Get to know our expert facilitators

Associate Professor Jenny Povey 
Course facilitator for Gathering and Analysing Qualitative Data, Data Literacy, Storytelling and Influencing Decision-makers and Survey Design

Associate Professor Jenny Povey is the Deputy Director (Training) at ISSR. In this role Jenny leads the development and implementation of ISSR's training programs. This includes professional short courses aimed at industry and government, tailored capability training for industry and government, Higher Degree Training, external and internal internships/placements, internal staff capability training, and teaching opportunities for ISSR staff in the schools including Honours supervision. In addition to leading this portfolio of work and teaching professional short courses, Jenny continues to lead a Research Group (Social and Educational disadvantage), contribute as an Associate Investigator to research for the ARC Centre of Excellence on Families and Children over the Life Course (the Life Course Centre), and supervise HDR students. She is a psychologist and obtained her BA Honours, MA, and PhD from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa. Before coming to ISSR, Jenny worked as a Chief Researcher at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa in the area of Education effectiveness. She has extensive experience in mixed methods research using administrative data together with survey and qualitative data (semi-structured in-depth interviews from hundreds of participants often at 2-timepoints). Jenny has been teaching the Gathering and Analysing Qualitative Data 3-day short course since 2013.

Dr Charlotte (Charlie) Young
Course facilitator for Gathering and Analysing Qualitative Data

Charlie is a Research Fellow at ISSR. She is a qualitative and interdisciplinary researcher working across public health, health promotion, sociology, and migration studies. Charlotte achieved her PhD at Australian Catholic University and her BSc Honours in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Bath in the UK. She has developed skills in case study design, conducting interviews, focus groups, observation, document review, and applying critical social theory such as intersectionality. Recently, she has been exploring how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted migrant and refugee background tertiary students and how young culturally and linguistically diverse social media influencers have been promoting COVID-safe behaviours online. Charlotte also explores immigrant organisations as critical settings to influence health and wellbeing. At ISSR Charlotte is contributing to evaluation research including for state-wide health interventions and a refugee resettlement program.

Ms Elizabeth (Lizzie) Kennedy
Course facilitator for Gathering and Analysing Qualitative Data and Survey Design

Lizzie is a Principal Research Assistant at ISSR. She has worked on both quantitative and qualitative research projects for clients including government departments and universities over the last twenty years. She has extensive experience in survey design and project management. In her previous role at Which? (Choice equivalent in the UK) influencing practical policy solutions, Lizzie worked with agencies to conduct qualitative fieldwork among audiences including children and adults. More recently at ISSR Lizzie has conducted individual interviews and facilitated group interviews. As well as conducting the interviews as part of the recent Try, Test and Learn evaluation, Lizzie was also a key contributor in the analysis of the qualitative data. In early 2024, Lizzie completed a project conducting individual interviews of stakeholders and community members in Queensland on the important topic of social isolation and loneliness. Currently, she is managing the fieldwork component of the Community Refugee Integration and Settlement Pilot (CRISP) program evaluation.

Ms Elizabeth Hitches
Course facilitator for Gathering and Analysing Qualitative Data

Elizabeth researches inclusive education and student voice at a national and international level, with a particular interest in equity, achievement, and wellbeing for students with disability, chronic health conditions, and/or accessibility requirements. She has experience in survey design and drawing on this method to engage with ‘hidden populations’ through anonymous means. She has conducted qualitative analysis of survey and interview data on multiple projects, taking a Grounded Theory or thematic analysis approach, as well employing a priori coding. Elizabeth considers and advocates for how research methods and modes of data collection can support inclusive, accessible, and equitable research participation experiences for a diversity of participants. At ISSR, Elizabeth is contributing to research reviewing outcomes of men’s health interventions. She is also a research officer and research assistant in both qualitative and quantitative research at various universities.  

Associate Professor Mark Robinson
Course facilitator for Data Literacy, Storytelling and Influencing Decision-makers

Mark is a public health and evaluation specialist who has led the development and delivery of evaluation frameworks across a range of topics and clients. He recently led the development of a monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework for the Queensland Cancer Strategy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and is currently leading the strategic evaluation of a suite of preventive health programs funded by Health and Wellbeing Queensland. Prior to joining ISSR, Mark worked for over a decade at the interface between evidence and policy in Scotland, publishing a number of impactful outputs that have strongly influenced the policy and public discourse on alcohol control in Scotland and beyond. His research was cited in the UK Supreme Court judgment that Minimum Unit Pricing was a legal and proportionate response to Scotland’s problematic relationship with alcohol, and he played a lead role in the multi-component evaluation of this landmark legislation.

