Discipline/Expertise

Master of Management

PhD (Education)

Dr Leanne Holt is a Worimi/Biripi woman and has over twenty five years of experience in the higher education sector. Dr Holt is the inaugural Pro-Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy) and Adjunct Academic Fellow at Macquarie University. She is Immediate Past President of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium (NATSIHEC) and serves on a range of community and professional local, national and international boards, committees and government expert panels, focusing on the advancement of Indigenous education.

Previously at the University of Newcastle as co-Director of the Wollotuka Institute, Dr Holt led Wollotuka to be the first in Australia to achieve international accreditation through the World Indigenous Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC) and is the current Deputy Co-Chair of this organisation. Dr Holt recently launched a book ‘Talking Strong’ which tracks the development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education policy in Australia from early childhood through to higher education. The book records the voices of those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders that worked with communities, governments and education providers, to map a path for the positive educational future of Indigenous peoples. Dr Holt is the current Chair and Director of the Yadha Muru Foundation (previously known as National Indigenous Education Partnerships) which aims for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to be empowered through education, with schools and communities working together to provide the best opportunities for them to successfully progress through all levels of their schooling, and then into post-school pathways.

In 2020 Dr Holt was awarded the CEW Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation Scholarship to attend executive education programs at Harvard Kennedy School, Boston, Massachusetts, she was also a 2019 State finalist in the Telstra Women’s Business Awards.