Dr Hayley Henderson

Dr. Hayley Henderson is a Senior Lecturer at the Crawford School of Public Policy, where she teaches urban policy in the Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Administration programs. Her urban policy elective, Public Policy in Cities, equips students with the principles and methods needed to analyse and plan to redress urban challenges, emphasising equitable and sustainable development. She was the Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility at the Crawford School between 2024 and 2026.

Hayley is passionate about conducting engaged research with urban policymakers and planning practitioners to help foster equitable and resilient cities. As a Senior Researcher within the Institute for Infrastructure in Society (I2S), she examines how urban policy nd governance systems manage urbanisation processes and how they can improve to response to complex urban challenges. While she primarily conducts research in Australian cities, she also conducts studies in Argentinean cities and engages in comparative research involving urban contexts across South America, Europe, and North America. Her research in urban policy and governance is organised around three interrated themes:

First, since 2015, Hayley has been researching urban revitalisation programs within Australia and Argentina. Her work began in Argentina examining the waterfront redevelopment of Puerto Madero and then, during her PhD, with a case study of Revitalising Central Dandenong (Melbourne), led by Professor Helen Sullivan, as part of an international comparison of eight cities examining the impacts of austerity on urban governance (funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council). Based on this case study research, she was invited to be an Associate Editor of the international Collaborative Governance Database and worked with scholars involved in that project to develop a theoretical framework for understanding inclusion in collaborative governance arrangements at the international scale (Ansell et al., 2020). She is currently an ARC ECR Industry Fellow to examine the shift to locally-led collaboration of urban revitalisation in Melbourne's superdiverse suburban centres, including Dandenong. 

Hayley founded Superdiversity Research Australia in 2024, and together with colleagues from ANU, RMIT and SGS Economics and Planning, works towards defining and measuring population superdiversity across Australia in ways that seek to influence nuanced debates and policymaking. In 2023, Hayley and co-authors were awarded the Peter Harrison Memorial Prize during the State of Australasian Cities Conference for their research on Expanding Superdiversity in Australian Cities and Regional Towns. They are now utilising this research to inform rich community profile building and research on the role and value of cultural pluralism in collaborative goevrnance of revitalisation in superdiverse communities. 

The second thematic sub-area explores urban policy and governance of urban waterways. In particular, Hayley conducts research relating to the social dimensions and governance arrangements of Nature-based Solutions, including Blue Green Infrastructure, as part of sustainable urban waterway management and water infrastructure planning. She was the Coordinator of the Buenos Aires Life Lab of CONEXUS program (funded through European Union Horizon 2020-2024) during 2020 and 2021, where she worked with policy makers, non-profit representatives, and researchers in co-creating Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Funded through a grant by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Hayley continued to research the potential benefits and costs of upscaling Blue Green Infrastructure in Argentina (2024-2025). She also conducts research consultancies with multilateral agencies (e.g. UNEP, World Bank) in Argentina that focus on designing NbS to traditional urban problems, including wetland management, improved social housing and informal settlement upgrading and parks design. She formed part of an advisory group on the National Guidelines on NbS for Flood Mitigation in Australia and was a thematic-lead on a successful project supported by Natural Hazards Research Australia on the role of NbS in reconnecting floodplains and mitigating flooding (2025-2028). 

Lastly, Hayley investigates the social value and social risks of infrastructure planning and projects in cities. As part of her current ARC Fellowship she is exploring the connections between anchor institutions and infrastucture with urban revitalisation and community wealth building. Furthermore, she is co-Chief Investigator together with Professor Sara Bice and Professor Helen Sullivan on an ARC Linkage project investigating social risk identification, assessment and management on major infrastructure projects (2022-25). By working with experts and surveying communities' perceptions of planning processes, percieved project benefits and risks, the team has developed a range of frameworks and tools aimed at supporting robust understanding of the role of infrastructureand the need to centre public value creation over more reductive approaches that centre risk management. The team produced and published a definition of social risk; a maturity model to understand current approaches to social risk management across Australia; as well as an evidence-based tool to identify and assess social risk factors relating to major infrastructure in Australia. 

Finally, Hayley recently completed a study as Co-Chief Investigator with Professor Sara Bice and Dr Ruth O'connor as part of the ANZSOG Research Model Program on social licence for major policy reform (2024-2025). The research aimed to better comprehend and inform how the Australian public sector can build capacity and sustain a social licence for major reforms, including relating to water infrastructure and nature-based solutions. Social licence is defined as the level of acceptance of a policy or initiative within a defined community. Developing and maintaining a social licence for major policy reform is both vital and challenging in contemporary Australia for a range of reasons. This study responds to the need to quicken the pace and expand the scope of major policy reform in Australia to effectively navigate and respond to critical issues, like climate change.