Rate My Professor Kat Ogilvie

Katherine Ogilvie, known professionally as Kat Ogilvie, serves as a Lecturer in Social Work and Human Services (Education Focused) within the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University, based at the City Campus in Melbourne, Australia. Concurrently, she is the Social Work and Integrated Practice Manager at the RMIT Centre for Innovative Justice (CIJ), a role she has held since the launch of the multidisciplinary practice program in mid-2016. In this position, Ogilvie provides essential social work support to clients of the partner Law and Advocacy Centre for Women and offers clinical supervision to RMIT students completing placements, fostering the next generation of social workers through practical, integrated learning experiences.

Her extensive career trajectory encompasses a wide array of roles in frontline service delivery, program management, policy development, and program design. Ogilvie has worked across multiple support sectors in Queensland and Victoria, including mental health services, disability support, assistance for asylum seekers, youth homelessness interventions, community development initiatives, and tenancy and housing advocacy. She has collaborated with government departments, small community-based agencies, and larger non-government organizations, bringing diverse perspectives to her academic and practice-based contributions. Driven by a passion for social justice, she focuses on innovative approaches to improve complex support systems for vulnerable individuals.

Ogivlie's scholarly work includes a review of Integrating Human Service Law, Ethics and Practice, Fourth Edition (2019), "Consumers’ Experiences of Mental Health Advance Statements" (2018), "The case for Aboriginal Health Workers in palliative care" (2007), "Insights on Aboriginal peoples’ views of cancer in Australia" (2006), and "The 'right story' to the 'right person': communication issues in end-of-life care for Indigenous people" (2005). She contributed a chapter "Reinvigorating Fields of Practice Through Placement" in Challenges, Opportunities and Innovations in Social Work Field Education edited by Ronnie Egan. At CIJ, she participates in projects like "Unsafe and Unseen" on unaccompanied youth shelter needs and "Improving support for victims of crime."