August 2025

We couldn’t have asked for better weather. A magnificent sunny day provided the perfect backdrop to showcase our beautiful campus grounds.

It was exciting to see so many potential students and their families touring the campus facilities, exploring study options, and joining events and activities. Open Days continue during August – with Shepparton up next this Sunday.

Open Day is a huge team effort across the University. It involves academic and support staff from our Schools and colleagues from the Library, La Trobe Sport, Infrastructure and Operations, and the Student Recruitment, Marketing, Digital, Events, and Communications teams in the Future Growth portfolio. Thanks also to those who are giving their time to deliver presentations or in volunteer roles at Open Days.

Our campuses have also been coming back to life as students return for semester 2. It’s a great time for our new DVCA, Sue Bennett, to join La Trobe. I’d like to extend a warm welcome to Sue, who started with us on Monday and brings deep expertise to La Trobe’s mission of innovating in our learning programs and delivering an outstanding student experience.

Sue will be leading work to drive student success and career outcomes, which are key elements of our new Strategic Plan. We held an in-depth discussion about the Plan at our recent all-staff webinar, but I know there were some technical glitches on the day. I encourage you to listen back to the webinar recording which is now available to staff. The recording also includes a terrific segment on the La Trobe Law School’s social justice programs, and a discussion about our new Make Your Impact fundraising campaign and the importance of philanthropy at La Trobe.

While the Strategic Plan defines our mission and key objectives for the next five years, we also need to adapt to our operating landscape, particularly government policy. With a clear mandate for its second term, the Albanese Government is continuing to implement reforms under the Australian Universities Accord, including establishing the Australian Tertiary Education Commission that will support integration between the VET and higher education sectors, oversee funding allocations, and negotiate mission-based compacts with universities.

I was in Canberra last week to meet with Ministers, Members of Parliament, and Departmental officials. These engagements provide an opportunity to raise issues of importance to La Trobe, showcase University projects and initiatives, and discuss how we can support Government priorities including increasing university participation and helping to drive skills development and productivity.

I will keep colleagues up to date with policy developments coming out of Canberra. In the meantime, I’d like to mention some recent achievements and initiatives from across La Trobe.

Regional impact

I’ve participated in several events recently that have highlighted the importance of our work across regional Victoria.

During the last month, I’ve attended events with secondary school principals in Albury-Wodonga, Shepparton, and Mildura. Tonight, I am attending a dinner in Bendigo with principals and senior staff from our partner schools in the region. These events are tremendously important, giving us an opportunity to strengthen our relationships, discuss challenges we face as educators, and consider how La Trobe can best help local students develop career skills and transition to university. AI was also a big topic of conversation with school principals.

In July, I joined the Chancellor in Albury-Wodonga for a meeting of our Chancellor’s Industry Advisory Roundtable. We met with business and community leaders from across Albury-Wodonga to spark ideas on how La Trobe can support business growth in the region. We can play a big part in supporting economic development and job creation in Albury-Wodonga, particularly by establishing new research and innovation partnerships and addressing skills shortages through targeted workforce development.

We also engage with regional communities through our thought leadership activities. Tomorrow, I’m giving a talk at a breakfast event at our Bendigo campus co-hosted by the Bendigo Regional Manufacturing Group. I look forward to talking with executives from Bendigo's leading advanced manufacturers to highlight how universities can drive innovation and support Australia’s economic growth, particularly by leveraging the transformative potential of AI in research and industry collaboration.

Health innovation

The University’s regional impact was also on show at the 2025 La Trobe Rural Health Conference held last month. The conference, Innovating for Equity: Bridging Gaps in Rural Health Care, showcased projects that personify our mission to translate research into practice that has a positive impact for our communities and especially those that address health equity in regional areas.

The conference also featured the annual Violet Vines Marshman Oration, which was delivered by Australia’s Rural Health Commissioner, Professor Jenny May AM. Congratulations to Jane Mills and everyone in the La Trobe Rural Health School on a wonderful conference and oration – and for their dedication to improving health and wellbeing for people in regional areas.

Warm congratulations to Carol McKinstry, Deputy Dean of the La Trobe Rural Health School and Chair of the University’s Academic Board, on being appointed as a Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy. This prestigious honour is a fitting recognition of Carol’s leadership in advancing evidence-based practice that supports the health and wellbeing of rural and remote communities.

And well done to Helena Kim on her appointment as the 2025 Tracey Banivanua Mar Fellow at La Trobe. Helena will use her Fellowship to lead interdisciplinary projects examining stroke therapy and cardiovascular disease and advance cognitive and cardiovascular research in ageing women.

Future fellows

Congratulations to the four La Trobe researchers who have received ARC Future Fellowships, one of the nation’s most prestigious research awards.

Two of our Future Fellows are pursuing health-related research. Lisa Mielke is undertaking a study that will support drug and vaccine development to improve gut health in mammals, and Amy Pennay is developing policy and practice changes to reduce alcohol-related inequality.

