Lyn Carson is a professor in applied politics with the University of Sydney Business School. She has convened, facilitated, researched, designed or evaluated many innovative projects including: Australia's first Consensus Conference, Australia's first two Deliberative Polls, Australia's first Citizens' Parliament, numerous Citizens' Juries and Community Summits. Her introduction to formal politics and the challenges of active citizenship began as an elected representative in local government. She has published widely: books, book chapters, and articles on related topics, and is a director of the newDemocracy Foundation (nDF), currently involved with overseeing many deliberative projects for local and state governments.