As The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust approaches its 60th anniversary next year, 103 of Australia’s most passionate and determined individuals have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship, announced today across the nation.
This honour celebrates a diverse group of everyday Australians committed to making a positive impact in their communities and beyond.
“The beauty of a Churchill Fellowship is that they are for people from all walks of life. They are not reserved just for academics or those already in the spotlight,” said Sally Campbell, Acting CEO of the Churchill Trust.
“In fact, recipients are often quietly achieving extraordinary things behind the scenes. They’re everyday Australians who have the drive to create real change, often without seeking recognition.”
The Churchill Fellowship is an opportunity unlike any other, giving recipients up to eight weeks to immerse themselves in international best practices, gathering firsthand experiences and knowledge from around the globe. This year’s Fellows will explore a vast array of fields and topics, each driven by the desire to bring innovative solutions back to Australia.
“Fellows return home ready to challenge the status quo and work in their field of endeavour to implement what they’ve learnt – they’re determined to make a difference.” Campbell continued.
Since its inception in 1965, the Churchill Trust has awarded over 4,700 Fellowships, each one a testament to Sir Winston Churchill’s belief that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things.
Impact of these Fellowships can be seen in countless areas of Australian life, from the creation of Questacon to the introduction of Unit Pricing in supermarkets.
As the Trust prepares to celebrate 60 years of fostering innovation and leadership, this year’s cohort of Churchill Fellows stands ready to continue that legacy. Their work will undoubtedly touch the lives of Australians across the country, proving once again that curiosity and passion can help to bring about transformative change.
“The Churchill Fellowship is more than just recognition—it’s a celebration of people trying to make a difference,” Campbell concluded. “Our Fellows are extraordinary not just in their achievements, but in their drive to make Australia a better place.”
Churchill Fellowships in 2024 are awarded to 24 people from VIC, 23 from NSW, 15 from QLD, 14 from WA, 10 from SA, 7 from TAS, 5 from the ACT, and 5 from the NT. This year’s 103 Fellows will travel for up to eight weeks as they explore their passion projects.
Churchill Fellowship recipients 2024
Australian Capital Territory
- Ava Carter – To explore the implementation and design of dedicated dental care units for psychiatric patients
- David Barbalet – University of Canberra Churchill Fellowship to shadow world-leading bespoke carbon fibre product producers to inform my practice
- Hannah Evans – To investigate community engagement and decision making in wildlife control programs
- Romy Listo – To investigate models to support and destigmatise reproductive health in the workplace
- Tamara Riley – To learn from Canadian First Nations researchers to inform my Indigenous One Health research
New South Wales
- Alix Pearce – To explore how Australian insurers can de-risk and scale new climate and resilience solutions
- Asriana Rio – To study police community engagement strategies that strengthen relationships with CALD communities
- Avalon Bourne – To investigate initiatives effectively supporting young people to manage climate anxiety
- Colin Fardon – To learn traditional furniture restoration and conservation techniques
- Dani Villafaña – Peter Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to investigate legal and community responses to sexual violence within secondary school communities
- Dean Gilligan – To apply world’s best practice to conservation of Australia’s unique freshwater springs ecosystems
- Dev Singh – To pioneer bacteriophage therapy, safeguarding Australia against superbugs’ deadly grip
- Emily Scott – To investigate innovative global philanthropy strategies to improve outcomes for LGBTIQ+ Australians
- Gail Hilton – To investigate comprehensive models of care for children with dementia and their families
- Gavin Brennan – Northern Districts Education Centre (NSW) Churchill Fellowship to investigate international best practice teaching and curriculum design for high school economics
- Indigo Willing – To research gender-equity programs and safe spaces for women and non-traditional skateboarders
- Jon Swain – To investigate strategies to support people experiencing homelessness during extreme heat events
- Jonathan Brand – Gilbert Spottiswood Churchill Fellowship to study how interactive and accessible theatre is created in non-traditional performance spaces
- Kellie Charles – To explore best practices in AI-informed curricula design to reimagine higher education
- Kelly Lees – Saskia Beer Churchill Fellowship to investigate ways of managing parasitic mites of honey bees, including Varroa and Tropilaelaps
- Mike Hammond – Auto Skills Australia Churchill Fellowship to investigate how marine rescue services in Australia must adapt to new boating technologies
- Rachel Hocking with Cait McMahon– To investigate journalists’ mental health support appropriate for Australian Indigenous reporters
- Robyn Monro Miller – To explore international approaches to national play strategies for children’s health and wellbeing
- Sally Gainsbury – To advance our understanding of how technology-based strategies can prevent and treat gambling harms
- Sarah Penicka-Smith – To research socially-engaged orchestral and operatic models in order to run projects in Australia
