Sydney Policy Lab

PhD (Sydney), BA (Macquarie), MA (Hons) (UOW), DipEd (UTAS), GCert (Sydney)

Dr Michael Anderson is Professor of Creativity and Arts Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at The University of Sydney and Co-Director of the CREATE Centre. He is an internationally recognised educational leader in school transformation processes. He has taught, researched and published in education and transformation for over 20 years, including 20 books and 65 book chapters and journal articles. His international research and practice focuses on how the 4Cs can be integrated using coherent frameworks to support leaders as they work towards transformation in their contexts. Michael's most recent work emerging from his research and partnerships with schools include How Schools Transform (2024 ed), Transforming Education (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Transforming Schools (2017)

• Transforming Organizations (with Miranda Jefferson, Bloomsbury, 2019)
• Transforming Schools (with Miranda Jefferson, Bloomsbury, 2017)
• Applied Theatre: Research (with Peter O'Connor, Bloomsbury, 2015),
• Partnerships in Education Research: Creating Knowledge that Matters (with Kelly Freebody, Bloomsbury, 2014),
• Masterclass in Drama Education (Continuum, UK),

The research reported in these publications uncovers innovative linkages between drama, the arts play, creativity and learning that have the potential to significantly improve learning for young people. Michael was a drama a teacher and Creative Arts Consultant with the NSW Department of Education and has worked for NESA in senior assessment and curriculum roles.

BEc (Hons) Sydney, MA UBC, PhD, UBC

Garry Barrett completed his BEc (Hons) at the University of Sydney, and his MA and PhD at the University of British Columbia. Garry's main areas of research are labour economics, public economics and microeconometrics. Garry's research has focused on measuring economic inequality and poverty; applying consumption based measures of wellbeing; examining participation in income support programs and, more recently, analyzing the determinants of retirement behaviour and household saving. His work has been published in journals such as Econometrica,Journal of Public Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, Econometrics Journal, Review of Income and Wealth, Canadian Journal of Economics and The Economic Record.

Dr Juliet Bennett is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies(SCHS), Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, and Charles Perkins Centre(CPC), at The University of Sydney. Juliet’s research draws connections across scales and subjects to activate co-creative and systemic interventions for personal and planetary wellbeing. She is currently working on SCHS and CPC’s joint research program on the social life of food and nourishment applying critical social theory to systems of food production and consumption.

Juliet’s doctoral research developed a new inroad to process philosophy and a tool for to assist in its application for sustainable futures. This thesis showed how nesting “static thinking” within “process thinking” connects relational worldviews, contextual economics, and participatory politics, which together help to mitigate the global systemic crisis (with global inequality and climate change its most urgent symptoms).

Juliet also has an MPhil and MA in peace and conflict studies, through which she explored structural violence with a focus on themes of narratives, religion and education. Juliet has taught undergraduate units in narratives and peace studies at Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina, and postgraduate units in peace and conflict studies at The University of Sydney.

Prior to joining SCHS, Juliet worked at Sydney Policy Lab as Collaborative Research Manager, applying community-led research and policymaking methods for improved social outcomes. Juliet also spent five years as Executive Officer and Acting Director of Sydney Peace Foundation organising the annual Sydney Peace Prize. These experiences have encouraged Juliet to connect traditional academic research with applied policy research, and communicate findings for diverse audiences.

