People

Children & Leadership Futures brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers with expertise in leadership studies, organisational behaviour, education, psychology, inclusion, and participatory, child-centred research. While grounded in Management at the Deakin Business School, the initiative is increasingly shaped through collaboration across disciplines including education, psychology, media, and the arts.

Children are at the heart of this work—not simply as research participants, but as collaborators whose perspectives help shape what we study, how we study it, and why it matters.

Our earlier research explored how children conceptualise leadership—what they see, imagine, and believe about who leads and why. In 2026, with new funding support, the project takes an exciting next step through participatory action research (PAR), working alongside children, educators, and community stakeholders to co-design and test more inclusive approaches to leadership learning in primary school settings.

This next phase is strengthened by collaboration across multiple fields. The project now brings together expertise in participatory and co-design methodologies, child development and wellbeing, leadership and organisational studies, and creative and arts-based approaches to learning and engagement.

Our work is supported by educators, researchers, artists, families, organisations, and community partners, and shaped through ongoing collaboration with children.

Meet the team—and the future generation helping reimagine what leadership can become.

Interested in getting involved? We’d love to hear from you, please contact us.

Children’s Committee (Launching mid 2026)

Children’s Committee (Launching mid 2026)

The Children’s Committee is a group of young people aged 5–12 who will play an active role in shaping Children & Leadership Futures. As co-researchers, co-designers, and advisors, these children will contribute their ideas, questions, and lived experiences to help guide the research—informing what we explore, how we work, and how findings are interpreted.

Launching as part of the 2026 research program, the Committee will function as an intergenerational space for inquiry, reflection, and dialogue on leadership, inclusion, and ethical practice. Children will work alongside researchers, educators, and community members in a supported, age-appropriate and ethically approved process.

Deakin Team

Dr Claudia Escobar Vega (Chief Investigator)
Lecturer, Arts & Cultural Management — Deakin Business School

Claudia is an academic and creative practitioner with a PhD in leadership. Her research focuses on how children and adolescents form ideas about leadership (Implicit Leadership Theories) and on practical strategies to advance equity, diversity and inclusion in future generations. She has 20+ years’ experience consulting and co-creating programs with children and young people in the arts sector, schools and in community settings. Her recent publications include work in Psychological Review, the Journal of Constructivist Psychology, Journal of Management & Organization. She has a long track record in the arts and education sector (management, practice and governance) building partnerships across organisations and communities, delivering professional development for educators, and has featured in national media.

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Dr John Molineux
Senior Lecturer Human Resource Management — Deakin Business School

John is a Senior Lecturer in Management at Deakin Business School with extensive experience spanning academia and industry. Prior to joining Deakin, he spent over 30 years in senior human resource management roles, bringing strong applied expertise to his teaching and research in HRM, leadership, and organisational change.

His research focuses on inclusive leadership, organisational learning, wellbeing, and participatory action research, with a strong record of industry-funded projects. John is a long-time collaborator on the Children & Leadership Futures program, contributing methodological depth and systems insight. He has supervised multiple doctoral candidates to completion and is actively involved in professional and scholarly bodies, including the Australian Human Resources Institute and the Action Learning and Action Research Association.

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Dr Fannie Wu
Senior Lecturer, Management/Organisational Behaviour — Deakin Business School

Fannie is a Senior Lecturer in Management at Deakin Business School. She holds a PhD in Management (Organisational Behaviour) and brings strong expertise in leadership diversity, minority experiences at work, participatory methodologies, and advanced data analysis.

Fannie’s research examines how individuals from underrepresented backgrounds achieve effectiveness, career success, and wellbeing, with publications in leading journals including Academy of Management Annals and The Leadership Quarterly. She has secured significant competitive research funding and plays a strategic role in connecting Children & Leadership Futures to broader leadership futures research, industry engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Project involvement: FRGS, 2026.

