Indigenous Pro Vice-Chancellor Professor Jacinta Elston Wins Prestigious Scholarship to Harvard
Professor Jacinta Elston, Monash University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous), has been awarded the Chief Executive Women (CEW) 2019 Scholarship to attend the highly regarded Harvard Kennedy School in the US in October this year.
Professor Jacinta Elston, an Aboriginal woman from Townsville in North Queensland, is the inaugural Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous) at Monash.
Professor Elston and her team focus on increasing engagement in Indigenous scholarship and overseeing Indigenous activities. She represents Monash externally in Indigenous matters.
Her career has focused on Indigenous health and Indigenous higher education, and she’s contributed many years of service on state and federal ministerial appointments, and the boards of Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations.
“Monash can play a much stronger role in helping to bring about changes that reduce the over-representation of ‘our mob’ in prisons, improve our life expectancy, improve support for women and families in crisis, and reduce racism in the everyday lives of our people,” Professor Elston said.
“The experience I gain at Harvard will strengthen my capacity to help lead a shift around many of the critical issues that Indigenous people face.”
Professor Elston is leading implementation of the University’s 12-year framework for Indigenous education. She’s spearheading a plan to grow the number of Indigenous academic, researchers and leaders, and will work with faculties, Institutes and Centres within Monash to support the establishment of unique programs that aim to strengthen our Indigenous communities.
Professor Elston has 15 years’ experience in senior management as a faculty and university leader in higher education, and engagement in national and international Indigenous agendas. In addition, she has more than 25 years’ experience in Indigenous health in community-based and academic contexts.
She is a breast cancer survivor, and is the current chair of Cancer Australia’s Leadership Group on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cancer Control.
Under the scholarship, Professor Elston will attend the Creating Collaborative Solutions: Innovations in Governance program at Harvard Kennedy School, in Boston, Massachusetts, in October this year.
The programis designed for leaders in the public, non-profit and corporate sectors who see their roles as reaching across these traditionally separate spheres to build structures that can create significant change.
The Harvard Kennedy School is a graduate and professional school that brings together students, scholars and practitioners to make a positive impact.
Chief Executive Women (CEW) in partnership with Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation (RSIEF) offered this scholarship to middle and senior women managers who are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Heritage.
The scholarship is part of the 2019 CEW scholars program, which is providing 19 talented Australian women with the opportunity to take their careers to the next level by supporting executive education at internationally acclaimed business schools.