Cris Townley is a sociologist whose research explores what happens when we put the child, young person and family at the centre of the nexus between service delivery and education. This requires an intersectional approach, that recognises the multiplicity of identities lived by children, young people and families, and requires listening to their voices. Cris works collaboratively with partners to ensure that research supports change through informed policy and practice. Examples of Cris’ work are ongoing investigation and knowledge translation of parents' experiences of supporting trans children and young people; an exploration of Acknowledgement to Country practices in early childhood services, and design of online learning to support educators; co-design of a theory of change for multi-agency service integration reform; and a partnership with ACON to investigate LGBTQ+ experience of service provision in Western Sydney.

Cris completed a PhD on identity, belonging and social support in Australian community playgroups at the Social Policy Research Centre at UNSW. Cris graduated from Cambridge University with a BA Hons and a Cert. Ed in Mathematics and Education, was a high school teacher, then undertook a Masters’ Degree in the Sociology of Gender Divisions from Essex University.

At Western Sydney University, Cris teaches in the School of Medicine and the School of Education; is the Deputy Research lead for SAGE (Gender Equity) at Western Sydney University; a committee member of Rainbow Western; and a member of the Sexualities and Gender Research (SaGR) network.