Emma Scott
Senior Project Lead
Since 2015 Emma has led many of our education, early years and family projects in Australia, working in partnership with schools, sectors and organisations to meet the diverse and changing needs of young people and those who play an important role in their lives.
Emma is passionate about the power that communities hold to generate new ideas, practices, and energy for change. In her time at Thirdstory, formerly known as Innovation Unit Australia New Zealand, she has convened communities of practice across Australia to design and scale high-challenge learning experiences across schools, develop family-attuned practices in the early childhood sector, and surface new insights and action in the Family and Domestic Violence field amongst others.
Emma’s work spans research and insights generation, co-design and implementation and scale with a particular focus on children, youth and families. She has led research and horizon-scanning to inform the development of education policy and procedures for students with complex needs, and developed design principles for learning in collaboration with parents, teachers and community members to guide system-wide education reform. Emma has also supported and coached teams of practitioners and innovators through long-term change processes in a number of education contexts.
Emma holds a BA (Hons) in History of Design. Prior to joining ThirdStory, she was a Project Manager at the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) where she led the Learning Frontiers initiative. A partnership between AITSL and Innovation Unit in the UK, the initiative brought schools from across Australia together to collaboratively design engaging, meaningful teaching and learning practices with and for young people.
Emma also runs a small farm in rural Northern NSW. She has a keen interest in regenerative agriculture, food production systems and regional community resilience in a changing economy and climate.