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Personal details

Name
Professor Evonne Miller
Position(s)
Director, QUT Design Lab
Faculty of CI, Education & Social Justice,
School of Design
Professor
Faculty of CI, Education & Social Justice,
T2 Res. Centre - CI, Edu & Social Justice (U94),
Design Lab
Discipline *
Design Practice and Management, Psychology, Sociology
Phone
+61 7 3138 9011
Email
Location
View location details (QUT staff and student access only)
Identifiers and profiles
ORCID iD Twitter LinkedIn
Qualifications

PhD (University of Otago), Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) (University of Otago), Bachelor of Commerce (Marketing Management) (University of Otago)

Professional memberships
and associations

Evonne Miller is Professor of Design Psychology and Director of the QUT Design Lab in QUT.

Originally trained in experimental social psychology, Evonne holds a BA(Hons) and PhD in Psychology, and BCom (Marketing Management) from the University of Otago in New Zealand. Evonne is a Fellow (2012) and Distinguished Member (2009) of the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG), Australia’s largest multidisciplinary professional association of people working in the diverse fields of ageing. She was co-conference chair of the AAG’s National Conference in 2012 (Ageing: Challenging the Boundaries) and has held an array of leadership roles, including National Honorary Secretary (06-09), President of the Queensland division (08-11), and co-scientific program chair of the 2021 conference on the Gold Coast.

Evonne is also a founding member of Places for Ageing Australia, a community of designers, educators and age care providers promoting research, innovation and best practice in the design of healthy places for ageing. With Professor Inger Mewburn (aka the Thesis Whisperer), Evonne also co-edits a blog for thesis supervisors:  https://thesupervisionwhisperers.wordpress.com

Keywords

Population Ageing, Social sustainability, Co-design, Design thinking, Body image and the Media, Aged Care, Technology in healthcare

* Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2008

Biography

Evonne Miller is Professor of Design Psychology and Director of the QUT Design Lab in the School of Design, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice.

Evonne is also co-Director of HEAL – the Healthcare Excellence Accelerator Lab. HEAL is a collaboration between the QUT Design Lab and the Healthcare Improvement Unit at Clinical Excellence Queensland, and acts as a bridge between the QUT design and innovation community and Queensland Health, accelerating healthcare improvement efforts across the state (https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/projects/qut-design-lab-and-heal-health-excellence-accelerator-lab/).

Her research focuses on how to design environments – built, technical, socio-cultural and natural – that better engage and support all users, especially older people in residential aged care. Evonne has over 100 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of urban design, population ageing, health and wellbeing, climate change and sustainability,  disaster and resilience. Evonne is the author of several books:   “Creating Great Places: Evidence-based urban design for health and wellbeing (Routledge, 2020, with A/Prof Deb Cushing) which outlines how designers can create great places that are inclusive, sustainable, and salutogenic (health-promoting), “Creative Arts-Based Research in Aged Care: Photovoice, Photography and Poetry in Action” (Routledge, 2021), exploring entering, living and dying in aged care, and edited How to be a Design Academic: From Learning to Leading (CRC Press, 2021, with Prof Thea Blackler). 

Evonne is also a passionate advocate for design and creative arts-based participatory research methods. She has been awarded over $3.7 Million in competitive research grant funding, including a current $1.15M National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant (2020-2025) exploring how to develop an intergenerational model of  senior living/aged care on high school campuses and an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grant (2021-2023) using creative-arts methods (poetic inquiry, participatory photography, citizen storytelling, interactive art) to amplify the voices of aged care residents and engage policy makers, providers, and the public in a reflexive, inclusive conversation about the past, present and future of aged care.

