Winner of  the PIA NSW Dr Helen Proudfoot Outstanding Woman in Planning Award 2024

Sarah is the Founder and CEO of Cred Consulting and one of Australia’s leading thinkers (and doers!) on community led and participatory planning for social assets, social cohesion and communitiy resilience. Sarah champions collaboration for design, delivery and management of equitable and beautiful places and services for and with the people they are for. With over 25 years industry experience, she is a big ideas generator who is changing the way things work in social policy and practice. She is known within the industry for her passion, strategic thinking, ethics, and ability to work across diverse sectors and communities to reach mutually beneficial outcomes.

The depth of Sarah’s experience is always apparent – she facilitates, and advises at all levels from community groups to senior executives, to councillors and ministers. Sarah brings her emotional intelligence, energy, and extensive subject matter expertise and strong networks to every project.

Sarah leads and mentors her growing national team of experts, (and all female executive group) with passion, care, and commitment to the highest ethics. She has built a solid business with a team of values-driven experts, clients, and communities, all striving towards Social Cities and Complete Communities from the site to the city-scale. Sarah is an active member of Parks and Leisure Australia and a Fellow of the Planning Institute of Australia. She delivers national Social Planning training for PIA.

Jen has over 25 years industry experience in engagement, strategic communications, strategy development and project management for government, not-for-profit organisations, and the private sector in Australia.

Jen loves nothing more than bringing people together. Whether it’s community members who start as strangers but become colleagues and friends, colleagues or stakeholders who need to align, or an auditorium full of delegates looking to be lead through an event, Jen creates community. Jen is trusted by her clients and sought after for her creative, warm, strategic, successful, and fun facilitation and innovative approaches to community and stakeholder engagement.

As an IAP2 accredited engagement professional, leading state and national award-winning engagement and research projects each year since she started at Cred in 2020, Jen brings her leadership, insight, creativity, and energy, to make Cred’s community and stakeholder engagement projects exemplary

Jen has forged a reputation in the industry as a leader by designing and delivering research and engagement projects that build community resilience and social cohesion. Jen is an authentic, empathetic, and caring leader who connects with people across generations, cultures and places. Jen specialises in designing research and engagement processes that elevate the voices of diverse and under-represented communities

With a background in the sciences, Jen excels at interpreting and communicating complex information simply and clearly.

Winner of the PIA Qld Outstanding Woman in Planning Award 2024

Julia is passionate about putting people at the heart of city shaping processes and outcomes through a deep understanding of their values and needs and listening to their lived experiences. She is an industry leading and inspirational strategic and social planner and engagement specialist with almost 20 years’ experience in consultancy. Julia was the winner of the Planning Institute of Australia Queensland Outstanding Woman in Planning Award 2024.

Julia leads Cred’s Queensland team and has successfully delivered projects spanning strategic land-use planning, social strategy and policy, place planning, community resilience, social value capture and stakeholder and community engagement in dense inner-city areas to remote regional areas, across Australia.

Julia’s collaborative approach builds authentic relationships with her clients and project partners. She is committed to rigorous evidence-based research and socially sustainable outcomes. Her extensive technical expertise as an urban planner combined with her communication skills, means she can clearly and confidently communicate complex planning and corporate processes and concepts to meaningfully engage communities and stakeholders to make well informed decisions.

Julia brings energy, joy, empathy and pragmatism to every project, and all aspects of her role. She is an active member of the Planning Institute of Australia and an IAP2 accredited, skilled and experienced facilitator.

In addition to being a skilled project manager, urban planner and urban designer, Elise leads Cred’s visual communications and design team. Her creativity has revolutionised how Cred and the social planning industry communicates complex planning concepts into award winning, visually compelling, accessible, and beautiful formats.

Elise is driven by her ethics and values and dedication to creating complete communities that deliver social benefits for future generations. She is passionate about, and highly experienced in, creating public spaces, neighbourhoods and cities that reflect their unique local character, and exploring how they can be shaped by those that use them. She is an advocate for inclusive and authentic community participation in planning processes.

