Doctor Karin Louise

Dr. Karin Louise (Mackay) is an academic at Western Sydney University, specializing in Cultural Wellbeing. She has developed a groundbreaking transdisciplinary curriculum on Creative Living and Cultural Wellbeing, focusing on community participation in the arts and wellbeing. Through her expertise as an educator, artist, and curator, she designs socially engaged programs to promote creative, cultural, and community wellbeing and has collaborated with community organizations, state government agencies, and international NGOs like Multicultural NSW and Host International. 

With a strong commitment to social justice, Dr. Louise has published extensively on the role of creative practices as a means for diverse communities to express themselves and claim agency. Her work appears in peer-reviewed journals, books, and industry reports, addressing the effects of social policy on women, refugee youth, the environment, and education. Dr. Louise leads research teams investigating the impact of social and cultural policies on diverse communities, including refugee youth, migrant women, regional communities, and older CALD Australians. Her community-focused research led to the development of a pioneering digitized framework for Creative Cultural Wellbeing, implemented by academics, cultural practitioners, and educators to design community-specific wellbeing initiatives. She established the first research concentration on Creative Cultural Wellbeing in Australia through Western Sydney Creative and initiated the Fibonacci Forum: Cultural Wellbeing Series, bringing together over 200 community and cultural arts practitioners and educators to revitalize the small to medium arts sector post-pandemic.

She has been invited to consult on the Humanitarian Outcomes Taskforce Review for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and she has served as a research consultant for the NSW Refugee Youth Initiative Sub-Committee. Dr. Louise has also held governance roles as a Board Director for SydWest Multicultural Services and on the Multidisciplinary Learning and Teaching Committees.

As a curator, Dr. Mackay has organized various exhibitions, notably the Earthspirit Festival, showcasing over 1000 women's stories and art. Her own artwork explores the intersection of nature and humanity, receiving local and international recognition through exhibitions and publications.

This information has been contributed by Doctor Louise.