- Tanya Mason – Caroline Welsh Churchill Fellowship to research innovative methods of estuary resilience to sea level rise
- Wade Stedman – Paul Tys Churchill Fellowship to learn best practice for organ donation after voluntary assisted dying
- Warren Lysaght – Donald Mackay Churchill Fellowship to learn how Australia as a community can collaborate to reduce the threat of synthetic opioids
South Australia
- Alle Drew – To investigate diabetes-specific wellbeing supports available to individuals with type 1 diabetes
- Andrew Dickson – Richard Rischbieth Churchill Fellowship to research global best practice zero-carbon shipping technologies and business models
- Eamon Raith – Dr Dorothea Sandars Churchill Fellowship to investigate bio-optical methods of cerebral monitoring and applications in critical brain injury
- Gigi Pinwill – To explore multi-disciplinary innovative practices of organisations who promote endangered wildlife
- Jon Anderson – To study modular home builders and the factories, collaborations and technology that makes them efficient
- Jonathan Newchurch with Natasha Martin – To study methodologies of re-establishing intergenerational Indigenous language transmission
- Luke Schneider – To investigate autism awareness training in school children to promote inclusion and reduce stigma
- Natasha Martin with Jonathan Newchurch – To study methodologies of re-establishing intergenerational Indigenous language transmission
- Sam Whiting – To investigate and learn from the work of the UK Music Venue Trust and their support for live venues
- Simone Deegan – To reform joint enterprise laws that convict innocent people, particularly minority youth
Western Australia
- Anna Thetford – WA Department of Health Churchill Fellowship to explore family support programs (FSP) for children and families living with a rare disease
- Anthony Galante – To examine global redress models by resource companies for impacts against First Nations peoples
- Antonia Clissa – To research the psycho-social needs of transgender people requiring fertility preservation
- Elise Fenn – To research strengths-based, therapeutic arts programs for children with experiences of trauma
- Henry Tan – To investigate Campylobacter risk controls and surveillance in chicken meat production and processing
- Holly Thompson – Bob and June Prickett Churchill Fellowship to learn from zoo and conservation agencies on climate change emergency response and preparation plan
- Juli Coffin – To investigate and validate an Aboriginal designed culturally secure equine assisted learning program
- Kate Ben-Tovim – To investigate international best practise in cultural diplomacy and soft power
- Kendall Ferraro – Churchill Fellows Association (CFA) of WA Churchill Fellowship to explore the viability of transforming biogas to biomethane for Australia’s renewable energy goals
- Leanne Barron – WA Department of Communities Churchill Fellowship to improve services for children who are victim survivors of family and domestic violence (FDV)
- Luke Kerridge – Dame Roma Mitchell Churchill Fellowship to learn how to create extraordinary immersive and interactive theatre for children
- Sarah Booth – To find five creative solutions to commercial vacancy – and thereby re-imagine life in our CBD
- Sheree Ford – Bob and June Prickett Churchill Fellowship to learn the process of woodblock printing on textiles to teach in remote Indigenous communities
- Tracy Sullivan – To explore systems and structures that support sustainable Indigenous beef production
Tasmania
- Bernadette Black – To learn how other governments and philanthropy fund long term primary preventative programs
- Christine Padgett – To explore the effect of brain injury in victim-survivors of family violence
- Jemina Stuart-Smith – To investigate rewilding strategies for species facing extinction
- Julie Gough – Wendy Dodd Churchill Fellowship to locate/research colonial correspondence about Tasmanian Aboriginal people in UK and Irish archives
- Madeleine Figg – To invest best practices for vulnerable witnesses to participate in the criminal justice system
- Meg Tait – Gallaugher Bequest Churchill Fellowship to investigate community support models preventing the care criminalisation of children
- Nicole Zehntner – To learn animal skeletal articulation, degreasing of osteology and repair of historic articulations
Victoria
- Adrianne Fleming – Park Family Churchill Fellowship to study the system, techniques, technologies and methods of instruction employed in pilot training
- Alicia Kennedy – To investigate organisations operating at the intersection of veterinary and social services
- Anna Murphy – To investigate innovative conservation techniques to save Australia’s plants from extinction
- Brendan Quinn – To learn about novel initiatives for effectively combating syphilis in other developed countries
- Cait McMahon with Rachel Hocking – To investigate journalists’ mental health support appropriate for Australian Indigenous reporters
- Chris Bush – To investigate how AI can revolutionise education and address the equity gap in Australian schools
- Corey Joseph – To learn best practices in measuring & assessing upper limb function in children with disabilities
- Erin Dolan – To investigate international housing funds to increase affordable housing in Australia
- Jacob Miller – Elvie Munday Churchill Fellowship to reimagine op-shop best practice, engaging Australia in celebrating the sector’s 100th year
- Jessie Adams – To investigate the approaches adopted internationally to address the safety of children on farms
- Kate Cavanough – To examine best practice approaches to master planning and renewal of social housing estates.
