Dr Aastha Malhotra is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work and Human Services. She specialises in supporting human and community services agencies and social enterprises to navigate strategic change and enhance effectiveness in service delivery through meaningful integration of theory and practice.

She brings 15+ years of experience of collaborating on innovative community-based initiatives, where along with awesome teams, she has helped managers and leaders to engage more meaningfully with stakeholders, capture and communicate impact and make (effective/solid) data-driven decisions to co-create positive strategic outcomes. She has also been invited to share her work through keynote presentations, panel discussions and creative and informative workshops for organisations such as UN WOMEN, Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Health Council, TAFE Qld, Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland, Community Services Industry Alliance and Ipswich City Council among many others.

Prior to her current role, she was a Vice-Chancellor’s Research fellow in Organisational Resilience at the Institute of Resilient Regions, UniSQ and a Sessional Academic at UQ Business School. She has also managed a social enterprise in India where she worked on social inclusion issues facing rehabilitated prisoners in Asia's largest prison and developed and evaluated community engagement projects for marginalised individuals living with HIV in Canada.

Aastha’s educational background includes a Bachelor with Honours from India and a Masters in Human Services (specialisation management and leadership) from University of Queensland where she graduated with a Dean’s commendation. She also holds a PhD in Management from UQ Business School for which she received a Social Innovation Scholarship from Suncorp and Youngcare Australia and an Executive Leadership Certification from Saïd Business School, Oxford University.

Please reach out if you would like to have a chat about all things strategic change, effective service delivery and social purpose!