Based in Brisbane, Elise is a highly respected city maker with 15 years’ experience as a consultant delivering community development, social infrastructure planning, urban design, spatial mapping, and analysis, placemaking, cultural planning and community engagement services across Australia. Elise is an active member of the Planning Institute of Australia and IAP2.

Abi is Cred’s creative and technical powerhouse social planner, spatial analyst, and architect with almost 10 years’ experience working as a consultant in India, Australia, France, and the Netherlands. Abi works at the intersection of social planning, community strategy, and placemaking and has created a reputation for rigorous, visually engaging, and technically detailed work.

Her passion is facilitating happy and healthy cities through participatory research, evidence-based planning and evaluation and she has substantial experience in public space, social infrastructure and recreational planning and community and stakeholder engagement.  Having lived and worked across the globe, she is acutely aware of how different people use cities and is constantly looking for ways to innovate and create places where people of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities can connect and have a great time together. She is particularly passionate about inclusive cities for women and girls and culturally diverse communities.

Abi has been awarded the ‘Jane Jacobs Fellowship’ with the Center for Living City in New York with the goal of enhancing young people’s understanding and complexity of contemporary urban life and, as a result, promoting increased civic engagement. She is a member of Parks and Leisure Australia NSW/ACT Council where she is the Generative representative.

Ruth is a communications and engagement specialist with over 15 years’ experience across strategic communications, marketing, stakeholder and community engagement, social research, and placemaking.

She has worked with complex organisations across all tiers of government and the private sector to help them better connect with and understand their communities. With deep expertise in masterplanning, cultural planning, social research, and placemaking, Ruth brings strategic clarity, creative storytelling, and stakeholder empathy to ensure communities feel heard and project outcomes align with real needs.

A strong advocate for gender-sensitive and inclusive planning, Ruth has led over 20 co-design safety walks with women, girls and gender-diverse people for the NSW Government’s Safer Cities Program. Passionate about the intersection of culture, community and place, she leverages the arts to foster connection, share stories and enliven cities—spanning projects from large mixed-use precincts to cultural plans and programs for local government.

Ruth’s warm, approachable facilitation style is grounded in building trust, creating safe spaces for dialogue, and ensuring all voices—especially those often underrepresented—are heard and valued.

Phoebe is a communications and engagement specialist with over 8 years’ experience. With a background in urban planning and a Bachelor of City Planning (Hons) from UNSW, she brings a deep understanding of the complexities of infrastructure and planning projects and their impacts on people. Known for her warm, approachable style, Phoebe is passionate about genuine, meaningful engagement and driving community-focused outcomes.

Phoebe is highly skilled at translating complex project information into clear, accessible language and materials that communities can understand and engage with confidently. A strong facilitator, Phoebe also produces high-quality engagement reports that capture valuable insights and support better decision-making.

Phoebe’s commitment to continuous industry growth is reflected in her contributions to the IAP2 Sydney Local Network Advisory Group and her past role as Vice-Convenor of the Planning Institute of Australia’s NSW Young Planners Committee.

Phoebe also coordinates the People and Culture function at Cred, where her role combines her love of community engagement and her love of people.

Lara is an awarded social planner with over 5 years’ experience. With a background in local government and community organising, she understands the roles that different people can and do play in creating welcoming, accessible and unique places.

Lara has worked with Cred Consulting on diverse projects across NSW, Queensland and Victoria. She writes clearly and persuasively for different purposes and audiences, and on projects spanning social research, strategy, communications and community engagement.

She is also a comprehensive researcher who sources data, insights and trends from a range of qualitative and quantitative sources, and translates this into compelling and accessible reports. Lara applies an intersectional approach to her work, and delivers practical and human-centric outcomes.

Prior to joining Cred, Lara worked in community development at Willoughby City Council, and contributed to the City of Sydney’s Green Square active travel behaviour change program, which won the Greater Sydney Planning Award for Great Community Collaboration in 2018.

