Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy and Services)

Professor Reuben Bolt, a descendant of the Yuin/Wandandian and Ngarigo peoples of Southeast Australia.

He is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Strategy and Services at the University of Sydney, and the first Indigenous appointee to the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), where he is championing the recognition of Indigenous knowledge systems through the rollout of the National Science Research Priority, 'Elevating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Knowledge Systems'. 

Professor Bolt began his journey at the University of Sydney in the late 1990s as a student of Health Sciences (Aboriginal Health and Community Development), and later became the first person of Aboriginal heritage to earn a PhD from the Faculty of Health Sciences. He is passionate about influencing policy, programs and research that results in positive outcomes in Indigenous communities, specific those at the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science.

In his first year as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Startegy and Services at the Universty of Sydney, he announced the MyGadigal Scholarsjhipo that provides financial assistance for every Idgenous undergraduate student, the first ever scholarship of otis kind to be delivered at scale. With over 25 years in higher education, Reuben has held senior roles across seven universities, including Charles Darwin University and UNSW.

His academic work spans Indigenous studies, health sciences, public health, microsociology, and more, and he has convened over 50 university courses. His deep understanding of institutional systems equips him to drive cultural change in complex settings, and is a respected leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education, known for his inclusive leadership, ethical community engagement, and advocacy for Indigenous outcomes.

Dr. Amy McHugh is a Lecturer at the National Centre for Cultural Competence (NCCC) at the University of Sydney, where her role spans teaching, research, curriculum development, and facilitation. Her work focuses on cultural competence, critical self-reflection, anti-racism, intercultural learning, and the responsible use of emerging technologies in education and professional practice.

Amy’s research examines how people develop the capacity to engage critically with culture, identity, power, privilege, and difference, and how educational and technological interventions can support this ongoing learning. Her doctoral research challenged conventional individualised understandings of intercultural competence, reconceptualising intercultural competence as a co-constructed and situated achievement.

More recently, her research has explored how generative AI might be designed to support critical self-reflection, cultural competence, anti-racism, and socially responsible practice. Rather than treating AI primarily as a tool for accelerating work, increasing efficiency, or producing answers, her work investigates how it can be designed to introduce productive friction into learning: deliberately slowing users down, interrupting habitual responses, and creating space for uncertainty, questioning, perspective-taking, and more deliberate judgement. She is involved in the design and evaluation of AI-supported learning initiatives that encourage users to examine assumptions, positionality, power, and inequity while retaining responsibility for interpretation and decision-making. This work also critically examines the ethical, cultural, and representational risks of using generative AI in reflective and relational forms of learning.

Amy also brings extensive experience in Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and intercultural education. Across her work, she is particularly interested in how cultural and intercultural competence can be understood not as fixed bodies of knowledge or individual attributes, but as ongoing, relational, and context-dependent practices shaped through interactions with others, institutions, technologies, and wider social structures.

Dr Michael Mossman is a Kuku Yalanji man from Far North Queensland who currently lives and works on the Country of the Gadigal Peoples in Sydney. Michael is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning and holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture. His current role as DAATSIA Fellow for the Australian Research Council Discovery Indigenous project, Indigenising the Built Environment in Australia from 2024-2026.He is also the Associate Dean Indigenous and project leader for the ADP Indigenous Knowledge Place to facilitates meaningful dialogue and exchange of First Nations discourse in architecture teaching, student experience, research and industry engagement. Michael champions Country and First Nations cultures as agents for structural change in the broader architectural profession at educational, practice and policy levels. His expertise relating to First Nations community-focused outcomes provides a basis for his distinct thinking for ways environments are designed in relation to Country and First Nations cultures.

Gabrielle Russell is Academic Director at the National Centre for Cultural Competence. Her diverse experience has been gained working in non-government organisations, politics, business, and higher education. Gabrielle is particularly interested in how to develop cultural competence from a non-Indigenous perspective and in particular how to facilitate a deeper understanding of transformative ways to learn and work together. Gabrielle’s formal qualifications include a BA (UNSW), an MBA (MGSM) and a PhD (SCU), as well as a Graduate Certificate in University Teaching (UNDA).

Gabrielle’s PhD research, From Pumpkins to Property Management: Developing the Organisational Capacity of the Jubal Aboriginal Corporation (2011) looked at Indigenous community enterprise development and capacity building in a Northern NSW context. By examining the experiences and activities at one Aboriginal Corporation, this study sought to better understand some of the factors necessary to support the development of community enterprises in the Bundjalung Nation, North Eastern NSW. The study also provided some insight into the experiences and development needs of a Bundjalung community as it engaged with capacity and organisational development.

Gabrielle has had a long interest in human rights and social justice issues. Early in her career this interest led her from working in the private sector to the NGO sector and then into politics as an adviser to a Federal Senator in the Foreign Affairs and International Development portfolios. In addition to her academic interests, she has held advocacy and education roles with a particular focus on Indigenous social justice issues.