Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES)

Ruth McCausland

Inducted in
2024

UNSW

Associate Professor, Division of Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement

Director, Yuwaya Ngarra-li Partnership

Academic Lead, Community of Practice for Community Engagement

https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/ruth-mccausland

Photo of Ruth McCausland

Biographical Abstracts

Dr. Ruth McCausland is Associate Professor in the UNSW Division of Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement, and Academic Lead of its Community of Practice for Community Engagement. For the past three decades, Ruth has worked to enable community-led solutions to complex social problems in the fields of human rights, criminology, community development and evaluation.

Ruth is the UNSW Director of the innovative and impactful Yuwaya Ngarra-li partnership between the university and the Dharriwaa Elders Group in the remote community of Walgett since 2016, following invitation from the Elders to collaborate longer-term on their vision for change after collaboration on a research study. The purpose of Yuwaya Ngarra-li is to improve the wellbeing, environment and life pathways of Aboriginal people in Walgett through collaborating on evidence-based initiatives, research and capacity building. Ruth and her team are evaluating this as a model of community-university collaboration, including building understanding of how universities can work in meaningful collaboration with community partners.

With a PhD in evaluation methodologies that centre the perspectives of people with lived experience of incarceration and disadvantage, Ruth has worked on multiple research studies and evaluations that have contributed to policy and community outcomes. Her scholarship on the social determinants of justice is informing holistic and systemic responses to the criminalisation and incarceration of vulnerable children, women and men with cognitive disability and mental health needs. Ruth’s research, policy and practice contributions have received widespread recognition, including awards from the Australia and New Zealand Society of Criminology and Australasian Evaluation Society.

Ruth is on the Board of Directors of the Community Restorative Centre and the NSW Committee of the Australian Evaluation Society, and is an Associate of the Disability Innovation Institute and Australian Human Rights Institute.

Areas of Expertise

  • Social determinants of justice
  • Community-led solutions to incarceration
  • Mixed methods evaluation
  • Social impact