Associate Professor Emily Yorkston
Course facilitator for Evaluating Social, Health and Human Service Programs 

Emily is an experienced evaluator and policy analyst whose experience is designing, collecting, and interpreting high quality evidence to improve outcomes for priority groups. She has deep, strategic knowledge of the Australian public sector, working alongside government agencies to design, implement and evaluate large, complex social policy initiatives. Emily is motivated by helping her clients to use evaluation and research to understand the people they serve - consumers, service providers, executive sponsors and advocacy groups - to deliver tailored programs and achieve better outcomes both for people and human service systems. When teaching, Emily builds in examples from her 15 years of industry-based consultancy, so that her students appreciate the differences between the ‘real world’ and theory. It’s her hope that her students learn how to use evaluation as a learning opportunity in their organisations.

Dr Jenny van der Arend
Course facilitator for Data Literacy, Storytelling and Influencing Decision-makers

Jenny is a Principal Research Assistant at ISSR. She is a qualified social worker with extensive experience as a project and program manager, policy officer, and researcher, in government and non-government positions, across a number of social policy areas in Australia and internationally. Jenny has successfully led or contributed to qualitative and mixed methods research projects exploring homelessness, social exclusion and disadvantage, at-risk children and young people, domestic and family violence, criminal justice, and disaster management. Her PhD research explored evidence-based policymaking in Australia and highlighted how crucial research translation efforts are in enabling evidence to have impact in policymaking. Prior to commencing at the ISSR, she spent four years as an associate lecturer, drawing on her policy practice experiences to teach policy and public administration courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Ms Danielle Taylor
Course facilitator for Data Literacy, Storytelling and Influencing Decision-makers

Danielle is a Senior Research Assistant at ISSR. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health, majoring in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, from the University of Queensland. She is an experienced project manager, mixed methods researcher, and social science and public health evaluator. She has worked on both small- and large-scale government and industry projects. Danielle has a passion for data visualisation for knowledge translation.

Dr Macarena San Martin Porter
Course facilitator for From Data to Insight: Applied Introduction to Quantitative Analysis

Maca is a Research Fellow at the ISSR. She holds a Master degree in Public Health and a PhD from the University of Queensland. She is an experienced quantitative and interdisciplinary researcher with research interests that include mental health and health behaviours during pregnancy, social determinant of health, health policies, and statistics. Maca has strong expertise in data analysis and governance of integrated administrative data. Maca has been a key analyst in a number of research projects at ISSR, working across public health, education, wellbeing, youth justice, and migration studies.

Dr Yanshu Huang
Course facilitator for From Data to Insight: Applied Introduction to Quantitative Analysis

Yanshu is a Research Fellow at ISSR. She is an experienced interdisciplinary quantitative researcher with over ten years of quantitative data analysis experience using large longitudinal survey data to answer key social and health research questions in the areas of gender equality, family impacts of chronic illness, and educational outcomes. More recently she has contributed to evaluations of social and health policy and programs in the areas of public health, mental health, social work, and student wellbeing. Finally, she has experience analysing large administrative datasets to answer policy questions. 

Dr Sebastian Kocar
Course facilitator for Survey Design

Sebastian is a Research Fellow at ISSR. His background is in survey methodology and statistics, and he has contributed to methodological, social, well-being, and higher education research. Following his PhD at the Centre for Social Research and Methods (The Australian National University), he was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the measurement of social and economic change at the Institute for Social Change (University of Tasmania), and held a position as a Research Fellow (Survey Methodology) at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (University College London). He has taught quantitative research topics, including survey design, survey statistics, and data analysis. Additionally, he has participated in various research projects as an independent consultant for survey data collection and data analytics.

Dr Kieren Lilly
Course facilitator for Evaluating Social, Health and Human Service Programs 

Kieren is a social psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ISSR. He has particular expertise in advanced quantitative research methods, including longitudinal, spatial, and quasi-experimental approaches. Kieren earned his PhD at the University of Auckland, where his thesis examined experiences of racial and economic inequality over time and across generations. His more recent research includes projects exploring predictors of radicalisation trajectories, health disparities for LGBTQ+ populations, and social cohesion in Australia and New Zealand. At ISSR, Kieren contributes to mixed-methods evaluations of public health and criminal justice programs across Australia.