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Professor Lucy Taksa
Professor, Management — Deakin Business School

Professor Lucy Taksa is a Professor at Deakin Business School and Deputy Director of the Centre for Refugee Employment, Advocacy, Training & Education (CREATE). She is a leading multidisciplinary scholar whose work spans employment relations, management, gender, cultural and age diversity, and the past, present, and future of work. Her research focuses on workplace equity, institutional change, migrant and refugee employment, representations of leadership, and diversity management, with a strong commitment to research that advances the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Lucy brings extensive leadership, governance, and research strategy experience across higher education, government, and the not-for-profit sector. She has held senior academic leadership roles at UNSW and Macquarie University, served on numerous national and international advisory boards, and is a former member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts. A highly experienced grant assessor and recipient of multiple ARC grants, she is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Industrial Relations. Within Children & Leadership Futures, Lucy provides strategic policy insight, and cross-sector perspective to strengthen the initiative’s impact and alignment with equity-driven research and practice.

Project involvement: FRGS, 2026.

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Associate Professor Eve Mayes
Associate Professor in Education (Pedagogy and Curriculum) – Faculty of Arts and Education – School of Education – Research for Educational Impact – Deakin University

Dr Eve Mayes is an Associate Professor in Education (Pedagogy and Curriculum) at Deakin University. Her research explores young people’s participation, voice, activism, and social justice in and beyond schooling, with a strong focus on participatory, creative, and co-designed methodologies. Eve’s work often centres children and young people as active contributors to educational and social change, particularly in relation to climate justice, democratic participation, and alternative futures for education. She is the author of The Politics of Voice in Education (2023, Edinburgh University Press) and co-editor of the book Planetary Justice: Stories and Studies of Action, Resistance, and Solidarity (with Michele Lobo & Laura Bedford, Bristol University Press). Her Australian Research Council-funded work includes the project: Striking voices: Australian school-aged students’ climate justice activism (DE220100103; 2022-2026) and Making histories: Young people as visual historians of changing cities (DP260104284 ; 2026-2029).

Eve brings to the Children and Leadership Futures project extensive experience in participatory and arts-based research with children and young people, critical approaches to education, curriculum, and student voice, and ten years of experience as an English and English as an Additional Language Teacher and Head Teacher (Teaching and Learning) in government secondary schools in New South Wales. She has previously conducted VicDET-funded research, via working with the VicSRC, the peak body representing school students in Victoria, in two commissioned research projects with students as co-researchers (2016, 2017-2020). Within the Children and Leadership Futures project, she contributes methodological expertise in co-design, participatory learning, and collaborative approaches that support children’s agency, creativity, and expansive leadership thinking.

Project involvement: FRGS, 2026.

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Associate Professor Liz Westrupp
Associate Head (Research), Executive Team, Deakin Lifespan Institute – Faculty of Health – School of Psychology – Deakin University

Associate Professor Dr Elizabeth Westrupp is a child clinical psychologist and Associate Head of School (Research) in the School of Psychology at Deakin University. Her research focuses on child development, parenting, emotional wellbeing, and family mental health, with expertise in longitudinal and community-based research involving children and families.

Liz’s work examines the social and emotional factors that influence children’s development and wellbeing across childhood and adolescence. She has extensive experience leading interdisciplinary research and supporting high-quality, ethically rigorous research involving children and schools. Within the Children and Leadership Futures project, Liz provides expertise in child development, wellbeing, and research design, supporting the project’s commitment to inclusive, ethical, and child-centred approaches to leadership learning and participation.

Project involvement: FRGS, 2026.

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Collaborators

Professor Jon Billsberry
Adjunct Professor, Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre — La Trobe University
Honorary Research Fellow, Eva Burrows College — University of Divinity  

Expert Advisor

Professor Jon Billsberry is a leading international scholar in implicit leadership theories, organisational behaviour, and management education. His research focuses on person–environment fit and misfit, socially constructed approaches to leadership, and how people make sense of work and organisational life. He brings deep theoretical and methodological expertise to Children & Leadership Futures and has collaborated closely with Claudia on multiple studies examining children’s leadership perceptions.

Jon is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK), the British Academy of Management, and the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Management Education and Chair of the Academy of Management’s Management Education and Development Division, and is a recipient of ANZAM’s Management Educator of the Year Award. His research is widely published in leading international journals, including Academy of Management Journal, Psychological Review, and Academy of Management Learning & Education, and he is highly regarded as a PhD supervisor and mentor in leadership and management research.

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