Change for Good at UTS means a transdisciplinary, strategic, systems-thinking approach, combining critical, participatory, and multi-level strategies to create practical solutions for addressing complex health and social issues.

In this episode of Impact Talks at UTS, the UTS Business School launches its new centre Change for Good with an expert panel discussion addressing the question:

What are the biggest behaviour and social change challenges facing Australia now and into the future?

Speakers

• Host and moderator, Professor Ross Gordon, Director of Change for Good at UTS - a Research Centre focused on transdisciplinary behaviour and social change for social good.  

Ross is an interdisciplinary behaviour and social change activist with degree qualifications in marketing, public policy, and politics and history. He researches social issues and behaviour and social change, through a critical, reflexive, and multi-perspective lens. Ross served on the inaugural WHO Technical Advisory Group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health from 2000-2024 and is currently serves as an observer for the group. He works on various behaviour and social change issues including gambling, non-communicable diseases, Covid-19, energy hardship and energy efficiency, climate action and environmental sustainability, alcohol, tobacco control, mental health, childhood obesity, workplace bullying, and power and politics in the neoliberal university. Ross has been a principal or named investigator on projects attracting over $9.2m in research funds. He has published over 120 academic journals, book chapters and conference papers and a leading book: Strategic Social Marketing: For Behaviour and Social Change published by SAGE.

• Professor Maria Raciti, Co-Director, Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre at University of Sunshine Coast.

Professor Maria Raciti (Kalkadoon-Thaniquith-Bwgcolman) is a social marketer who uses marketing tools and techniques to bring about social justice and behaviour change. Professor Raciti is co-founder and co-director of the UniSC Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre, co-leader of the education and economies theme in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Indigenous Futures, a member of the executive of the Australian Association of Social Marketing, board member of International Social Marketing Association, the 2018 Research Fellow with the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education and was part of an Australian Government departmental task force assisting with the 2019 National Regional Rural and Remote Tertiary Education Strategy.

• Estelle Grech, Policy Manager at the Committee for Sydney

Estelle is an urban planner, passionate about improving social equity in cities. With experience in local government, consulting, and as a senior advisor in the NSW Government, she now leads planning and housing policy at the Committee for Sydney. A Churchill Fellowship recipient, Estelle recently travelled to over 13 cities across Europe and the US to research how to design better cities for women and girls. She has worked on a wide variety of projects, from community and cultural strategies to affordable housing studies, and has overseen the development of initiatives such as the Safer Cities program, Greater Sydney Parklands and policies to increase women in construction.

• Belinda Duckworth, Australian Association of Social Marketing

Belinda is a dedicated public health marketer and health promotion professional with 25 years of experience across national, state, and local health district levels. With an early career as an Occupational Therapist in both community and hospital settings, both in Australia and internationally, Belinda brings a deep understanding of consumer and stakeholder engagement. Belinda also serves as a board member of the Australian Association of Social Marketing Management Committee.

Sound engineering by Alison Zhuang.

Impact Talks at UTS is produced by Impact Studios.