- Loren Tuck – To investigate international examples of regional hydrogen, clean energy and STEM education centres
- Madeleine Buchner – To understand best practice research, policy and practice for young carers
- Mairead Doyle – To investigate the impact of AI technology in the spread of misinformation and disinformation during elections
- Marcus Crook – To investigate global best practice in circular economy solutions for textile waste in fashion
- Michele Clark – To investigate the application of counter terrorism measures to address violence against women
- Sandie Czarka – To investigate collaborative ungulate (deer) control models and identify success factors
- Sarah Jefford – To research best practice surrogacy law frameworks to inform law reform in Australia
- Sherrie Beaver – To investigate accessible fundraising approaches for deaf and hard of hearing people
- Shwathy Ramesan – Bob and June Prickett Churchill Fellowship to learn to fabricate customised electrodes to measure electrical activity in multiple sclerosis models
- Simone Cassidy – Dorothy and Brian Wilson Churchill Fellowship to explore impactful and equitable processes to support the learning of refugee-background students
- Tal Karp – To identify practical steps to enhance the retention of women CEOs in national sports organisations
- Trent Delaney – To research and implement proven youth crime prevention strategies from leading police jurisdictions
- Wenzel Carter – Sir William Kilpatrick Churchill Fellowship to learn how to decrease the incarceration rate of Indigenous men and women prisoners in Victoria
Northern Territory
- Beau Cubillo – To investigate how Indigenous Peoples can self-determine their food systems for health
- Edith Waugh – Dr Lena Elizabeth McEwan and Dame Joyce Daws Churchill Fellowship to explore culturally safe and sustainable perioperative care models for NT’s First Nations peoples
- Jack Dowden – To explore innovative ways of integrating social and education outcomes into skateboard programs
- Luke Steller – To explore how strengths-based community development practices can enhance Australian STEM education
- Nikki Jefferies – To investigate the potential of circus as an educational mechanism for Indigenous youth
Queensland
- Andrew Hill – To investigate methods of high-caseload management for the treatment of native wildlife
- Annabelle Johnstone – To investigate human and social impacts of disasters on aged care facilities and their residents
- Bec Mac – To research nighttime economy governance of cities and its impact on safety and accessibility for women
- Cameron Appleton-Seymour – To research bagpipe education in overseas institutions to re-build and sustain youth bagpiping locally
- Dan Pollock – To investigate global models of disability justice that can be effectively replicated in Australia
- Eliza Munro – Churchill Fellows Association of QLD Churchill Fellowship to explore death and dying in First Nations communities to support culturally safe end of life care
- Gemma Galbraith – Dr Dorothea Sandars and Irene Lee Churchill Fellowship to investigate new methods in marine robotics to further knowledge of Australia’s deep coral reefs
- Jo Wills – To explore innovations in museum practice that can inspire and sustain museums in regional Australia
- Julie Westaway – To investigate and enable the advanced practice of urogynaecology continence nurses
- Kim Dyball – Frank and Helen Zobec Churchill Fellowship to investigate how young Indigenous women are being empowered to thrive in various STEM fields
- Leah Shelton – To investigate cutting edge practices of activism within art and live performance
- Neal Finch – To explore, review and document wild game harvesting in Europe
- Neil Wilson – To research emerging sustainable manufacturing techniques in the vinyl record pressing industry
- Nev Jones – To investigate the mental health benefits of green woodworking in therapeutic settings for veterans
- Richard Brooking – To research crime and justice system lived experience programs for at-risk-youth and to inform policy
History of Churchill Fellowships and The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust
Almost six decades ago, just four weeks after the death of Sir Winston Churchill on 28 February 1965, the “Churchill Memorial Sunday” doorknock appeal was held across Australia. The doorknock was to raise funds for an unusual type of memorial to Sir Winston – something like Rhodes Scholarships, but more egalitarian, and available to all people and on a much wider basis.
The concept, endorsed by Churchill before he died, was Fellowships, bearing his name, for ordinary people – providing a unique opportunity to travel, learn, and bring knowledge back to their country.
Such was the admiration and respect that Australian fighting men and women of World War II held for Churchill, that this became one of the greatest one-day doorknocks in Australian history.
Funds collected from everyday Australians together with donations from Government and Australian companies totalled the impressive sum of 2,206,000 Pounds ($4,412,000). This laid the foundation for an incredible opportunity – Fellowships offered annually and worth on average $35,308 each, available to Australians who want to make a difference.
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established to administer not only the total funds raised by the 1965 Appeal, but also the Churchill Fellowship award scheme. Since the inception of the Churchill Trust, more than 4,500 Australians have identified projects were overseas research allowed them to bring back vital networks and skills.
