Susan Mlcek

Biography

Susan is Māori-Indigenous, with teaching experience gained from time at two Australian universities, a NZ tribal indigenous-university, and TAFE NSW. A very distant 'claim to fame' was as one of four official workforce training coordinators for the Sydney Olympic Games, with the added responsibility of being 'sport training coordinator for all 47 Olympic and Paralympic sports'. She brings several hats to her current and previous roles, including as STAR Lead for the Faculty of Arts social work programs [from 2011-2013), and Course Director Lead for Smart Learning: adult education; literacy, language and numeracy; human services and social work; management, and foundational studies. Her substantive position is as senior lecturer in the human services and social work discipline, with a teaching focus on cross-cultural competencies, case management, and communication subjects. As a previous course coordinator of the social work degree program at the CSU rural and regional campus in Dubbo, she was able to focus on a particular passion; on providing education opportunities for marginalised and LSES students. Her PhD research and thesis [UWS 2008] relates to Paucity Management Models in Community Services Delivery (in rural and remote areas in the central west of NSW). She has undertaken externally-funded community development evaluation projects related to rural service provision. Overall, research and publications address several interest areas, including ongoing collaborations with NZ, as well as Indonesian colleagues [following the successful international social work mobility program to the Bandung School of Social Welfare, Indonesia, in 2014]. Her Sub-Dean role has seen her successfully apply for New Colombo Plan funding for international short-term mobility programs to: Samoa, Malaysia, Seoul, South Korea, India, and Indonesia.

Research Interest

Auto-ethnography, Developing cross-cultural competencies