Ms Tammy Russell

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Fulbright Indigenous Scholar sponsored by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

Media Profile

“Our ability as a society to secure economic opportunities for Indigenous people is fundamental to meeting key policy goals in Indigenous affairs such as “closing the gap” and providing a better, brighter future for Indigenous children, families and communities.”

Tammy Russell (formerly Broom), a PhD candidate in human geography has won the 2010 Fulbright Indigenous Scholarship supported by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Through her Fulbright Scholarship, Tammy will review Indigenous community economic development in the southwest US as part of her PhD research at Macquarie University. She will be based at the University of Arizona for twelve months.

Tammy’s research is looking at the public policy processes and the underlying economic, cultural and social issues affecting the lives of Indigenous people.

“Sustainable community-scale development of economic capacity and employment, education and economic opportunities for people in Indigenous communities is an enormously challenging public policy issue in both the U.S. and Australia,” Tammy said.

In the U.S. she will draw on a framework developed by the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

“This work will directly inform the development of my thesis framework and its wider international relevance and standing. It will provide critically important data to allow comparison of my Australian field studies with U.S. experience.”

Tammy will be working with the Department of Geography and Development, University of Arizona. She plans to commence her Australian case study research prior to going to the U.S., and then returning to her Australian field sites after her fieldwork to extend her investigations in the light of lessons learnt in Native American communities.

The data will not only provide information for her PhD but will also develop a framework for considering public policy challenges in sustainable community economic development and responses of both community-level organisations and public agencies.

Tammy has a Bachelor of Community Management and Honours in human geography from Macquarie University in NSW. In addition to her academic life she is interested in Indigenous politics, is involved in Aboriginal arts and crafts and enjoys spending time with her family.

A high resolution version of the photo above is available by clicking here.