Karen Hughes also won a Future Fellowship and will produce the first comprehensive study of Indigenous Australian women’s marriages to US servicemen in WWII, while Dugald Reid is working to reduce nitrogen fertiliser use and improve environmental outcomes for primary industries.

Accelerating innovation

La Trobe is making great strides in our mission to translate research into programs that support industry. I was delighted to see three researchers receive $8.1 million under the Australia Economic Accelerator (AEA) grant scheme that supports nationally significant mid-stage research commercialisation in partnership with industry. Well done to Ian Porter, Ani Desai, and Brian Abbey on winning funding to advance their innovative research projects.

The University has also been awarded a grant from LaunchVic to establish a program to help early-stage entrepreneurs develop ideas into commercial enterprises. La Trobe experts will deliver programs for emerging and aspiring founders with technology-led startup ideas and help them with business model testing, company and team formation, and initial venture launch.

Pride of La Trobe

It was inspiring to see Daniel Powell, a Yorta Yorta man who is the First Nations Health Program Coordinator within the Rainbow Health Australia team located in La Trobe’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, win this year’s NAIDOC Pride award. Daniel’s commitment to diversity and inclusion personifies our Cultural Qualities and our mission to have a positive impact for all members of the community. Thank you for your fantastic work, Daniel.

Later this month we will also be celebrating Pride Week across La Trobe campuses, and information about upcoming events will be shared in next week's staff newsletter.

Literary lights

Congratulations to acclaimed La Trobe historian Clare Wright on winning the 2025 Northern Territory History Book Award for her brilliant book Näku Dhäruk The Bark Petitions: How the People of Yirrkala Changed the Course of Australian Democracy. Clare was up against some terrific books in the awards shortlist, including Bina: First Nations Languages, Old and New by Gari Tudor-Smith, Paul Williams, Felicity Meakins, which was published by La Trobe University Press.

Babara Minchinton’s La Trobe University Press book Madame Brussels: The Life and Times of Melbourne's Most Notorious Woman has also been recognised recently, being shortlisted for the 2025 National Biography Award.

The next book being published by La Trobe University Press is Prove It: A Scientific Guide for the Post-Truth Era by former Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow Elizabeth Finkel. It is a timely book that explores the methodology behind scientific events including the existence of Einstein’s gravitational waves, the origins of Covid-19, and humanity’s evolution. It’s a wonderful work of science communication that I strongly recommend. A launch event for Prove It is being held at our Bundoora campus on Tuesday 19 August as part of the ‘Launches at the Library’ series. Elizabeth will be in conversation with Douglas Bair from the Department of Ecological, Plant and Animal Sciences.

There will be many more literary highlights at this year’s Bendigo Writers Festival, which is being held from 15 to 17 August. It features discussions, keynote talks, workshops, performances, and book launches. Clare Wright has once again done a fantastic job in curating a series of panels featuring authors with connections to La Trobe. You can read the festival program here.

Upcoming events

There are some excellent events coming up across our campuses.

On 14 August, the 2025 Mann lecture in Albury-Wodonga features a panel discussion on Responding to regional change: How a values-based approach can help us navigate key issues of water, health, and social connection, which is being co-facilitated by Lisa de Kleyn from La Trobe’s Climate Change Adaptation Lab and Katie Warner from the North East Catchment Management Authority.

On 14 August, La Trobe Asia is presenting an important discussion in collaboration with the University’s Centre for Human Security and Social Change.

It will consider the future of aid in the Asia-Pacific in what has been a challenging year for international development, with defunding of aid programs and cuts to national development budgets.

On 22 August, the La Trobe x Service Now x Deloitte Appathon is being held in Bendigo for students and alumni to compete in building scalable low-code business applications using the ServiceNow App Engine Studio. Visit the registration page to find out more about this unique opportunity to learn, innovate, and compete while tackling real-world challenges.

On 23 August, there is an opening reception to launch the La Trobe Art Institute’s exhibition Healing: Art and Institutional Care. A series of public events are connected to the exhibition, which presents contemporary and historic artworks that take as a starting point the contested space of institutional care and runs until 9 November. More information and booking links are available here.

Looking ahead, on 9 September we’ll be launching the University’s new Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy with a group of panellists with lived experience and expertise in EDI, including Ro Allen, Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner and La Trobe University Council member; Tharidhu Peries, policy advocate and La Trobe alumnus; Adam Bourne, Director of the University’s Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society; and Renee Sleigh from the Office of Indigenous Strategy and Education.

In closing

Best of luck to the many colleagues who are working incredibly hard to prepare for Open Days in Shepparton, Mildura, Sydney, Albury-Wodonga, and Bendigo over the coming weeks. I’m confident we will build on our very successful Open Day in Bundoora last weekend and continue to generate significant interest in La Trobe for 2026.

Finally, please do take time to complete the 2025 Employee Experience Survey that we launched yesterday. I look forward to hearing directly from you about your experiences working at La Trobe and how we can support you and your teams.

Best wishes,
Theo