Outstanding Alumnus Award, international community development leadership (June 2012)
BA(IntStud) 2005, BA(Hons) 2006 - Suzie is the manager of the International Projects Group (IPG) at USC and has been recognised for her leadership and dedication to international community development. Her success over the last four years has seen IPG develop from a single-person operation with one grant of $135K, to 25 projects, up to 20 project staff and grants totalling $5.34M. Suzie works in a highly-competitive arena, competing for funding with other leading universities and international aid management contractors. To date, funding success has come predominantly from AusAID as well as the United Nations, DEEWR, foreign governments and corporations. (Full details via link above.)
Under Suzie’s leadership, IPG’s programs involve professional development and human resource capacity-building for foreign educators, nurses, IT specialists, government executives and officers including Ministers and Governors.
Whilst Indonesia has been the major focus of project activity, programs have also been developed and implemented with government agencies, civil society organisations and educational institutions from the Palestinian Territories, Vietnam, Cambodia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Mongolia, Mauritius, Uganda, the Maldives, Rwanda and Russia.
Suzie’s management role involves proposing and designing innovative development projects in cooperation with USC academics, specialists and international partners. She writes and submits funding applications, implements extensive projects on the USC campus, and evaluates and reports on projects for funding partners.
The projects draw multiple community partners together and aim to create positive impacts for the international communities involved. One such example is the Papuan teachers project involving over 120 teachers and principals completing 3-4 month professional development programs at USC. According to the Indonesian Republic’s testing of teacher proficiency, Papuan teachers ranked 9th out of 33 provinces this year. Prior to engagement at USC, they had ranked in the bottom three.
IPG has won significant grants over the past three years, including a 2012 grant of $1.073M for USC staff to work on projects with leaders from Uganda, Mongolia, eastern Indonesia and Lombok. Initiatives include supporting sustainable tourism practices and boosting technology use in health and education.
Suzie is a fluent Bahasa Indonesian speaker and has worked previously in various roles in Indonesia, including governance reform.
Please note: this is archival information and may not reflect the recipients' current work details.