David MacKenzie

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David MacKenzie is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University and honorary Executive-Director of the not-for-profit organisation Youth Development Australia (YDA).

David has a strong record of research and development on issues associated with youth policy, and is internationally recognised for his work on homelessness. He is co-author of Youth Homelessness: Early intervention and prevention (1998), which outlines an early intervention policy perspective for a deeply coordinated community infrastructure of services and schools. He also co-authored the report Indigenous Homelessness in Victoria. David is an experienced program evaluator, who recently completed the national evaluation of the HOME Advice program.

Over the past 10 years, David has served on a number of government advisory committees and taskforces – the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Homelessness, the national SAAP Data and Research Advisory Committee, the Victorian Integrated Data Project committee, the JPET Needs Committee and the national SAAP Information Services Committee.

David is the initiator and a principal investigator of the ARC-funded Youthworx project, and one of the four Commissioners responsible for the National Youth Commission Inquiry into Youth Homelessness, which is due to report in early April 2008.