Kris McCracken

Background

About Kris McCracken

I’m lucky enough to have had a wide range of work experiences. Delivering newspapers and dodging angry dogs on cold, wet mornings. Working in hospitality with rude and friendly punters, good and bad employers. Studying and working at university for far too long. I loved the teaching, less so the games people play. Lots of research and evaluation on a wide range of topics, which generally involves talking to lots and lots of interesting people (Why don't young people trust politicians?(They don't speak plainly.) How did that police initiative of street drug dealing go?(Shifted it down the road.) Did this or that Commonwealth program work as intended?(Sometimes yes. Often no.) What makes convicted offenders feel bad?(lots of things!) What do people fantasize about in the dead of night?(You really don't want to know.) Why don’t people swab before they inject?(It's all about trust.) And so on and so on. I’ve also worked at the frontline of community services (a needle exchange), peak bodies (sex and drugs and mental health), public policy (sex and drugs and mental health, and learning and earning and why don’t things work the way we would like and when is a success really a failure and when is a failure really a success). Yes I like the hard things in life. Wicked problems, indeed.What else? Public communications (talking to the media about drugs and alcohol, mainly). A good few years on innovative program design, program management and contract management. All the while for both non-government and government organisations.