Our Organisation
Siggins Miller is an Australian company which operates domestically in all states and territories and internationally in the region.
Our core business is in health, human services, higher education, non-government and private sectors. We have 24 years of experience in collaborating with government and non-government bodies on strategy development, system design, evaluation research, services mapping, organisational development, quality improvement, stakeholder engagement and consultation and interim CEO services, and change management.
Our Values
Siggins Miller aims ‘to do good and to do well’ – that is, to work towards the support and improvement of health and human services to achieve individual, community, workforce and organisational well-being.
At the same time, through ethical and professional behaviour and hard work, we aim to do well as a company and to provide a secure learning and work environment for our staff, associates and postgraduate interns. We are committed to high quality outcomes for our clients, working with them to identify the right issues, develop strategies based on the best available knowledge and evidence, and to deliver sustainable results.
Over our 24 years of our operation, we have maintained the trust of many of Australia’s leading thinkers and academics who are happy to be associated with the quality and integrity of our work.
We also work in strong partnerships, based on mutual respect, with senior Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander colleagues, guided by best practice principles for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander research, evaluation and engagement.
Our Team
Our team includes highly skilled consultants and experts in psychology, education, and business development. We also have strong business alliances with our extensive network of expert associates in a large range of fields, including medicine, nursing, psychology, allied health, rural and remote health, epidemiology, immunology, e-health, public health, pathology, economics, health informatics, Big Data, sciences, research methods and statistics, government, workforce development, political and behavioural sciences, organisational development, change management and ethics. This approach allows us to form high-quality, bespoke teams to meet the specific needs of our clients.
Siggins Miller Consultants is led by Professor Mel Miller, who founded the company with her late husband, Dr Ian Siggins, in 1997. The company continues to be guided by a desire to contribute to the health and wellbeing of individuals, families and communities and the success of organisations.
Mel Miller, Director | BA (Hons), MAppPsych, PhD, FCHSM CHE, MAPS, Fellow College of Organisational Psychologists, MAICD
Mel is the Director of Siggins Miller. Over the last twenty-four years she has led strong multi-disciplinary teams in multi-method, international, national and state reviews and evaluations of human services and health service systems, and in developing major national policy frameworks and strategies. She is an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, and a Professor in the Health Group at Griffith University. Her practice focuses on evaluation research, system and organisational design and reviews, strategy development for organisations and nationally for government. Her work spans across the public, not-for-profit and corporate sectors across health, human services and the tertiary education sector.
Her background in clinical, policy and CEO level management of the operations of hospitals and health service systems and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians now supplemented by twenty-four years of providing organisational development and change management and strategy advice to the health, human service, education and justice systems means her review and evaluation findings are credible, practical and politically sensitive. Her major involvement in workforce reform and innovation at national and state and territory levels has also given her deep insight into the cultures and processes of each of the health professions; the impact of emerging technologies on models of care and the impact of these dynamics on the choice, feasibility and cultural appropriateness of methodologies for evaluation and review. She has particular strengths and experience in working with vulnerable and hard to reach groups.
Virginia Hart, Senior Associate Director | BA (Hons Psych), M Clin. Psych, LLB (Hons)
Virginia is a Senior Associate Director with Siggins Miller, based in Canberra. Since joining the company, she has worked with Professor Mel Miller on a number of strategic policy and evaluation projects including the development of the National Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) strategy 2018-2028, drafting the next iteration of the National Tobacco Strategy for the Department of Health, an evaluation of research outcomes and future research strategy for Griffith University’s Menzies Health Institute Queensland and an evaluation of Beyond Blue’s outcomes and operations over three years.
Before joining Siggins Miller, Virginia worked in the Australian Public Service for 28 years, with 17 years as a Senior Executive in the Department of Education and Training, the National Health and Medical Research Council, the Department of Health and the National Water Commission. She has a deep knowledge of the operations of Government, having led reforms across a range of sectors including research and education, health, aged care, community services, natural resource management and corporate operations.
