Ms Melanie Maher

Melanie Maher is a design lecturer, strategist, and visual communication designer whose work explores how design can be used as a tool for social justice, sustainable futures, and systems change. Her expertise sits at the intersection of visual communication design, design education, and applied social impact, with a particular focus on how strategic visual communication shapes understanding, influences decision-making, and supports collective action in complex social and environmental contexts.

Melanie's design practice applies strategic design and visual communication to challenges across public and social infrastructure, community and disaster resilience, housing, health, and education. Working across Australia and internationally, her projects have addressed issues including cost-of-living pressures, energy equity, food security, social isolation, mental health and environmental protection. She has led and contributed to projects with government, non-government, and industry partners including the Queensland Government, Brisbane City Council, Oxfam, YMCA, ANHCA, HVEC, and Neighbourhood Centres Queensland (NCQ). As Strategic Communications Lead at NCQ, her team helped secure a record $115.8 million uplift in Queensland Government funding for the Neighbourhood Centre sector and formal recognition of NCQ as the state's peak body.

Melanie has over a decade of experience as a lecturer and is currently an Associate Lecturer in Design in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at The University of Queensland. Before joining UQ, she coordinated, lectured in, and developed over seventeen unique University courses in design over a twelve-year period, contributing to the advancement of an innovative, interdisciplinary design curriculum. In 2023, Melanie was awarded one of the Top 30 Design Lecturers internationally in the TDK Design Awards, amongst lecturers from across the UK, USA, Australia and NZ.

Melanie's research and research communication span peer-reviewed academic publications, practice-led research, and non-traditional research outputs, including sector impact reports, government submissions, and public-facing publications. This work has contributed to significant change—it's informed government policy, influenced funding, grown public awareness and shaped educational programs. A 2023 Sector Impact Report identified a seven-fold increase in the median emergency food relief distributed by Centres between 2019 and 2023, which led to the government funding of the $1.3m Community Food Program as well as an increase in emergency food relief funding directly to Centres statewide. She has co-authored research in Sustainability Science (a Q1 journal) and regularly collaborates with researchers, community organisations, and practitioners to translate complex research into accessible, impactful outcomes. Her work is driven by a strong commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration.

Melanie's extensive collaborations span state, national and international networks while leading and contributing to projects with government and industry. She currently holds a strategic leadership role at the peak body Neighbourhood Centres Queensland, an organisation funded by the Department of Communities, Housing, and Digital Economy with a membership of over 150 organisations across Queensland. She's also a regular lead contributor to the national peak body for Neighbourhood and Community Centres and involved with the International Federation for Settlement Houses.