Dr Rae West

Raelene West is passionate about creating positive change in the community services area. Her particular research areas are disability and aged care support service frameworks. Raelene has experience in disability advocacy, academic research and administrative work. She has a PhD in Sociology – Disability from the University of Melbourne, has been on numerous disability committees and was a recipient of a 2014 ‘field’ scholarship where she completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. She is currently working as a Social Researcher at the Public Service Research Group – UNSW Canberra and at the Melbourne Disability Institute (MDI) – University of Melbourne. Her research interests are Ableism, Individualisied funding models, services and the market, technology use with services, Critical Disability Studies and Human Rights

Wominjeka (Welcome). We acknowledge the Yaluk-ut Weelam as the traditional custodians of the land on which we meet. Yaluk-ut Weelam means ‘people of the river camp’ and is connected with the coastal land at the head of Port Phillip Bay, extending from the Werribee River to Mordialloc. The Yaluk-ut Weelam are part of the Boon Wurrung, one of the five major language groups of the greater Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to the land, their ancestors and their elders—past, present and to the future.