REFLECTIONS presenter

Melissa Hollis leads engagement and communication at the NSW Architects Registration Board. Melissa will highlight the public-interest work of NSW ARB and the various ways NSW ARB supports the profession across the career journey, from students and graduates to experienced practitioners.

MELISSA HOLLIS
NSW Architects Registration Board

Melissa Hollis leads engagement and communication at the NSW Architects Registration Board. Since joining NSW ARB in 2022, she has contributed to its awards, partnerships, scholarships, public programs and resources for working with architects, and has helped shape its communications and engagement direction. Her work focuses on using clear communication and storytelling to make NSW ARB’s role, registration and public-interest work more accessible to students, graduates, architects, clients and communities.

Melissa’s approach was formed through earlier work at UTS College and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. At UTS College, she developed and delivered architecture communication courses for students preparing for further architectural study. At the AA, she worked with public programs, exhibitions, lectures and events that brought architectural ideas into conversation with wider audiences.

Across planning, law, education and public engagement, Melissa’s work has returned to a simple question: what helps people understand what architects do, why registration matters and why architecture is valuable? 

A keen traveller across regional Australia and internationally, Melissa has a particular love of the Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship and the opportunities it creates for students, graduates and architects to test ideas through travel. Supporting BHTS scholars to tell the stories behind their research and journeys has become one of the real joys of her work at NSW ARB.

Away from NSW ARB, Melissa lives high in the Blue Mountains, where she is slowly renovating an older home and learning, very practically, what repair and care mean.

EVENT INFO

REFLECTIONS: A Regional Architecture Association Journey

DATES 17-19 September 2026

LOCATION Cobar NSW on Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan Country. The Friday main seminar day will be at Cobar Youth & Community Centre, 1 Harcourt St, Cobar NSW.

CPD 6 formal points available on the Friday