Mary Ferguson, Senior Associate Director | BSocStud, GradDipEd, MIndustRel & HRM
Mary is a Senior Associate Director with Siggins Miller based in New South Wales. She is skilled in research and review and managing large scale national projects involving broad stakeholder groups. She is experienced in the design and conduct of consultations, including focus groups, interviews, surveys and workshops. She brings sound management experience, including governance and administration, together with strong analytical and research skills to every project.
She has particular expertise in industrial relations and workforce issues. She was awarded the University of Sydney’s FSU Prize in Australian Industrial Relations for her case study of the workforce issues related to the privatisation of the Adult Migrant Education Service (AMES) across Australia. She also received special recognition from the University for her postgraduate study of the youth labour market in Australia in 2001.
Abby Haslehurst, Senior Consultant | BPsych (Hons), MPsychOrg, AFHEA
Abby is a Senior Consultant with Siggins Miller with a strong background in organisational design and development, research and evaluation, and managing projects across the health, human services, tertiary education and retail sectors. She has a bachelor in psychology, a masters in organisational psychology, is a registered psychologist, organisational psychologist registrar and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Her background in organisational psychology means she has a strong understanding of psychometrics for selection and talent management; organisational and job design principles and practices; ethical practice; motivation and goal setting; leadership and group cohesion models; individual, group, and organisational level intervention design and implementation; training design and principles; change management; and data analytics. Her previous work has included the development of competency frameworks for retail and technology sector organisations, work in health and wellbeing, interim executive and project management support, organisational change and restructure management, large scale evaluations, market and environmental scans, and teaching/facilitation.
Anna Apuli, Consultant | BFA, BSc (Hons), MPsychOrg (in progress)
Anna is an experienced Consultant, currently working at Siggins Miller. She is adding to her skill base in interactive and visual design and research methods including data visualisation through the completion of a Masters of Organisational Psychology. She has experience in large- and small-scale evaluation research, data visualisation and visual communication, qualitative and quantitative data collection methods, analysis and reporting. She has coordinated the state-wide delivery of pro-bono health services which provided health care to those from vulnerable population groups such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people experiencing homelessness, people suffering from mental illness and people suffering from substance abuse issues. She has also led teams to conduct research activities for a range of not-for-profit based organisations across Australia and New Zealand. Anna takes a multi-disciplinary approach to her work and has previously employed design thinking methods to the development and implementation of organisational strategy for large-scale organisations.
Matt Casey, Consultant | BPsySc (Hons), MPsychOrg (in progress)
Matt is a Consultant at Siggins Miller who is currently completing a Masters of Organisational Psychology. He has worked on both short- and long-term evaluations and reviews of organisations and programs. He has experience with applied research methods with a focus on leadership and in qualitative and quantitative evaluation and program design methods. He has worked in the not-for-profit and government sectors on organisational development projects including the development of a client facing onboarding document for the Board of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander company, working with local councils to create wellbeing ‘packs’ for staff to increase workplace satisfaction and motivation, the development tools they required to remain healthy — both physically and mentally — especially in remote working environments.
Charlotte Brackenridge | BPsySc (Hons), PhD, MPsychOrg (in progress)
Charlotte is an experienced consultant who is adding to her skill set through the completion of a Masters of Organisational Psychology. She has extensive experience and strong skills in project and data management, quantitative and qualitative research, report and grant writing, survey design and participant assessment. She has designed and evaluated interventions such a workplace wellness programs in partnership with a major corporate client including workplace culture change and organisational leadership for health promotion and evidence-based ways of working to improve outcomes and quality of life for cancer survivors, individuals with type 2 diabetes and individuals with brain injury. She has experience in conducting systematic reviews of evidence and strong statistical analysis and methodological skills in applied settings.
Expert Associates
We have longstanding working relationships with a wide range of content, method, specialist statisticians and Big Data experts including those from: The University of New South Wales’ National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith Health Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, The University of Queensland School of Psychology, Queensland University of Technology Australian Centre for Health Services Innovation, Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Flinders University, Adelaide University and others in New Zealand and more broadly in the region. These relationships are built on mutual respect, commitment to quality and trust.
Research Assistants
We have a pool of research assistants who assist with data cleaning, data entry and preliminary data analysis as well as literature and document retrieval and review. All research assistants are Honours degree qualified and completing either Masters or PhD level studies.