Stefan Kaufman

Stefan Kaufman joined the Monash Sustainable Development Institute’s BehaviourWorks Australia (BWA) as a Senior Research Fellow in May 2019 after a secondment in 2018. He completed his PhD and B. Arts / B. Science (Hons 1) in Human Ecology at the Australian National University in 2009. Prior to BWA, he led the social science function at the Victorian Government’s Environment Protection Authority from 2007, delivering regulatory performance measurement, environmental and public health risk communication, monitoring and evaluation and voluntary behaviour change programs. He was a founding member of the BWA working group of partner organisations from 2010. He aims to be a ‘pracademic’ with a focus on helping people and organisations working towards socio-environmental change to be more reflective and effective in complex situations.

His work with BWA involves developing multi-agency behaviour change interventions within collective impact frameworks, and enhancing knowledge transfer within BWA’s partner organisations. Research and publications include research, policy and practice translation, public value measurement, adaptive management in environmental behaviour change programs, integrating voluntary and compliance drivers for behaviour change, climate change risk communication, and social learning in complex socio-environmental systems. He has been invited to present at international forums including the University of Surrey’s Centre for Evaluation Across the Nexus, Lund University Planet in 2050 Symposium, and the Regulatory Institutions Network (ANU) symposium on experimentalist governance.

He has taught and provided guest lectures at Monash University, RMIT and the University of Melbourne, and designed and delivered training for ANZOG, the Australasian Evaluation Society, Australian Non-Profit and Social Marketing Association, and Monash’s groundbreaking GreenSteps program. He delivered workshops and guest presentations for EPA Victoria and other BWA organisations and affiliates on topics including research utilisation, environmental behaviour change, public value research, and regulatory compliance and strategy. His work at EPA Victoria has been recognised in staff reward and recognition awards four years in a row 2013-2017, and in 2014-15 he was awarded the Mark Payton leadership development scholarship, exploring how to identify, and foster, science thought leadership in environmental regulation.

In 2019 he was awarded a visiting fellowship with the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany, examining concepts and methodologies for evaluating the societal impact of transitions research.

Stefan is a member of the Australian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators NeTwork (AELERT), Institute of Public Administration Australia, Society for Human Ecology and the Australasian Evaluation Society.

Related Links:

• BehaviourWorks Australia