BA Hons 1 LLB Hons 1 Sydney PGCert MRes PhD London School of Economics

Associate Professor Anna Boucher is a global migration expert as it intersects with public policy, comparative politics and legal studies. Her research covers immigration, gender and racial diversity, inequality and labour market and regulatory change as well as the skill selection of migrants. She has written three books on migration that cover skilled immigration, gender diversity and workplace exploitation. The first, Gender, Migration and the Global Race for Talent (Manchester University Press) creates diversity indicators that have been used by international agencies. Her second book with Professor Justin Gest, Crossroads: Immigration Regimes in an Age of Demographic Change (Cambridge University Press, New York) compares immigration regimes across 30 countries and has won multiple awards and nomination for the Stein Rokkan Prize in Comparative Politics, considered the second most prestigious prizes globally in political science. Her third book Patterns of Exploitation: Migrant Worker Rights in Advanced Democracies came out in 2023 with Oxford University Press (New York) and analyses labour market exploitation of migrants in four countries, building on a database of 1,912 migrants in 907 court cases that she constructed with a team of lawyers. It won awards in policy impact. Her new book “Out of the Depths: The First Collection of Holocaust Songs” (with Joseph Toltz) is out in April 2026 with Manchester University Press. Anna is a regular commentator in the media and consultant to domestic and global governments on migration issues. She holds qualifications in political science and law and is an admitted solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW, having completed a placement at Clayton Utz Law Firm (Sydney). In 2026, she is seconded from the University of Sydney at 70% to Fragomen Law Firm Global working on international projects and she is also a Research Fellow at the Australian and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). She sits on the Immigration Minister of Australia’s Advisory Council on Skilled Migration Expert Sub-Committee (MACSM). Prior to coming to Sydney University, she was an Australian Commonwealth Scholar and Bucerius Scholar in Migration Studies at the London School of Economics where she completed her masters, doctorate and teaching qualifications.

Dr Marlee Bower is a Senior Research Fellow at the Matilda Centre who is interested in the broader social determinants of mental health, particularly in understanding loneliness and isolation amongst marginalised individuals and how this relates to the built environment.

She leads the Climate Change and Mental Health Incubator, funded by the Henry Halloran Research Trust (2024-2026), which explores the impact of housing and neighbourhood on mental health outcomes of climate change in urban environments. She also runs the Mentally Healthy Futures Project, a study of how mental health policymaking decisions can be best harnessed to improve the lives of future Australians. She is also Academic Lead on Australia's Mental Health Think Tank, chaired by Professor Maree Teesson.

Marlee is also the convenor of the multidisciplinary Network for Research in the Built Environment and Mental Health and the co-convenor of the Matilda Centre Social Determinants of Mental Health Research Portfolio, The Matilda Centre Consumer Research Group, Crime Research Research Portfolio and the Mixed Methods Research Portfolio.

She completed her PhD in September 2019 on the experience of loneliness amongst Australians with lived experience of homelessness from the Translational Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Australia.

Prior to working at the Matilda Centre, Marlee worked in government research and strategy in prison and homelessness settings.

B Economics and Social Science (Honours) Sydney, PhD Sydney

Gareth Bryant is Chair of the Discpline of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. He is an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow and economist-in-residence with the Sydney Policy Lab.

Gareth is a political economist who researches how public policy and public finance can create more sustainable, equal and democratic economies. His research has focused on issues including climate finance, renewable energy, higher education, housing, labour and Indigenous justice.

Gareth is the author of Carbon Markets in a Climate-Changing Capitalism (Cambridge University Press 2019), Climate Finance: Taking a Position on Climate Futures (Agenda Publishing 2024, with Sophie Webber) and Decarbonising Electricity: The Promise of Renewable Energy Regions (Cambridge University Press 2024, with James Goodman et al.).

Gareth has been awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) for 2021-24 for a project investigating new spaces of fiscal power in an asset-based economy. Previously he was a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project on energy transitions and was awarded the Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Prize for early career researchers at the University of Sydney. Gareth was also awarded the Global Network for Financial Geography (FINGEO) dissertation prize and the Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) journal article prize.

Gareth teaches across the pluralist, heterodox and radical Political Economy program at the University of Sydney. He has taught units of study on the political economy of the environment, the history of economic thought, and the dynamics of global capitalism, among others. Gareth is a recipient of a Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Teaching Excellence Award.

Gareth co-edits the Progress in Political Economy (PPE) online blog and associated Manchester University Press book series. Gareth and Adam David Morton were jointly awarded the Special Achievement prize from the Online Media Caucus of the International Studies Association (ISA) for their work as co-editors of the blog.