She led an Australian Research Council funded semi-longitudinal qualitative research project, which used participatory visual and creative arts ( photovoice, research poetry, art/drawing) to understand, improve and communicate the experience of aged care (2012-2017). This “Inside Aged Care” Project culminated in 2017 with an exhibition at the State Library of Queensland, and all images available for public use: https://insideagedcareproject.wordpress.com;Evonne also led a collaboration to co-design an app to support informal caregivers (https://ourcarejourney.wordpress.com/),

Evonne  is a Fellow of the Australian Association of Gerontology, and a founding member of Places for Ageing Australia, a community of designers, educators and age care providers promoting research, innovation and best practice in the design of healthy places for ageing. She is also a member of two other QUT Research Centres: Centre for the Environment and Waste-Free World, reflecting her interest in sustainability.

This information has been contributed by Professor Evonne Miller.

Teaching

Evonne is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her teaching has focused on research methods, sustainability, and social-cultural issues for design, at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as delivering workshops on research supervision, academic writing, design thinking / co-design, and participatory arts-based research methods (photovoice and research poetry). Units she has coordinated, lectured and tutored in include:

  • First year – ‘Introducing Sustainability’ (Faculty-wide unit)
  • Second year – ‘Socio-Cultural Studies’ (Industrial design unit)
  • Fourth year – ‘Design & Research’ (School-wide unit)
  • Fourth year – ‘Architectural Research ’ (Architecture unit)
  • Fourth year – ‘Survey Methods’ (Humanities & Human Services unit)
This information has been contributed by Professor Evonne Miller.

Experience

Evonne’s expertise is in collaborative, interdisciplinary and industry-relevant research, and she  has strong collaborations and research partnerships with a range of community organisations,  industries and government departments.

She is currently the  co-Director of HEAL – the Healthcare Excellence Accelerator Lab. HEAL is a collaboration between the QUT Design Lab and the Healthcare Improvement Unit at Clinical Excellence Queensland, and acts as a bridge between the QUT design and innovation community and Queensland Health, accelerating healthcare improvement efforts across the state (https://research.qut.edu.au/designlab/projects/qut-design-lab-and-heal-health-excellence-accelerator-lab/). Within the broad fields of design, social gerontology and social sustainability, Evonne has been a Chief Investigator on one ARC Discovery, three ARC Linkage project grants and a NHMRC Ideas grant, as well as industry-funded projects including:

  • An Inter-Generational Learning and Living Campus: A New Model for Healthy Senior Living and Integrated School Communities Across Urban and Regional Australia – this $1.15M National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant (2020-2025) is exploring how to develop an inter-generational models of senior living / aged care on high school campuses (https://grandschoolsproject.wordpress.com);
  • Amplifying voices from the Royal Commission into Aged Care (2021-2023) – ARC Discovery Grant (2021-2023). The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety is a singular opportunity to reform Australian aged care and redress the marginalisation of aged care residents—a vulnerable demographic whose voices too often go unheard. Combining media analysis with poetic inquiry, participatory photography, citizen storytelling, and interactive art, this project amplifies the voices of residents and engages policy makers, providers, and the public in a reflexive, inclusive conversation about the past, present and future of aged care
  • Facilitating active ageing in residential aged care: strategies, opportunities and future directions (longitudinal qualitative research project utilising creative arts-based methodologies to better understand a how quality of life can be maximised for older Australians living in aged care, see: https://insideagedcareproject.wordpress.com);
  • Growing Sustainable Regions: Developing a Rural Statistical Sustainability Framework (utilising interactive GIS technologies to visualise the economic, environmental and social issues facing rural Australia and foster evidence-based decision-making);
  •  Community Liveability: Impact on Social Connectedness and Active Ageing (utilises portable GPS trackers to track and better understand how the built environment facilitates – or hinders – older people’s daily lives in urban and rural Queensland).
This information has been contributed by Professor Evonne Miller.

Publications


For more publications by this staff member, visit QUT ePrints, the University's research repository.

