Susan Rooney-Harding - Founder

The Story Catcher - Evaluation and Qualitative Data specialist

Susan is a documentary filmmaker and a creative qualitative data specialist. Her inquisitive and intuitive nature is central to her ability to capture meaningful stories for a greater purpose. 

She is a Multimedia Producer and is the founder of The Story Catchers, Stories for purpose.

Susan and Nerissa have co-created a methodology that uses film in for monitoring and evaluation, social impact measurement and human-centred design process. The methodology is used to create documentary-style reports of the findings.

Local, National and International organisations have used The Story Catchers services, organisations such as Indigenous Lands and Sea Corporation, Department of Planning Transport and Infrastructure, Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Enel Green Power, Rural and Remote Mental Health, South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resource Management Board, Adelaide University and Flinders University to name a few.  

Prior to this role, she was the ABC Open Producer for the River Murray Areas in South Australia. Her primary role was to up-skill regional community members to create media content for various ABC online, television and radio platforms.

Content that Susan has created with communities has been seen on News 24, Landline, ABC Online, ABC Open, ABC Rural and the 730 Report.

Her work has been featured in the Sydney Museum, Adelaide Festival Centre, Northern Rivers National Portrait Prize exhibitions at the Lismore Regional Gallery and Murray Bridge Regional Art Gallery, South Australian Living Artists (SALA).

Nerissa Walton - Associate 

MONITORING & EVALUATION SPECIALIST

With over 25 years experience in environmental health, international development, nature-based solutions and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL), Nerissa specialises in delivering evidence-based insights to improve policy, programs and sustainability initiatives. Her work spans government, non-profits and the private sector, focusing on climate policy, carbon markets, and strategic evaluation.

As the founder of Nereus Consulting, she has led and supported MEL work for organisations including the Fred Hollows Foundation, the Pacific Community, the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board, ACIAR/University of Melbourne and various government agencies. Together, Nerissa and Susan have collaborated using visual participatory methods on a variety of evaluations for the Sammy D Foundation, Australian Red Cross, Enel Energy and SA Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure. Nerissa has led and supported carbon market projects for organisations including The Nature Conservancy, the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the Aboriginal Carbon Foundation and various government agencies and private companies. Her expertise includes project development and the provision of high-level policy analysis for carbon offset projects, blue carbon initiatives, and environmental restoration efforts.

Previously, she held senior roles at the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, where she was responsible for national policy, program development, and carbon market strategy. She is an active member of the Australian Evaluation Society, the American Evaluation Association, and the Carbon Market Institute. Passionate about using data and evaluation to drive real-world impact, she loves collaborating with diverse stakeholders to enhance program effectiveness and sustainability outcomes.

Arkellah Irving - Associate 

PURPOSE, IMPACT & EVALUATION SPECIALIST

Arkellah is a specialist in defining and evaluating purpose and impact. She has extensive experience supporting organisations and governments in identifying their clear and powerful purpose at any project stage and crafting communications around them. Arkellah’s skill set is uniquely refined through years of working locally and internationally, as well as science and community-led decision-making across diverse groups, focusing on bringing the voice of First Nations to the centre, the heart of it all.

Arkellah has worked across the public, not-for-profit and private sectors in the areas of innovation and leading change. Her work has opened hearts and minds to new ways of seeing and doing things. She has won many awards and accolades for her deep collaboration work on changing landscape use and values in the environmental sector. Arkellah has presented several times in China, the UK, Singapore, New Zealand and across Australia on her life-changing projects, working alongside First Nations groups and local communities, through to international philanthropy to protect special places for nature and people. This has included designing and delivering Australia’s first Collective Impact project for the environment sector, which empowered the voice of the Kaurna people in shaping policy for country and created an internationally listed protected place for migratory shorebirds that fly between Alaska and Adelaide.

As well as being a professional strategist and design thinker, Arkellah is a qualified marine biologist, which lends to skilled critical thinking and analysis. Arkellah has designed many project evaluations using Co-design tools, Results-Based Accountability, the Most Significant Change technique and a suite of contemporary and innovative communications and engagement tools to evaluate change. Her work often entwines First Nations perspectives on connection to Country and how healing through reconciliation action leads to more purposeful engagement and powerful outcomes.

Arkellah is a visionary thinker and way-shower for government and other sectors bound by entrenched thinking. Arkellah helps organisations find new ways to make an impact through strategic document creation and visual storytelling.

Arkellah’s work is reconciliation in action. The legacy of her heartfelt leadership sees her being talked about years later as someone who helped share a more positive future.

Arkellah is currently nurturing her SHIFT Consulting business and investing in global humanitarian projects that are significantly impacting worldwide problems.