 

I am a Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Sydney, Deputy Director of the Sydney Environment Institute and lead of the Multispecies Justice project. My research focus today is on Multispecies Justice, or how the concepts, practices and institutionalisation of justice need to be transformed to take into account ecological realities and the ethical standing of all Earth beings.

 

A longtime human rights activist, before joining the academy I was head of Indigenous policy at the Australian Human Rights Commission and worked in grass roots democratization and human rights movements in Central America. As a human right scholar, my books include Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apology and The Prevention of Torture: An Ecological Approach (both with Cambridge University Press 2008 and 2018), with Richard Sherwin, A Cultural History of Law in the Modern Age (Bloomsbury 2019), with Alex Lefebvre, the Subject of Human Rights (Stanford University Press 2020), and with Moira Gatens and Millicent Churcher, Institutional Transformations: Imagination, Embodiment, and Affect (Routledge 2021).

 

In recent years, and very much in light of the ecological and animal crisis, I have turned my attention to injustices and violence against the more than human. Through the experience of living through the black summer bushfires with a multispecies community, I began writing about a new crime of our age, Omnicide. My latest book, Summertime (Penguin Random House, 2021) was written in recognition of the critical urgency of conveying the complex conceptual recognition of the multispecies harms of the climate catastrophe in ways that can provoke affect and hence action. Summertime was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards for non-fiction.

 

My most recent publication, written with other members of the Multispecies Justice Collective is Institutionalising Multispecies Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2025). I have a forthcoming book with Professor Roseemary Lyster and A/Professor Phillipa McCormack entitles Multispecies Climate Justice, Disasters and Responsibility with Edward Elgar. 

 

I write in a range of genres, including research monographs and articles, long and short form opinion pieces, creative non-fiction and memoir.

 

BA (Macquarie) MCrim (Hons) PhD (Sydney)

Dr Garner Clancey is an Associate Professor in Criminology, joining the University of Sydney Law School in 2011. Prior to this, Garner worked in criminal justice agencies (including Juvenile Justice NSW and the NSW Police Force) between 1992-2002 and worked as a crime prevention consultant between 2002-2010. Garner taught crime prevention, policing, juvenile justice, security and criminology courses at five other Australian universities between 2000 and 2011. Garner's work focuses on the intersection between research, policy and practice.

Currently, Garner is working to develop a whole-of-university approach to justice and crime issues. Garner works closely with industry partners and colleagues from across the University of Sydney to tackle various practical and systemic challenges impacting the criminal justice system. This work has resulted in the establishment of the University of Sydney Justice Collaboration, and publications such as Youth Crime, Youth Justice and Children's Courts in NSW and A whole-of-university response to youth justice: Reflections on a university-youth justice partnership | Australian Institute of Criminology (amongst others).

Garner is a member of various research centres including the Sydney Institute of Criminology, the Matilda Centre, the Technology Addiction Team (Brain and Mind Centre), and an affiliate of the Wellbeing Health and Youth Centre of Research Excellence in Adolescent Health.

BA, MA, GradCert, PhD

 

Ryan Cox is a Lecturer in the Discipline of Philosophy in the School of Humanities. His areas of research specialisation include moral and political philosophy, the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and the philosophy of language.

 

He has published on a wide range of topics including educational justice, democracy and social equality, introspection and self-knowledge, and the syntax and semantics of why-questions. He has ongoing research projects in political philosophy, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind.

Deanna is the Director of the University of Sydney’s Net Zero Institute (NZI), where she leads multidisciplinary efforts to accelerate Australia’s transition to low  and zero emissions technologies. She is also a Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemical & Bimolecular Engineering. The NZI brings together more than 280 researchers to deliver practical climate solutions in collaboration with industry, government and communities. Its Industry and Scientific Advisory Boards span 10 countries.
 
A chemist by training, Deanna and her team are recognised for scientific contributions to advanced functional materials known as Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), with applications in direct air capture and next generation clean energy systems. Her career spans more than 20 years across Australia and the United States and has been supported by fellowships including Australian Research Council Future and QEII Fellowships, a L’Oréal UNESCO Australia For Women in Science Fellowship, an American Australian Dow Chemical Company Fellowship and a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship.
 
