David MacKenzie

David MacKenzie is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research, and Executive Director of Youth Development Australia (YDA). Before coming to Swinburne in early 2003, David taught youth workers and other students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels for nearly 15 years at RMIT University, and was the foundation director of RMIT”s Centre for Youth Affairs Research and Development. In 2001, David was the leader of the team that won the 2000 Higher Education Quality Award at RMIT as well as an award in 2001 for research excellence.

David has a strong record of research and development expertise in public policy, applied social research and evaluation, especially on youth policy and homelessness. Areas of expertise include policy and practice on marginalised young people; the youth work profession; drug issues; crime prevention; cross-cultural diversity; and social capital. He is the director of the ISR’s Youthworx project, co-author of the influential book Youth Homelessness: Early Intervention and Prevention (1998) and the writer of many other papers and reports. David’s track record on gaining research and development funds is outstanding, with $2.1m raised for Counting the Homeless 2006 and success in attracting base funding of over $250,000 per year for the Youthworx project.

David is currently one of four Commissioners responsible for the National Youth Commission into Youth Homelessness which is currently underway. A final report from the inquiry is due in the first half of 2008.

Publications in the Swinburne Research Bank

Office location: EW118
Telephone: +61 3 9214 4401
Email: dmackenzie@swin.edu.au