Kirsty McKellar works across the education, development and humanitarian sectors with a community-centred approach. She has been engaged in community-based research and consultation processes across Australia and internationally. She is leading community partnership development, including in the Northeast of India, where she has visited and collaborated with non-for-profits combatting gender-based violence and supporting resilient livelihoods.
Kirsty has held multiple roles at the University of Melbourne, including Program Coordinator of the Leading Together initiative, a student-led conference with partners in India centred on the SDGs and topics such as Indigenous knowledge, diverse gender and disability inclusion and women in leadership; the Study Visit Coordinator for the visiting academics, Elders and community members from research team Recover, Restore and Decolonise (RRaD) and the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, an Indigenous dialogue on repatriation; and, most recently, a Teaching Assistant for the Master of Development Studies Program. She has been involved in the development of best practice frameworks and toolkits, including for StrongMinds who provide free community-based therapy to people across Africa in low-resource settings. She also led the consultation and research process for a guidance note on the socio-legal frameworks for diverse SOGIESC (LGBTIQ+) inclusion/exclusion across 26 countries for the Australian Volunteers International.
Kirsty holds a Master of Development Studies from the University of Melbourne, with a research dissertation on disaster risk reduction policy, living with uncertainty and community resilience in flood-affected Bihar, India.