Before stepping into her current role, she held several positions at the University of Sydney and completed postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She holds a BSc (Hons) and PhD from James Cook University. Deanna is a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

 

Since 2011, Deanna has successfully supervised to graduation 19 PhD students, 3 Masters students, and 29 Honours students including jointly supervised students.

 

A breif biography including recognitions received is provided below.

 

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

 

BSc (Hons I & UMedal), James Cook University, 2001

PhD, James Cook University, 2006

Postdoctoral Fellow, Molecular Electronics Group, University of Sydney, 2006

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California at Berkeley, 2007-2009

Dow Chemical Company Fellow, American-Australian Association, 2007

Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellow, 2007-2009

University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2010

L’Oréal-UNESCO Australia for Women in Science Fellow, 2010

Australian Research Council QEII Fellow, 2010-2016

Sydney Research Accelerator (SOAR) Fellow, 2017-2018

Associate Professor, 2017

Deputy Head of School, Chemistry, 2017-2018

Australian Research Council Future Fellow, 2018-2022

Professor, 2021

Director, Net Zero Institute, 2024

Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2025

 

AWARDS & HONOURS

 

- 2025-2026, The Australian Research Magazine, Top Researcher in the field of Inorganic Chemistry
- 2023-2024, Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Australasian Lectureship
- 2017, Australian Academy of Science Le Févre Medal, In recognition of outstanding research in chemistry by researchers up to 10 years post-PhD - for research conducted mainly in Australia
- 2017, Fellow, Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI)
- 2017, RACI Alan Sargeson Lectureship, Recognising significant and innovative contributions to the field by researchers within 10 years of the award of their PhD
- 2015, RSC ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship, One of two awarded internationally in 2015 by the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) to recognise an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career
- 2014, RACI Rennie Memorial Medal, For research published over the past 8 years that has contributed most towards the development of a branch of chemical science
- 2012, Distinguished Lectureship Award, The Chemical Society of Japan
- 2011, NSW Young Tall Poppy Science Award, Australian Institute of Political Science
- 2010, Outstanding Early Career Alumni Award, James Cook University, One of five awarded for the past 10 years during the 40th Anniversary celebrations of James Cook University
- 2007-9, Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship, One of 6 awarded internationally
- 2008, DOW Chemical Company Fellow, American-Australian Association
- 2007, International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Prize for Young Chemists, One of 5 awarded world-wide for the most outstanding PhD theses in the chemical sciences
- 2006, Winner of ‘Fresh Science’, Selected from early-career scientists Australia-wide for the best presentation of their research to the general public
- 2006, RACI Cornforth Medal, For the most outstanding PhD thesis submitted in a branch of chemistry in Australia
- 2006, Medal of Excellence for a Doctoral Research Thesis, James Cook University

 

Dr Jarryd Daymond is Senior Lecturer in Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship and the Academic Director (Strategic Initiatives) at The University of Sydney Business School. He also holds a Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy, serves as a convenor for the Innovation and Commercialisation node of the Sydney Policy Lab, and previously held a Strategy Research Foundation Dissertation Scholarship from the Strategic Management Society.

 

Jarryd researches the processes and practices that underpin strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, with a particular interest in the emergence and evolution of commercialised scientific discoveries, their enabling ecosystems, and how to develop these emerging technologies in responsible ways. Empirically, he focuses on the responsible innovation and commercialisation of quantum, biomedical, digital and nanotherapeutic technologies – fields with strong relevance to regional prosperity, industrial capability, and policy development. His research is published in Strategic Management Journal, Research Policy, Organization Studies,California Management Review, and Nature Nanotechnology.

 

Jarryd’s collaborative approach is at the centre of his multidisciplinary research. He actively engages with scientists, engineers, biomedical researchers, and academic entrepreneurs, to collectively enhance understanding of science commercialisation processes. His unique background and practice-oriented research, coupled with his use of human-centred design, facilitated group collaboration, and lean innovation, have supported scientists in their commercialisation journeys.

