Eva Mackinley

Academic Background: Bachelor of International Studies, Majors in Middle East Studies and International relations, Honours First Class in Middle East Studies and a Diploma of Arabic.

Areas of Interest: Global governance and institutions, crisis diplomacy and negotiation, international norms, prevention of violent conflict, public facing campaigning and communications.

Work Experience: For the last 15 years Eva has worked in campaigning for social change, through  a range of initiatives and across a range of areas including youth empowerment, environmental education, locally-led development, and strategic communications.

Eva has held high level roles in Peer to Peer campaigns Live Below the Line and Polished Man, served on the Australian Federal Government Australian Youth Forum Steering Committee, and co-founded Global Partners for Change, which supported young people in Kenya to run projects for positive community change.

In 2015 Eva started The Last Straw, a campaign to reduce the use of plastic straws in venues around Australia. This highly successful campaign saw 1000 venues sign on to become straw-responsible including the iconic Sydney Opera House, and sparked international sub-campaigns in Indonesia, Kenya, Peru and mexico. In 2018 alone, The Last Straw was responsible for 13 million plastic straws from entering the waste system.

Eva currently works as the Marketing and Communications Manager at ygap, an international development organisation that supports early-stage social impact ventures with locally-led solutions to local problems across Kenya, South Africa, Bangladesh, the Pacific Islands and Australia.

For her work, Eva has been recognised as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia fellow for 2019, one of the Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence in 2018, with the Community Achievement Award at the 2016 Southern Cross Young Achiever Awards.