Associate

Wellbeing Economy | Systems Change | Human Geography

Dr Melissa Kennedy is a researcher and practitioner at Deakin University with a background in planning and human geography. She brings expertise in diverse and community economies, grounded in the scholarship of J.K. Gibson-Graham and the Community Economies Research Network. Melissa’s work sits at the intersection of wellbeing economies, systems change, and place-based development.

She currently holds a VicHealth Research Fellowship, delivered in partnership with the Castlemaine Institute and Mount Alexander Shire Council, where she focuses on how evaluation, learning, and participatory methods can help communities and organisations build robust wellbeing economies.

Melissa collaborates across academic, government, and community sectors on projects exploring local economic development and alternative economic models, particularly in rural and regional contexts. She is especially interested in the role of global movements in driving local economic change—an interest she has pursued through studies of the International Booktown Movement, the Slow Food Movement, and now the Wellbeing Economy.