 

A sought-after commentator and contributor to national policy debates, Jarryd has written on innovation system design, the National Reconstruction Fund, and Australia's National Quantum Strategy. His practitioner writing has informed discussions on state and federal initiatives including the NSW Innovation Blueprint 2035, highlighting practical steps to align funding, infrastructure, regulation, and procurement to drive regional and national impact.

 

Jarryd teaches courses on entrepreneurship, the commercialisation of scientific discoveries, and project-focused innovation, drawing on his experience designing innovation and strategy processes with global consulting firms to create engaging learning environments. His passion for fostering innovation is evident in the entrepreneurial curricula, conferences, and training programs he has developed both within and outside universities, all aimed at building the next generation of innovators.

MA(SpecialEducation)(Macquarie), GDSE(ECU), PhD(UniOregon), BEd(UniSA)

Dr Evans is Professor of Special Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. He is the convenor of the special and inclusive education designation in the School; the School delivers courses to more than 600 pre-service and postgraduate students each year. His research interests include design of curriculum to meet the needs of students with special education needs, and evidence-based practices in special education.

BA (Hons) (Macquarie), PhD (Sydney), GradCert (Higher Education)

 

I am a lecturer in the Discipline of English and Writing. My research focuses on arts and incarceration, with a particular interest in prison writing, education and partnership. For nearly a decade I ran creative workshops with Parklea Correctional Centre and since 2021 have worked alongside A/Prof Sam Shpall (Philosophy) and Dr Sacha Jamieson (SSESW) to deliver our Moral Emotions Inside (MEI) program alongside incarcerated women in NSW. I am the Lead Investigator for the ARC funded project, "The Moral Emotions Inside Initiative (MEII)" a Linkage Project ($542,500) commencing in 2027 that will investigate the implementation of our innovative humanistic education program with incarcerated women in NSW. 

 

MEI was a finalist for the Australian Financial Review (AFR) Higher Education Awards (2026) in the Community Engagement category. I was also Highly Commended in the "Unsung Hero" category of the Sydney Awards (2026), hosted by the Committee for Sydney. My work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people has received funding through School, Faculty, and University awards, including our recent work spotlighting lived-experience frameworks for universities (funded through the One Sydney Many People fund, 2025).

 

I am associate editor of Paper Chained, which publishes the art and writing of incarcerated people. I am also a founding member of the University of Sydney Justice Collaboration and the student-led prison justice network, Bridges Inside.

 

I have previously worked on the literature of the US South and published Look Abroad, Angel: Thomas Wolfe and the Geographies of Longing with UGA Press in 2020 (revised paperback ed. 2026).

Dr Nick Everett

NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow, School of Psychology and Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney

 

Nick's aim is for everyone grappling with a substance use disorder to have access to an effective, evidence-based treatment that helps them lead a fulfilling, socially connected and emotionally healthy life, free from the destructive cycles of addiction. No approved pharmacotherapy exists for methamphetamine use disorder, and several other psychiatric conditions are in the same position. He leads a translational psychopharmacology laboratory which studies the neurobiology underlying those disorders and the receptor systems that new medications act through, and works closely with pharmaceutical industry partners and academic collaborators to move novel molecules toward the clinic. He supervises postdoctoral researchers, PhD, masters and honours students, and research assistants.

 

To study methamphetamine addiction the lab uses gold-standard models, including intravenous self-administration with jugular catheter surgery, behavioural-economic modelling of intermittent access, punished drug seeking, social-versus-drug choice, and operant tests of cognitive flexibility. Current work covers prefrontal and striatal signalling during drug seeking, the loss of sensitivity to punishment that marks compulsive use, noradrenergic mechanisms, and astrocytic contributions to reward.

