The Disability, Diversity and Inclusion Initiative

Professor Keith McVilly is the Scope-University of Melbourne Professorial Fellow in Disability and Inclusion. Working across the university, he is situated in the School of Social and Political Sciences. Professor McVilly is an internationally renowned clinical psychologist whose work addresses the translation of research into policy and practice, with a focus on promoting the wellbeing and community inclusion of people with multiple and complex disabling experiences. His work reflects the centrality of relationships to wellbeing. Much of Keith’s research is conducted in applied settings, working directly with people with disability, families and services providers.

Dr Claire Spivakovsky is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology whose work informs policy and practice responses to violence against people with disability, including violence prevention. Claire is primarily interested in addressing the exclusion, segregation, and coercive control of people with disability in the community. Claire follows this interest across domains: from attending to the exclusion of people with disability in ‘inclusive education’, or in gender-based violence prevention policies and practices, to naming the harms and violence people with disability experience in segregated environments and/or through coercive control practices in adult group homes, day centres, and the criminal justice system.

Dr Paul Ramcharan is the Scope-University of Melbourne Senior Research Fellow. He has been involved in disability policy research for over thirty years. His work in Australia has encompassed disability advocacy and self-advocacy; the development of a Roadmap for the reduction of restrictive practices, choice making, voting and intellectual disability, inclusive research, co-production and, community development and disability. He has also been involved in a number of training initiatives and has held a number of leadership positions related largely to research commissioning. Paul has co-authored two books, two edited collections, many journal articles as well as delivering a number of plain language documents to suit different audiences. He has recently completed work on the impact of the NDIS on disability advocacy in Victoria and has undertaken consultancy work supporting advocacy organisations to make submissions to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of people with disabilities.

Dr Carmel Laragy is the Scope-University of Melbourne Senior Research Fellow in Community Partnerships. She has expert knowledge in the fields of disability and aged care regarding the provision of services using individual funding. Carmel has studied the introduction of individual funding programs nationally and internationally since the early 2000s. These include the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and Consumer Directed Care (CDC) in aged care. She has evaluated national programs and published widely nationally and internationally. Carmel is on the committee of management of Action for More Independence & Dignity in Accommodation (AMIDA), a self-advocacy service for people with intellectual disability; and convenes a peer support group for social workers navigating the NDIS and CDC programs.

A/Prof. Sue Olney has worked in universities, government and the not-for-profit sector, and been involved in a range of cross-government, cross-sector and interdisciplinary research projects, government and community sector initiatives, committees and working groups to promote access and equity in employment, education, training and disability services in Australia and internationally. Her past appointments at the University of Melbourne include Public Policy Research Fellow at the Melbourne Disability Institute, Honorary Senior Fellow in the Melbourne School of Government, and Honorary Fellow in the Melbourne Social Equity Institute

Julie Anderson is the Scope-University of Melbourne Partnership Coordinator. She provides high level executive support for the Partnership between the University of Melbourne and Scope and is responsible for the administration of the Memorandum of Understanding, the development of research and other collaborations, organising external events and functions and providing support to Professor McVilly and Dr Ramcharan.