Emerging Leaders Symposium: Fostering strong leadership and collaboration

The Emerging Leaders Symposium brought together members of the Prevention Centre’s Emerging Leaders Network and early- to mid-career researchers of the Collaboration for Enhanced Research Impact (CERI).

Plenary conversation: What does good systems leadership look like for prevention?

Some of Australia’s pre-eminent prevention systems leaders spoke on how they have achieved impact, overcome challenges and facilitated systems change.

• Dr Janine Mohamed, CEO, Lowitja Institute
• Professor Katina D’Onise, Executive Director, Prevention and Population Health, Wellbeing SA
• Professor Steven Allender, Professor of Public Health and founding Director of the Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE) at Deakin University
• Ms Jane Martin, Executive Manager, Obesity Policy Coalition and Alcohol and Obesity Policy at Cancer Council Victoria.

Watch a recording of the session.

Expert-led workshops

Participants attended one of four expert-led workshops:

• Creating systems change: Building strong relationships and networking across sectors 
  Building strong relationships and being able to network across sectors and groups are key components of being an effective leader and creating systems change for prevention. In this workshop, participants learned how to build relational infrastructure in your work in research, policy or practice.
• The art of co production: Working with policy makers and generating policy-relevant research 
  This workshop outlined when and why someone would use co-production, shared some principles and practical strategies for co-production when working with policy partners, particularly government, and included case studies of co-production and they might be applied in the workplace.
• What does evidence mean in different contexts? 
  ‘Evidence’ can be a contested term in different scientific and political contexts. So what counts as evidence and who decides? This workshop looked at skills to find, evaluate and apply evidence in a practical way, and provided participants with ways in which they can synthesise, assess and use evidence to inform policy and practice.
• Essential communication tips for research, policy and practice 
  Having impact as a systems leader in prevention requires communicating effectively with different audiences. This workshop offered expert tips on communicating a message effectively and telling a story as a researcher, policymaker or practitioner.

Links to the recordings of these sessions are below.