Paul Ramsay Foundation (PRF) today announced the five recipients of the 2026 PRF Fellowship Program, a cohort of leaders driving systemic change to stop disadvantage in Australia through community-led innovation.
The 18-month Fellowship provides each recipient up to $250,000 to pursue bold, transformative ideas. The program is specifically designed to support individuals who are challenging the status quo in support of PRF's strategic ambitions: fostering self-determining First Nations communities, ensuring positive life paths for children and young people free from entrenched poverty and harm, and empowering connected communities to lead their own futures.
PRF Chief Impact Officer Carolyn Curtis congratulated the new Fellows who will join a collaborative network of leaders building new possibilities for their communities and for the systems that shape people's lives.
"The PRF Fellowship is about investing in the person as much as the project," said Ms Curtis. "By giving courageous thinkers the space, resources and trust they need to pursue ideas that can shift systems and create lasting change, we can uncover new pathways to a future where people and places have what they need to thrive.
"I'm energised by the commitment of these Fellows and their passion for changing the conditions that hold disadvantage in place. By backing them to explore transformative ideas — from regional co-operative wealth models to First Nations food sovereignty — we are investing in the community-led wisdom required to unlock stronger futures for all Australians."
The 2026 PRF Fellows are:
- Janine Dureau (Broome, WA). A proud Nyikina and Bunuba woman from Derby in the West Kimberley, Janine's Fellowship seeks to support First Nations women-led Kimberley nation rebuilding by developing a culturally grounded framework and training approach that equips her people for self-determination. Working alongside Kimberley women leaders and Elders, she will co-design a Kimberley Nation Rebuilding Framework that integrates cultural governance, healing-led leadership and conflict transformation – laying the foundations for a future region-wide training program to strengthen governance, support Prescribed Body Corporates, and enable communities to confidently engage in cultural, service and system reform. Hosted by Collaboration for Impact.
- Jeanette Pope (Castlemaine, VIC). As the founding Director of the Castlemaine Community Investment Co-operative, Jeanette led a first-of-its-kind community investment model in Australia that converts locally pooled loans into a permanently community-owned, income-generating asset. Her Fellowship will explore how community co-operatives can counter disadvantage in regional towns by owning local assets, building wealth, and participating in democratic decision-making. She will examine how co-operative models can create lasting change in regional communities, the conditions that support their success, the barriers within current systems, and the frameworks or policies that could enable more communities to realise these opportunities. Hosted by The Hub Foundation.
- Levi-Joel Tamou (Cherbourg, QLD). Levi currently leads the Indigenous Futures Foundation, a for-purpose organisation dedicated to ending the food crisis in First Nations communities within our lifetime. His Fellowship looks to deepen this mission by exploring the invisible infrastructure that drives First Nations food security through procurement, pricing, Indigenous value systems and community-led economic participation. By examining hidden drivers like procurement, pricing architecture and supply chains, the project builds a scalable, replicable model for food sovereignty, so Mob can live long, healthy lives filled with hope for the future. Raised in Far North Queensland, Levi honors his mother's Australian roots alongside his father's connection to the Kuku Yalanji Nation (Bulgun Warra) and Ngati Ruanui (Taranaki, NZ). Hosted by Indigenous Futures Foundation.
- Monica McKenzie (Coastal Sydney, NSW). Monica seeks to enable youth-driven accountability and transformation of out-of-home-care systems by developing Indigenous, youth-driven evaluation and learning approaches. As a survivor of the NSW Child Protection System, domestic and family violence, and homelessness, her personal history profoundly informs her commitment to creating safer, healing and equitable systems. Monica is from the La Perouse Aboriginal Community, belonging to the Dharawal and Yuin Peoples, with connections to multiple Aboriginal Communities. Hosted by Ngimiliko Kunta.
- Todd Fernando (Orange, NSW). A Wiradjuri–Gomeroi policy strategist and researcher, Todd seeks to uncover the real story of truancy in Australia and the next steps to restore connection and belonging in our education system. His Fellowship will centre on listening to the reasons young people slip out of school, the solutions no one has tried, and the systems which have so far failed to make positive impact. Hosted by Brotherhood of St. Laurence.
About us:
About the Paul Ramsay Foundation
PRF is a philanthropic foundation.
The late Paul Ramsay AO established the Foundation in his name in 2006 and, after his death in 2014, left most of his estate to continue his philanthropy for generations to come.
At PRF, we work for a future where people and places have what they need to thrive.
With organisations and communities, we invest in, build, and influence the conditions needed to stop disadvantage in Australia.