Awards

Awards and recognition

Type
Curatorial role (head curator, membership of curatorial board) of a prestigious event
Reference year
2021
Details
Initiated and curated the inaugural interdisciplinary exhibition at the 54th Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG) 2021 annual conference. Entitled "Art, Ageing & Innovation", the exhibition enriches, challenges, inspires and provokes reflection on ageing - inviting us to pause and look at the familiar in a new way. The exhibition features over 20 artists and creative works about ageing including paintings, photographs, research poetry, installations, interactive VR, digital stories, and short films on topics as diverse as improving dementia awareness in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, to "talking trans ageing", a series of videos designed to help trans and gender diverse people start a conversation about their needs and safety in residential aged care.
Type
Appointment to Prestigious Positions
Reference year
2021
Details
Invited representative and author on a 2021 internal policy report for Queensland Health, ¿Getting us back up and running¿, outlining the health, social policy and economic implications of various scenarios and options on COVID-19 decision-making, balanced relative to the proportional health and future economic risks.
Type
Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
Reference year
2021
Details
Co-Scientific Committee Chair of the 54th Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG) 2021 annual conference, entitled "Innovation in Ageing for the Future" which invites us all to question and redefine how we think and work to open up new ways of approaching the challenges and possibilities of an ageing world.
Type
Appointment to State/National/International Reference Group or Government Committees
Reference year
2021
Details
Appointed as Arts Queensland peer assessor, reflecting my specialist knowledge relevant to specific art forms and arts and cultural contexts. The role provides independent reviews, moderation and recommendations on applications to Arts Queensland's investment program.
Type
Keynote Speaker/Expert Panel Member/Invited Speaker for a Conference
Reference year
2021
Details
Invited keynote speaker at 2021 Audiology Australia annual conference, "Audiology at the Cutting Edge: Connections for a Reimagined Future". My opening plenary "Design thinking as a strategy for innovation in audiology", reflected on the challenges and opportunities of experimenting with a design-led approach in preparing for the future.
Type
Keynote Speaker/Expert Panel Member/Invited Speaker for a Conference
Reference year
2018
Details
Invited speaker at the "Diversity in Disaster: Communities and emergency management building resilience" Conference in Melbourne, Australia. (17-18 April 2018). This conference focussed on the experience of marginalised groups in disasters, with my presentation on older Queenslanders experience of the Brisbane floods - using the creative-arts method of poetic inquiry to trigger deep empathy, understanding and insight.
Type
Appointment to Prestigious Positions
Reference year
2012
Details
In 2012, Evonne was made a Fellow of the Australian Association of Gerontology (AAG), for contributions to Gerontology (the study of ageing). Evonne has served as AAG National Hon. Secretary (06-09) and AAG Queensland president (08-11), and was co-chair of the 2012 AAG annual conference "Challenging the Boundaries" in Brisbane where ~500 attendees shared and debated best innovative practice, research and policy in ageing.

Research projects

Grants and projects (Category 1: Australian Competitive Grants only)

Title
An Inter-Generational Learning and Living Campus: A New Model for Healthy Senior Living and Integrated School Communities Across Urban and Regional Australia
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
APP1187656
Start year
2020
Keywords
Aged Care;Aged Health;Services Research;Health Care Delivery;Health Care Worker Education
Title
Facilitating Active Ageing in Residential Aged Care: Strategies, Opportunities and Future Directions
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP130100036
Start year
2013
Keywords
Acitve Ageing;Population Ageing;Residential Aged Care
Title
The Neglected Dimension Of Community Liveability: Impact On Social Connectedness And Active Ageing
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP0883447
Start year
2009
Keywords
Community Liveability;Social Engagement;Community Well Being;Social Isolation;Population Ageing
Title
Growing Sustainable Regions: Developing a Rural Statistical Sustainability Framework
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP0776795
Start year
2008
Keywords
Sustainable Regions;Rural Sustainability;Regional Growth;Spatial Decision Support Systems;Economic Development;Decision Making

Supervision

  • I have graduated over 32 PhD, Masters and Doctorate of Creative Industries students – and am interested in supervising research students related to my expertise in ageing, design for health (especially biophilic healthcare), social sustainability, disasters and resilience, innovative approaches to engagement and communication, as well as topics on media, fashion and body image. Innovative qualitative projects, using visual and design approaches, are especially welcomed.

Current supervisions

Completed supervisions (Doctorate)

Completed supervisions (Masters by Research)