Changemakers: Jo Barraket

Posted: Monday, January 9, 2012 - 09:52

 

Associate Professor Jo Barraket is profiled in Changemakers, a regular column which examines inspiring people and their careers in the Not for Profit sector.
 
Jo Barraket leads the social enterprise and innovation research program at the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, Queensland University of Technology. She is also a board member of Feral Arts and Foresters Community Finance.

What drew you to the Not for Profit sector?

I believe very strongly in contributing to work that is of public and community benefit. I am also really attracted to the diversity of the not for profit sector and civil society more widely. There is rarely a dull moment in working with this sector.
 
How long have you been working in the Not for Profit sector?
 
Well, I work in the University sector and I’m not sure that Universities like to think of themselves as not for profit! But, I have been conducting research about and with the not for profit sector for 16 years. And, I have held various board and staff positions in the not for profit and cooperative sectors since the late 1980s.
 
What was your first job in the Not for Profit sector?

Water project campaigner for Friends of the Earth, Sydney
 
I’m very bad at …
 
Saying anything succinctly (I am an academic, after all!)
 
What are you reading/watching/listening to at the moment?

Watching Doc Martin, reading an Ian Rankin novel and some Jungian theory, listening to my breathing while I meditate
 
If you could have dinner with 2 people from history, who would they be?
 
Martin Luther King and Theodore Geisel (aka Dr Seuss)
 
My greatest challenge is …

Switching off the technology and declaring time for myself
 
What inspires you? Who inspires you?

I am inspired every day by the creative and dynamic people I work with and have the pleasure to meet in the social enterprise field
 
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