Lisa Fowkes

Lisa leads SVA’s Employment Ventures work. This work aims to contribute to system change by generating new ideas and insights as well as improving the effectiveness of existing approaches.

Lisa has spent over 15 years as a practitioner, researcher, and policy advocate in the area of ‘welfare to work’. For nearly ten years she worked in senior roles at a large national non-profit employment services provider, for three and a half years as its CEO. This included working with local community-based organizations across the country to improve their capacity to support long-term unemployed people into work. She has managed large-scale programs for young people, people with disabilities, ex-offenders, and those seeking apprenticeships. She recently completed a Ph.D. which examined the design and delivery of employment services in remote, predominantly First Nations, communities. She has contributed to the policy debate over the design and direction of employment programs over many years, most recently advising a coalition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations about alternative approaches in remote areas.