Bonnie is the Chief Innovator in Residence at the Municipal Association of Victoria where she leads the MAVlab. MAVlab is an innovation lab working collaboratively with our network of 79 Victorian local governments and the broader sector to prepare for and respond to the increasingly complex challenges that our communities are facing. The lab focuses on four programs of work include: The Futures of Local Innovation, Risk infrastructure and resilience, Active Democracy and engagement and Service innovation and technology.
Bonnie Shaw is also a Professor of Practice in the School of Design & Social Context at RMIT University where she leads a program of research focused on the cognitive and behavioural impacts of chronic stress.
Bonnie’s career as a landscape architect and urban designer was derailed early on when she designed a globally popular game and became immersed in the dark underbelly of London street gaming, interactive theatre and emerging technology. This led to fellowships at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (London) and the Senseable Cities Lab at MIT (Boston).
Since then, Bonnie has worked at the forefront of advanced technology development and innovation, strategic change management and community engagement with organisations as varied as the (Obama) Whitehouse, Capital One Bank, Foundation for Young Australians, NASA, the World Bank, Hilton Hotels and several start-ups. In her role as the Smart City Practice Lead at the City of Melbourne, Bonnie helped to establish and lead Australia’s first (and multi-award winning) Smart Cities team.
Bonnie has previously held adjunct professor roles at both Georgetown University (Washington DC), Melbourne Business School (Melbourne VIC). She was a finalist in the prestigious Australian and New Zealand Women in AI Awards, was awarded a globally renowned Relativity Award for AI Leadership, and is a trained Human Potential Coach, bringing data driven bio-hacking approaches to stress management and performance enhancement.
Bonnie is the convenor of the Brain Health Futures Summit (coming in November). This is a two day program bringing together world leading practitioners in neuroscience, brain health and psychology, climate change, public policy and community resilience, and leadership practice, workplace design and advanced technology to connect on the growing challenges of chronic stress, its impacts on the brain, body, workplace and our communities, and to explore innovative ways that we might step up to these challenges with purpose.