 

For 5-HT2A, the lab asks how much receptor activation a drug needs to produce lasting plasticity, whether that threshold is the same one that produces hallucinations, and what sustained behavioural change after a single dose depends on, using head-twitch, EEG, receptor-level pharmacology and the world's first humanised 5-HT2A receptor rat across cognitive and reward-relevant tasks that have high translational validity. The oxytocin work centres on social motivation: what makes social contact worth working for, and how that changes with chronic drug exposure. Hypothalamic oxytocin neurons are switched on and off with DREADDs, and CRISPR is used to knock down oxytocin receptors in fronto-striatal circuits, to establish which cells are responsible for which aspects of motivated social behaviour. 

 

Changes in the brain after drug exposure or treatment are measured with immunohistochemistry and super-resolution microscopy, using Airyscan and spinning disc confocal systems to resolve dendritic spines, microglia and perineuronal nets. EEG spectral signatures recorded in rodents separate hallucinogenic from non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonists and have fed into clinical trials now underway, and auditory-EEG assays measure cortical excitation and inhibition balance in animals. Freely moving fibre photometry shows how healthy and impaired behaviours are represented at the neuronal, astrocytic and neurotransmitter level. The lab is also developing blood biomarkers of central 5-HT2A engagement for use in clinical trials and to support early non-clinical development.

 

Nick has held past and present leadership positions at the Sydney-based biotechnology companies Kinoxis Therapeutics and Xylo Bio, built on his expertise in translational psychopharmacology, behaviour and neuroscience. He has led preclinical components of programs that progressed two novel compounds from animal models into Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials for under-served psychiatric disorders, funded by and in collaboration with the US National Institute on Drug Abuse. He has also run preclinical programs in partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim (via Kinoxis Therapeutics co-development partnership). His research is funded by an NHMRC Investigator Grant, a Cooperative Research Centres Projects grant from the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, and the Department of Education's National Industry PhD Program. He completed his PhD in neuropsychopharmacology at Macquarie University. More about the lab is at everettlab.com.

PhD (ANU)

A/Prof Luara Ferracioli was awarded her PhD in 2013. She works on the philosophy of immigration and the philosophy of the family. Her recent books include Liberal Self-Determination in World of Migration (OUP, 2022) and Parenting and the Goods of Childhood (OUP, 2023). She has recently completed a book entitled The Future of Gestation: A Normative Inquiry (under contract with Oxford University Press). 

AWARDS  
- University of Sydney Research Excellence and Inclusion Prize – Thompson Prize – 2026 
- Australasian Association of Philosophy Teaching (Inclusive Curriculum) Award – 2025 
- Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Early Career Research (ECR) Excellence Award - 2022 
FELLOWSHIPS  
- Clare Hall College Visiting Fellowship, University of Cambridge, 2028 
- Nuffield College Visiting Fellowship, University of Oxford, 2027 
- Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto, 2026  
- ABC Top 5 Residency Program, Humanities, 2021 
- Laurance S. Rockefeller Fellowship, UCHV Princeton 2021-2022 
- Oxford/Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship, 2011-2013 
EXTERNAL GRANTS 
- The Australian Research Council (ARC) FT Grant, “Citizen-making in the 21st Century: The Ethics of Demographic Renewal” 2027-2030 (100%, $1,313,532.00) 
- The Australian Research Council (ARC) DP Grant, “Australia’s Shared Responsibility for Pacific Climate Refugees” 2025-2028, with C. Collins and T. Macdonald (33%, $165,762.00)  
- FAPESP (Brazil), Transpondo Fronteiras, International PI, 2026-2030 (5%, BR$ 929.260,00, CI: R. Wihby) 
- The Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Grant, “Life without Birth: The Ethics, Politics, and Law of Artificial Wombs,” 2022-2025 (100%, $352,000)
- The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VENI GRANT, “Asylum Theory for a  Non-ideal World,” 2015-2019 (100%, 250,000€)
INTERNAL GRANTS 
- SSSHARC Research Impact Accelerator (with R. Cox, E. Hill. A. Rees, J. Scully) – 2024 (20%, 5,000AUD) 
- FASS Strategic Research Theme, University of Sydney, “BioHumanities,” (with W. Anderson, N. Ehlers, P.  Griffiths, S. Van Wichelen, 2018-2019 (20%, 79,100AUD) 

