Professor Lisa Jackson Pulver is a proud Aboriginal woman with connections to communities in southwestern New South Wales, South Australia, and beyond. She is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Indigenous Strategy and Services for the University of Sydney and leads the institution's strategy to advance Indigenous participation, engagement, education, and research, including the university's One Sydney, Many People 2021-2024 strategy.

She is a recognized expert and tireless advocate for health and education. Her research focuses on capacity building for healthcare workers and improved health for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She serves her country in the Royal Australian Air Force Specialist Reserve as a Group Captain and is a member of the Australian Statistical Advisory Committee, the Australian Medical Council, and the Health Performance Council of South Australia.

"So I think for me, there is an agency in having control over your own learning and really crappy things can happen to you, but it's really about what you can do with those. It's really about recognizing that, you know, there is an opportunity in everything. And for me, that opportunity was to escape at 14, and whilst on the streets, I thought, well, I can either live on the streets and do lots of drugs or become a sex worker...Neither of those things were what I wanted to do. What I really wanted to do was to become a social worker or become a nurse, or become someone who could help others out of this. But first I had to lift myself out of this. So, when I look back at my 14-year-old self and my 15-year-old self and 16 and 17-year-old self, I just cannot believe the wisdom I had then. And sometimes I think about things, and I wonder. I know I'm still not as wise now as I was then in some things. So, yeah, it's pretty interesting."

www.sydney.edu.au

www.sydney.edu.au/content/dam/corporate/documents/about-us/values-and-visions/one-sydney-many-people-digital.pdf

Season 2 of Business & Society focuses on Leaders, Sustainability & Environmental Solutions
Business & Society is a limited series co-hosted by Bruce Piasecki & Mia Funk www.oneplanetpodcast.org