Ariadne is a social researcher who is passionate about creating resilient, equitable and vibrant communities. Ariadne has solid experience, as well as a Bachelor of Social Research and Policy and a Masters of Public Policy and Governance. Ariadne works across Cred’s diverse projects – undertaking communications, research, strategy and community engagement.

She enjoys collaborating with clients to craft surveys that cut to the core of what their communities want. In addition, she designs and delivers in-person and online engagement using focus groups, workshops and pop-ups to gain first-hand insights into community perspectives.

Ariadne is a strong advocate for using data to deliver social change and meaningful outcomes. She loves turning both numbers and the voices of community members into compelling narratives that inspire intentional and impactful decision-making.

Amy is a town planner and place-maker with a strong commitment to social justice. She has 5 years’ experience in statutory planning, strategic planning, urban design and place activation. She is skilled at project management co-ordination, research and policy and has an in depth understanding of the NSW Planning System.

Amy champions the planning practice for young and emerging planners in the industry through her role as Co-Convenor of the Planning Institute of Australia’s NSW Young Planner’s Committee. Her dedication to the profession has recently been recognised at the national level, with her appointment to the PIA Board as Director.

She is an advocate for women’s rights, with a particular focus on women’s safety in public spaces at night. Her significant contributions has been recognised with accolades at both the NSW and National Awards for Planning Excellence in 2022/2023.

Liana recently graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Commerce and Advanced Studies, majoring in International Business and Management and Leadership. Liana supports our marketing and engagement teams in delivering and facilitating Cred Consulting’s community and stakeholder engagement initiatives, and coordinating our socials and Creducation events.

Liana is working towards becoming a purpose-led leader focused on creating a positive change in the world for disadvantaged communities and brings this as her passion to all her work with Cred Consulting.

Ashlee is a creative thinker with a deep passion for systems thinking, problem-solving, and storytelling. Her work as a graphic designer is driven by a love for visual storytelling and UX design, and loves a challenge for tackling complex problems through abstract conceptualisation and analytical design thinking.

Innovation and creating positive change is at the core of Ashlee’s work, which is refined by her studies in Creative Intelligence and Innovation at UTS. This degree has empowered her to think critically and creatively, using systems thinking to approach complexity, build future scenarios, and drive entrepreneurship.

Arya is a purpose-driven economist with experience in developing comprehensive business cases and cost-benefit analyses, particularly for infrastructure projects. With a Bachelor of Economics degree from the University of Sydney, she brings her strong technical and problem solving skills  Cred’s projects.

She is passionate about delivering evidence-based insights that contribute to real-life impact for communities.

Proficient in technical tools such as Excel, Strata and Matlab, Arya is adept at translating complex data into compelling, data-informed stories. Her ability to balance technical rigour with a people-focused lens makes her a valuable asset to Cred’s multi-discplinary team.

Teah is a Project Officer with over 3 years of consulting experience in private sector planning. She brings a broad skill set from working in the built environment sector, with expertise in due diligence assessments, development assessments, and social impact assessments. She is known for her collaborative approach and working effectively in multidisciplinary teams to deliver thoughtful, people-focused outcomes.

Graduating with Honours from the Queensland University of Technology in 2025, Teah holds a double degree in Urban Development and Science. Her Honours thesis explored natural disaster risk assessment for land use planning in South East Queensland, with a focus on compound risk—demonstrating her ability to translate complex scientific research into practical planning solutions.

Teah’s commitment to inclusive and sustainable communities led her to pursue international study through the Planning and Design for the Just City Summer School at TU Delft in the Netherlands. She has also contributed to advocacy initiatives with organisations such as Sweltering Cities and the Jane Goodall Institute Australia.

As the current Student Lead for the Planning Institute of Australia’s Queensland Emerging Planners Committee, Teah actively advocates for the next generation of planners. She is deeply committed to shaping cities that are resilient, equitable, and designed to enhance the wellbeing of all who live within them.