peoples think is important to measure when evaluating projects and programs that affect their lives?'. Its findings will add another key piece of information that we can employ to improve Indigenous Evaluation in Australia and globally.

Tony is a Central Arrernte man and Managing Director of Akaltye, a Supply Nation Certified Indigenous consulting business. He has worked extensively with First Nations communities and organisations in Australia, as well as across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Tony is committed to advancing Indigenous evaluation practice and creating opportunities for emerging First Nations evaluators. He has supported the AES as a member of the Indigenous Culture and Diversity Committee (ICDC) since 2019. Through the ICDC, Tony has contributed to a range of initiatives to engage and support First Nations evaluators in the AES and connect Indigenous knowledge and evaluation practice, including support for co-design of the AES First Nations Cultural Safety Framework. Alongside consulting, Tony is also a PhD Scholar at the Australian National University School of Regulation and Global Governance and researching Indigenous participation and voice in Australian health policy. Tony holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in health policy and management.

Eleanor has extensive experience as a Victorian public sector executive and management consultant, and is currently Executive Director Policy and Strategy at the Department of Health. She is the current Convenor of the Victorian Committee of the AES and a member of the Vitality Committee.

Eleanor co-founded of the Australian Public Sector Evaluation Network as a Special Interest Group (SIG) of the AES in 2019. While she has handed over the leadership of this network, the group continues to grow and thrive and hosts an extensive repository of public sector evaluation resources on the AES website.

Since joining the Victorian Committee, Eleanor has also engaged in the AES as a presenter at seminars and conferences where she has shared her experience in establishing and growing evaluation units, and developing rapid evaluation models. Eleanor contributed to the 2021 FestEval as a committee member and presenter and is supporting the development of the AES Diversity and Inclusion Strategy.