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J.
Donald R. de Raadt is a social scientist who has held academic posts in
Australia, the United States, and Sweden, where he served for twelve
years as Professor of Informatics and Systems Science at Luleå
Technical University. He has also been President of the International
Society for the Systems Sciences (USA), President of the Swedish
Operational Research Society, and Vice-President of the International
Federation for Systems Research in Vienna.
After retiring from university life, he and his wife Veronica founded
the Melbourne Centre for Community Development, dedicated to promoting
family and community through research, publications, and seminars. All
its services are offered without charge. His research has focused on
designing university programmes, both undergraduate and postgraduate,
that place science in the service of family and community.
The Centre now conducts a doctoral programme in Brazil, where for two
decades Donald, with Veronica’s support, has mentored systems
scientists of the Brazilian chapter of the International Society for
the Systems Sciences. He also guides a Brazilian research group
committed to multidisciplinary, systemic, and multimodal research, and
serves as Honorary Mentor of the Multimodal Systems Group at the
Catholic University of Argentina in Rosario.
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Veronica
D. de Raadt trained as a social worker in Australia and, after
completing a master’s degree in the United States, worked in the fields
of domestic violence and mental health. To broaden her expertise in the
human services, she pursued doctoral studies in Sweden, focusing on
human factors in community development in remote communities. The
results of this research were later published in her book Ethics and
Sustainable Community Design.
In
Sweden she also taught psychology, sociology, and research methods at
Luleå Technical University and contributed to EU-funded community
development projects. Together with her husband Donald, she founded the
Institute for Management and Social Systems in Sweden, which now
continues in Australia as the Melbourne Centre for Community
Development. Her research has appeared in leading systems journals and
has been presented at international conferences across Europe and the
United States.
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Sue-Lee
Seng (Bachelor of Architecture; Graduate Diploma in Community
Development) worked as an architect from 2004 to 2011. Since 2007 she
has been active as a volunteer in Melbourne, teaching children from
inner-city public housing estates, helping them grow in moral
principles within a positive and supportive environment. In 2009 she
joined a team of volunteers in China assisting local farmers with the
potato harvest, and in 2007 she worked with a not-for-profit
architectural organisation in the Solomon Islands to construct latrines
after the devastation of a tsunami.
In 2011 she founded RIAH, a community-based hairstyling business that
both provides income and raises awareness of social needs within her
networks. She now serves as a children’s pastor and community developer
in Melbourne.
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Breno
Oliveira Perdigão is a civil engineer with professional experience in
industrial planning and renewable energy projects. He received his
doctorate from the Melbourne Centre for Community Development,
completing his research in the Doctoral Programme in Multimodal Systems
Research with a thesis entitled “Community Sustainability: Application
of Multimodal Systems Thinking in a Neighbourhood in Brazil.”
He now serves on the Centre’s teaching staff in Brazil, contributing to
projects that support local development and apply systemic approaches
in community settings. Alongside his family, he is also engaged in
family farming, developing research and practices in food and
vocational care aimed at strengthening communities and advancing local
sustainability. |
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Ester
Wolff Loitzenbauer is an oceanographer with a PhD in water resources
and environmental sanitation. She is a professor at the State
University of Rio Grande do Sul (UERGS) in Brazil and is involved in
education and research in water management and river basin committees.
She is also engaged in in postgraduate studies in multimodal systems
research at the Melbourne Centre for Community Development.
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