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Professor Niki Edwards

Professor Niki Edwards
Name Niki Edwards
Pronoun She/Her/Hers
Position Professor (Social Work and Human Services)
Section School of Psychology and Wellbeing
Office B213
Location Ipswich Campus
Phone +61 7 3812 6392
Extension 6392
Email
Qualifications BSocWk Qld , BA Qld , MPubAdm Qld , PhD Qld
Homepage https://research.usq.edu.au/researcher/80909/a-pr-niki-edwards
The views expressed on staff homepages may not reflect the views of the University.

Biography

Professor Niki Edwards is privileged to have a long history in the provision of direct clinical and professional academic Social Work services across diverse fields of practice; as a senior academic with significant experience in program and curriculum responsibilities, research, supervision of HDR students; and she has deep commitment to community service in pursuit of systemic changes to enable meeting the needs of people living with disability, their families and networks of support. She graduated with her BSWK from the University of Queensland (UQ) in the 1980s; followed by completion at UQ of a Bachelor of Arts; Master of Public Administration; and finally, a PhD (Epidemiology). As a critical Social Worker, she is passionate about addressing social injustice through critical analysis of power dynamics and oppressive structures in society, She celebrates and embraces diversity and difference. Her research focuses in this area, with particular attention to disability, diversity and social inclusion. She is committed to social justice, inclusion and democratic citizenship for all.

Most of her career has been spent working between public services and academia. This relates to commitment to ensuring teaching and research has strong linkages to the field. She is passionate about the delivery of education that respects adult learning and values critical engagement with students. Naturally, Paulo Freire is strongly admired, as is Gilles Deleuze who advocated for understanding diversity and difference as an "ordinary" expression of humankind (those endless incredible possibilities!). Her employment experience includes: psychiatric services when institutions were decanting; hospital Social Work across a range of health specialisms; Commonwealth Rehabilitation; senior management responsibilities with policy and program development and evaluation responsibilities across numerous government portfolio; culminating in employment as a senior advisor at Ministerial Level. Professor Edwards established an academic unit at the Mater Hospital that catered for the health needs of adults with intellectual disability in the 1990s. She became the Clinical Coordinator for that unit, taught psychiatrists, mental health clinicians and services about the mental health needs of adults with intellectual and developmental disability; an active researcher in this space. This unit developed into a Queensland Centre of Excellence that continues to provide much needed health and mental health services today.

Funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) over the past ten years, she has undertaken a significant number of consultancies enabling fellows from the Global South to participate in education and field experiences relating to disability, mental health, inclusive disaster management, gender, and social inclusion. In 2023 she co-contributed and completed teaching of Gender and Social Inclusion to Vietnamese Ministry of Transport senior staff.

Academically, Niki has worked for UQ and Griffith University Schools of Medicine where she taught into evidence-based medicine and clinical skills courses. In 2022 she moved from Social Work academia at QUT after more than a decade there where she was delighted to take up her current position at UniSQ. Additionally, she is appointed as visiting Professor of Social Work at Fulda University of Applied Sciences, Germany where she continues to teach online (“Who Wears the Pants? Gender in Contemporary Society”; and “Critical Perspectives of Mental Health and Mental Illness”). She is also a Visiting Fellow at QUT.

Research Career


  • Public Health ( 420600 )
  • Clinical Social Work Practice ( 440901 )
  • Rural Community Development ( 440406 )
  • Intersectional Studies ( 440505 )
  • Social Determinants Of Health ( 420606 )
  • Allied Health And Rehabilitation Science not elsewhere classified ( 420199 )
  • Other Health Sciences ( 429900 )
  • Social Work ( 440900 )
  • Gender Studies ( 440500 )
  • Allied Health And Rehabilitation Science ( 420100 )
  • Gender Relations ( 440504 )
  • Counselling ( 440902 )
  • Other Human Society not elsewhere classified ( 449999 )
  • Poverty ( 440405 )
  • Health Equity ( 420602 )
  • Development Studies ( 440400 )
  • Other Human Society ( 449900 )
  • Humanitarian Disasters ( 440402 )

Critical Social Work
Diversity and difference
Disability
Gender
Inclusive disaster management
Mental health, mental illness and psychosocial disability


Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) Member
Australian Association of Social Workers, Queensland Branch Committee Member & Social Policy and Advocacy Subcommittee Member
International Federation of Social Workers Member
Senior Fellow, Higher Education Academy


Committee Member, Queensland Inclusion Incorporated (QAI) https://qai.org.au/

Teaching


Professor Niki Edwards is appointed Academic Discipline Lead for Social Work and Human Services and from 2024 the Program Director for the Master of Social Work (Qualifying). She remains actively engaged in the ongoing implementation of a suite of Social Work and Human Services programs at UniSQ; inclusive of the re-imagining of the Human Services programs. The Bachelor of Social Work is now available as an online program from 2023. Watch out for the Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) from 2025. The Master of Social Work (Qualifying) is available from Trimester 1 2024. Professor Edwards has taught into many Social Work courses over her career but is delighted to teach disability, health and mental health courses in the UniSQ Social Work and Human Services programs.


20 Years


20 Years


Academic Discipline Lead Social Work and Human Services
Master of Social Work (Q) Program Director

Supervision


  • Public Health ( 420600 )
  • Clinical Social Work Practice ( 440901 )
  • Rural Community Development ( 440406 )
  • Intersectional Studies ( 440505 )
  • Social Determinants Of Health ( 420606 )
  • Allied Health And Rehabilitation Science not elsewhere classified ( 420199 )
  • Other Health Sciences ( 429900 )
  • Social Work ( 440900 )
  • Gender Studies ( 440500 )
  • Allied Health And Rehabilitation Science ( 420100 )
  • Gender Relations ( 440504 )
  • Counselling ( 440902 )
  • Other Human Society not elsewhere classified ( 449999 )
  • Poverty ( 440405 )
  • Health Equity ( 420602 )
  • Development Studies ( 440400 )
  • Other Human Society ( 449900 )
  • Humanitarian Disasters ( 440402 )