Hi, I’m Sue (she/her)
I’m a trusted advisor, coordinator, convenor, and enabler and a working with (not doing for) enthusiast.
I help organisations put people at the heart of policy, health service reform, and product design and development by building better seats at better tables.
I draw on over 12 years experience in health leadership and advocacy in local health services, state and federal bodies, national consultancies, private companies and research projects. My lived and professional experience grounds my work embedding lived experience led approaches into the design, development and delivery of products, services and systems with communities.
Learn about my values, approach and reason for starting the Better Together Collective.
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It was my own lived experience that brought me to this field many years ago. As an advocate, I sat at many tables and had many different ‘engagement’ and ‘co-design’ experiences. When I went on to work in a range of lived experience and community engagement roles, I wanted to replicate the good tables and worthwhile experiences. It wasn’t easy and I often felt overwhelmed, frustrated, worried about getting it wrong.
I know the blood, sweat and tears that go into encouraging, educating and supporting organisations to mature their engagement approaches away from buzzwords and tokenism towards meaningful results where everyone benefits.
I wanted to
build a place to celebrate and advance better practice
offer services, tools and strategic support that would have helped me… given me the confidence to start where I was and to keep getting better
collaborate when needed with like-minded practitioners with complementary skill sets and good good humans
It’s called the Better Together Collective because I truly believe that when people see beyond their differences and come together with curiosity about the things that matter, real and powerful change can happen for the common good.
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I believe in the power of people working together in ways that are relational and worthwhile.
I use
everyday words to include more people and cut across sectors and settings. ( I’ve seen first hand how jargon can keep people out, protect power, and prevent great work happening).
practical guidance - designed to help people and organisations start where they’re at and get better over time. The goal is real not perfect
I won’t try to
convince you that working with lived experience in real and meaningful ways matters - it does
claim or imply that I invented these ways of working - I did not
Collaborators
No one has all the answers. I collaborate with great humans and talented practitioners with complementary skills to the services we offer.
KA McKercher
KA McKercher (them/they) is the proprietor of Beyond Sticky Notes and an internationally recognised co-design leader. KA specialises in co-design within public health and community health. KA is the author of ‘Beyond Sticky Notes: Doing Co-design for Real.’
We work together on participatory design projects that are aligned with our combined 20+ years of experience across a wide range of primary, secondary and community and Indigenous-led health settings across Australia and New Zealand.
Read about one of those projects, All of Us for NSW Health.
Morgan Cataldo
Morgan (she/her) is the founder of morgan&co and has over 15 years of personal and professional expertise collaborating with individuals, communities and organisations to reimagine the role those who experience systematic exclusion play in social change. She holds a degree in Social Science, is a Visiting Fellow at RMIT University School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, and serves on the Board of Collaboration for Impact.
We partner on projects that align with our values and complementary skill sets to design and shape more equitable and impactful policies, programs and services through partnering with people with lived and living experience relevant to their purpose.
Try out the Co-Word Fast Check tool we made together here
Creative partners
Lucy Klippan
The wonderful Lucy Klippan (she/her) is a professional image-maker who connects people through unique visual stories that help drive positive change.
We partner on work where we need to tell stories in strength based ways, translate information into accessible, understandable and compelling designs and formats. You can read more about Lucy’s work at GoodPoint here, or see an example of a project we’ve worked on together: doing research together
Nina Sepahpour
Nina (she/her) is a Melbourne based textile designer and illustrator.
Her magnificent handiwork adorns many WithUs covers and Better Together resources.
Ellen Muller
Ellen (she/her) is a freelance writer, zine and collage queen.
Ellen brings out the best in every WithUs article, and makes each issue shine.
