Deputy Director

Centre for Social Impact Flinders | College of Business, Government and Law | Flinders University

Professor Svetlana Bogomolova is the Deputy Director of the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) at Flinders University – a node of a national research concentration internationally recognised for driving social impact research and implementation. She is the ARC Industry Fellow (and a former ARC DECRA Fellow), and leads a number of nationally competitive grant partnerships.

Svetlana leads a team of mix-methods researchers dedicated to amplifying the voices of people experiencing vulnerabilities, as well as of practitioners who support them, to reform, co-design, implement, and evaluate social and health programs for greater system integration and improved client outcomes.

Her innovative cross-disciplinary work – spanning social marketing, social policy, social and health services, systems integration, and implementation science – has real-life social impact. Her worked has addressed service fragmentation, social isolation, poor wellbeing, and financial hardship by evaluating and re-designing two Department of Human Services programs: Community Connections and Financial Wellbeing.

Her other work resulted in improved food security by co-designing and disseminating two new service models – Secure Food Systems and Community Food Education Models – and by developing service-quality improvement tools, including the social supermarket rubric and food relief service checker, now adopted across the South Australian food relief sector. Additionally, Svetlana has advanced consumer rights globally by leading the development of a new ISO standard for unit-price presentation in supermarkets, which is now implemented worldwide.

Senior Research Fellow

Caring Futures Institute | College of Nursing and Health Sciences | Flinders University

Dr Candice Oster has a psychology and behavioural health background and has undertaken research across the spectrum of behavioural health, from theories and models of health behaviour and individual-level interventions through to community, organisational, and policy/structural contexts, including social determinants of health.

Candice has extensive experience as a qualitative and mixed methods researcher, including participatory research approaches such as photovoice and co-design and the use of implementation science to understand implementation processes and outcomes.

As a recognised leader in social prescribing research in Australia, Candice has been invited to contribute her expertise at the National Feasibility Study of Social Prescribing (2023) and Accelerating Social Prescribing in Australia: A Roundtable for Thought Leaders (2024). She works closely with primary health networks, local government, and NGOs to co-design social prescribing programs.

Her Steps to Better Health (STBH) questionnaire, developed to screen for social needs, has attracted national and international interest for its practical application in social prescribing.Mark Halsey is a Professor of Criminology at Flinders Criminology and the Centre for Social Impact, an Australian Research Council Industry Laureate Fellow and former Chief Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology. Mark has extensive experience, covering more than 25 years, analysing youth offending, incarceration, rehabilitation and desistance from crime and Aboriginal social exclusion.

Lecturer, Marketing

Centre for Social Impact Flinders | College of Business, Government & Law | Flinders University

Dr Ashleigh Powell is a Lecturer in Marketing in the College of Business, Government and Law and a member of the Centre for Social Impact at Flinders University. With a background in psychology, Ashleigh brings a deep understanding of the psychological, social, and contextual factors that shape individual attitudes, emotions, and behaviours, as well as the barriers and drivers of behaviour change.

Ashleigh’s research sits at the intersection of consumer psychology, social marketing, and health and wellbeing. She is a mixed-methods researcher with expertise in experimental design, quantitative evaluation, and co-design approaches. Her work applies consumer and behavioural insights to improve the design, delivery, and evaluation of programs that support community wellbeing.

She has led and contributed to projects for organisations including VicHealth, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, and the Department of Human Services SA. Her research has provided actionable insights for government and community partners, particularly in understanding and enhancing service delivery for populations experiencing vulnerability.

Ashleigh lectures in Marketing for Health, Wellbeing, and Social Impact, Market Research, and Branding and Advertising. Her teaching and research are closely aligned, focusing on how marketing principles can be used to achieve positive social change.

She has previously partnered with Barossa Council to co-design and evaluate a social prescribing model for the region, providing a foundation for ongoing research into sustainable models of community wellbeing. Her current work includes an Impact Research Grant for Ageing Well, through which she continues to collaborate with multidisciplinary teams and community organisations to inform the development of inclusive and effective health and social care initiatives.

Research Fellow

Centre for Social Impact Flinders | College of Business, Government and Law | Flinders University

Dr Sahar Faghidno is a Research Fellow on the Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Social Prescribing project and a Marketing Specialist at the Centre for Social Impact Flinders (CSI Flinders).

She has a marketing background and has contributed to a wide range of projects evaluating service and program performance. Her work has included measuring program awareness and dissemination strategies, tracking client satisfaction, and assessing the impact of services and programs on client outcomes.

As a mixed-methods researcher, Sahar is particularly interested in using journey mapping to better understand people’s experiences with social support services. Through this approach, she identifies opportunities to improve service delivery and create meaningful touchpoints along the way, helping to ensure both social inclusion and support.

She has also been involved in a research project using the Photovoice method, which explored how participants from the Barossa region experienced and described their sense of community connection.

Community Researcher

Caring Futures Institute | College of Nursing and Health Sciences | Flinders University

Chrissie Roberts holds a Bachelor of Social Work and is currently employed as a Community Researcher at the Caring Futures Institute, Flinders University.

With more than 25 years of experience in the community sector, Chrissie has held a range of roles, including Regional Coordinating Partner in the Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island region and Team Leader for the Southern and Eastern regions within the Community Connections Program. A seasoned practitioner in community development, she has led numerous collaborative initiatives involving asset mapping, stakeholder engagement, project management, and the co-design of community solutions across regions including Country Victoria, Queensland, the Northern Territory, India, and Adelaide.

Chrissie has a particular interested in Narrative Therapy, placing strong emphasis on community voice, resilience, and lived experience. Her work integrates strategic planning with deep local engagement, establishing her as a trusted partner in designing responsive and inclusive programs that accurately reflect the diverse realities of populations.

Additionally, Chrissie is employed as the Community Development Coordinator at Radio Adelaide, where she is responsible for community analysis, the structure of community development initiatives, and promoting volunteer growth and cohesion.

Community Researcher

Caring Futures Institute | College of Nursing and Health Sciences | Flinders University

Dr Simon-Peter Telford is a writer, researcher, and educator with a PhD in Creative Writing and a portfolio spanning higher education, arts in health, and cultural production. His work is driven by a belief in the power of storytelling to connect disciplines, improve systems, and support individual and collective wellbeing. He has published academic articles across a range of journals.

Simon-Peter currently works across several institutions. As a Community Researcher with the Caring Futures Institute, he collaborates closely with communities to ensure research is embedded and co-designed. In his role as a Research Assistant at Flinders University, he supports academic publishing, grant development, and strategic research communication.

His applied work as an Arts in Health Facilitator at Flinders Medical Centre involves designing and delivering creative writing programs in clinical settings, with a focus on mental health recovery. He contributes to evaluation frameworks and research outputs that explore how arts-based approaches can enhance patient care, staff wellbeing, and healthcare environments. He has also taught and assessed Creative Writing and Communications at University.

Research Fellow 

College of Business, Government and Law | Flinders University

Dr Ying Xu is an applied economist and a research member of the Water, Environment and Food economics policy group (WEF group) in the College of Business, Governance and Law at Flinders University. She graduated with a PhD from Virginia Tech, in the United States. She is an expert in applied economics, natural resource economics, and empirical and other quantitative analysis, such as cost-benefit analysis. Her research experience spans several subdisciplines of natural resource research, including the effects of climate change, as well as environmental and health studies.