Roksolana Suchowerska

Dr Roksolana Suchowerska is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact Swinburne.

As an applied sociologist, Roksolana is interested in how governments, community organisations, social enterprise, and corporations coordinate efforts to address social exclusion that is linked to life transitions. Her research looks at how cross-sector collaborations can provide support to individuals as well as improve social structures that entrench inequality.

She is currently working on an ARC Discovery project, led by CSI’s Professor Jo Barraket, that investigates the conditions that enable the implementation of successful social procurement policy reform in Victoria and Scotland. Roksolana holds expertise in evaluating the impact of social programs. Her PhD research at the University of Melbourne evaluated customer-focused corporate social responsibility programs in terms of social inclusion and exclusion.

She also recently completed the evaluation of Be Connected: A Digital Literacy for Older Australians Program, commissioned by the Australian Government to evaluate the implementation and social impact of the $47.2M program. Roksolana’s more recent research has involved working with social enterprises to understand the organisational mechanisms through which they improve the social determinants of health for young people from disadvantaged areas.

Prior to academia, Roksolana worked as a Senior Policy Officer at the Australian Department of Industry, supporting Australia’s small and medium businesses to access subcontracting opportunities within large projects.