transforming service
  • Home
  • About the Conference
    • Purpose + Principles
    • Conference Development
    • Social Media
    • 2021 Conference Program
  • 2021 Conference Presenters
    • Cone and Harris Lens Model
  • Accommodation Deals - Brisbane
    • Welcome to Brisbane
  • Previous Conference Presenters and Resources
    • George Huitker
    • Dr. Meg Noack
    • Lauren Hichaaba
    • Helder Teixeira
    • Kathryn Boyle
    • 2018 workshop resources
    • Br Damien Price
    • Sr Len Montiel
    • Jude Butcher
    • Sarah Bachelard
    • Richard Browning
    • Leigh Stower

2021 Conference Presenters

2021 Conference Program
Picture
Picture
Picture
Susan Harris currently serves as Executive Director of the Joint Educational Project at the University of Southern California (USC).  Dr. Harris attended college at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and earned a Ph.D. in Sociology and Marriage & Family Therapy from USC in 2001. Dr. Harris has worked in the service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) field since 1994 after starting her career in the non-profit sector at the United Way of Los Angeles in 1991. 

Dr. Harris’ interdisciplinary, qualitative research and clinical training in graduate school focused on the politics of service in the AmeriCorps national service program as well as the experiences of relative caregivers in the Los Angeles County child welfare system.  Following her graduation, Dr. Harris served as the Director of Qualitative Research for the USC Transmission of Religion Across Generations Study.  She was a contributing author of the book that resulted from that project, Families and Faith, which won the Distinguished Book Award from the American Sociology Association’s Sociology of Religion Section and the Richard Kalish Innovative Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America.

Susan Harris has presented and published widely on a number of subjects important to the SLCE field, including reflective practices, community partnerships, international service-learning, student learning outcomes, and the potential of online learning platforms (including “digital badges” or “microcredentials”) for the SLCE field.  She has served as an Associate Editor of the Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning and a Section Editor for the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement.  She is a member of the board for the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement and served as Conference Chair for the 2019 IARSLCE conference.

Born and raised in the Midwestern United States in Columbia, Missouri, Dr. Harris has called Southern California home since 1991, excepting a brief sojourn in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1999-2000.  She is married and has two children, ages 16 and 13.
Picture
Picture
Leigh is a highly experienced consultant with over 14 years diverse experience in child rights and child protection, non-profit management, project design and management, social enterprise, and philanthropy, and a strong interest in the intersection between innovation, development, business and philanthropy. Leigh is a recognised expert in the issues of institutionalisation, residential care of children, and voluntourism.

Leigh is the Co-founder of the ReThink Orphanages Network, working to prevent the unnecessary institutionalisation of children overseas by shifting the way Australia engages with overseas aid and development.

​Leigh is the recipient of the Victorian Young Australian of the Year Award 2009, the Australian Leadership Award 2009, and the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award (Human Rights and World Peace) 2009 and is an 2014 alumni of the Asialink Leaders Program delivered by the University of Melbourne.
Picture
Picture
Joel McKerrow is an award winning writer, speaker, educator, creativity specialist and, having performed for hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world, is one of Australia’s most successful, internationally touring, performance poets. Based out of Melbourne, Australia he is the Artist Ambassador for the aid and development organisation ‘TEAR Australia’ and was the co-founder of community arts organisation, 'The Centre for Poetics and Justice' (2010-2013). Joel was the third ever Australian representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships in the USA (2012), is a TEDx speaker/performer, a successful play-wright and is a co-founder/host of the The Deep Place: On Creativity and Spirituality Podcast.
​
From The Justice Conference to The Global Health Conference; from the ITEC education conference to the Greenbelt Festival (UK); from the Sydney Opera House to the Metropolis (Montreal); from Melbourne’s Townhall, Exhibition Centre, Atheneum and Forum theatres to the renowned Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, Joel has captivated audiences with both his speaking and his performance poetry throughout Australia, NZ, USA, Canada, Europe and the UK. 
​​
​
Joel is a highly-sought after speaker at conferences, schools, colleges, corporate/organisational events, churches and gatherings all over the world. His speaking focusses on creativity (and how it can be used to change the self, society and organisations), identity formation and self-understanding as well as spirituality/worldview formation. With an engaging and motivational style Joel combines his poetic performance talents and storytelling ability with his wealth of experience as a full-time writer and performer within the creative industries, as well as his 17 years of in-depth work/study focussed on emerging adults and their identity, self-understanding, worldview and vocational formation. Currently he is a lecturer at Whitley Theological College in Melbourne, Australia and over the last three years has spoken in over 50 schools to more than 40 000 students.
2020 Conference Program
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • About the Conference
    • Purpose + Principles
    • Conference Development
    • Social Media
    • 2021 Conference Program
  • 2021 Conference Presenters
    • Cone and Harris Lens Model
  • Accommodation Deals - Brisbane
    • Welcome to Brisbane
  • Previous Conference Presenters and Resources
    • George Huitker
    • Dr. Meg Noack
    • Lauren Hichaaba
    • Helder Teixeira
    • Kathryn Boyle
    • 2018 workshop resources
    • Br Damien Price
    • Sr Len Montiel
    • Jude Butcher
    • Sarah Bachelard
    • Richard Browning
    • Leigh Stower