Craig Ritchie
Chairperson
Dr Craig Ritchie is an Aboriginal man of the Dhunghutti and Biripi nations and Chairperson of the Lowitja Institute Board. He is the founder of Ngarra Group, a specialist advisory and consulting practice, and brings more than two decades of senior leadership across the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, government and higher education sectors.
Craig was Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) from May 2017 (having joined as Deputy CEO in April 2016) until August 2023. Prior to this, he held senior roles within the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training (2011–16), leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education policy, higher education access and participation for people from low socio-economic backgrounds, and international student mobility, and was founding Director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health within the ACT Government. Craig has extensive experience in the community sector, including as Chief Executive Officer of NACCHO. He was one of a growing number of Indigenous Commonwealth Government agency heads and a founding member of the APS Indigenous SES Network.
Craig currently serves as Chairperson of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services and as a director of the NACCHO Board. He has completed his PhD at the Australian National University; his thesis, White Frameworks, Black Lives: The Cultural Foundations of Aboriginal Policy Failure in Australia, critically examines how cultural framings underpin the persistent failure of Aboriginal policy in Australia. Craig holds an Adjunct Professorship at UNSW Sydney and is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He studied history, classics and education at the University of Newcastle and holds a post-graduate qualification in management.
