Sheree Hughes
Sheree Hughes is a champion for Healthy Liveable Communities. She has a Master of Scientific Studies (UQ) specialising in Clinical Exercise Physiology for Special Conditions. Graduating with a Dean’s commendation, she knew she was destined to focus prevention, upstream in the Health System.
Sheree has built a solid reputation as one of Queensland’s most identifiable and expert spokespersons on walking, cycling and active living. Sheree has worked closely with Local and State Government at both Councillor and Ministerial level.
In the last 2 years, Sheree has played an important role in the development and delivery of suite of policies and tools that will change our communities for the better, including:
First Australian State Walking Strategy.
State Government’s Walkability Improvement Tool (together with the Model code for neighbourhood design and the Street Design Manual)
State Government’s Activate! Queensland 2019–2029 - Government’s 10 year strategy to further enrich the Queensland way of life; harnessing the pride of our great sporting traditions, embracing our iconic natural environment and building on our strong community foundations to deliver better health and wellbeing outcomes, especially for those most vulnerable.
Sheree has an ability to translate principles into practice in simple ways – such as her ability to explaining how ‘Walkability’ describes the factors within the built environment that make it convenient, comfortable, and safe to walk.
“The hallmarks of Sheree’s contribution to helping design better cities and communities extends well beyond her day job around the excellent publications she helped the Heart Foundation create to advance the agenda of better designed and healthier urban environments. She is a passionate and energetic advocate and tireless contributor to this agenda, and a great collaborator who is well respected across all in her network. She is knowledgeable, good hearted and committed to helping make our cities and communities more liveable and healthier, and to building broader knowledge and understanding of the significant links between these components.”
It is for these reasons, Sheree is the 2021 recipient of the Planning Champion Award.