LEADERSHIP

BA(Hons)(ANU), PhD(Sydney)

Professor Susan Goodwin undertakes research on social policy, gender, and social change. She is engaged in collaborative research projects with a range of government, nongovernment and civil society organisations and contributes to local, national and international policy processes. Her recent book with Carol Bacchi 'Poststructural Policy Analysis',outlines an innovative approach to policy analysis that has application across the full range of policy fields and governmental projects. In addition, she employs action research and participatory research methodologies in her work addressing poverty and disadvantage in communities in Australia and elsewhere. Sue teaches social policy in the undergraduate program and the Master of Policy Studies program, and supervises postgraduate research students undertaking projects on gender, social policy, poverty and inequality, and community capacity building.

RN, BFA MArt UNSW PhD Sydney

 

Janice is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery (Sydney Nursing School), and works with the University's Sydney Policy Lab as a senior researcher and Proposal and Implementation Officer for the CARE program (Championing Australia's Relational Economy). Janice has held senior academic roles with Sydney Nursing School, such as the Director of Postgraduate Studies, Director of Clinical Integration and Coordinator of the Master of Intensive Care Nursing program. She had a long career as a professional leader in the field of cardiac nursing including acute cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, intensive care, clinical trials and many years as a clinical nurse specialist, educator and consultant. Janice has served as Executive Director of the International Collaboration of Nurse Scholars (ICoNS), as an Editorial Board member of Australian Critical Care, and as a Member Scholar of the International Institute of Qualitative Methodologies. 

Kalervo N. Gulson is a Professor of Education Policy. His research is located across social, political and cultural geography,education policy studies, and science and technology studies. His current research programme is interested in what happens 'After AI', and the role of policy and the future of educational institutions. This work looks at how the human-machine interactions of artificial intelligence pose enormous challenges to the role of educational institutions. Working with interdisciplinary teams Kalervo aims to develop innovative concepts and methods to fundamentally change how we understand the role of AI in education policy. This includes new empirical evidence on AI and inequality, especially racial inequality, building tools and co-designing policy knowledge that will transform how we respond to and shape the use of AI in education. He explores these issues with colleagues through the work of the Education Futures Studio.

Kalervo is interested in supervising doctoral students in related areas.

Kalervo has previously held positions at the University of New South Wales (2011-2019) and the University of British Columbia, Canada (2006-2010).

PhD, University of Sydney; MURP, University of Sydney; BA, University of Sydney; Graduate Certificate of Higher Education, University of Sydney

Nicole Gurran's research focuses on comparative urban planning systems and approaches to housing and ecological sustainability. She has led and collaborated on a series of research projects on aspects of urban policy, housing, sustainability and planning, funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Urban and Housing Research Institute (AHURI), as well as state and local government. Professor Gurran has authored and co-authored numerous publications and books includingUrban Planning and the Housing Market: International Perspectives for Policy and Practicewith Glen Bramley(Palgrave Macmillan 2017),Politics, Planning and Housing Supply in Australia, England and Hong Kong(Routledge, July 2016) , andAustralian Urban Land Use Planning: Principles, Policy, and Practice(Sydney University Press 2011, 2007).

Professor Gurran teaches urban planning and housing, and undertakes post graduate and doctoral research supervision.

Prior to joining the University, Professor Gurran practiced as a planner in several state government roles, concerning local environmental plan making, environmental management, and housing policy. She is committed to informing public policy and debate through her research, media commentary, and advice to governments, and most recently served as Co-Commissioner on the People's Commission into the Housing Crisis.

BA (Hons 1), PhD University of Sydney

Associate Professor Myra Hamilton is an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney, and former Principal Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research at the University of Sydney (2020-2024). She is a sociologist and social policy scholar whose research focus is on gender, work and care over the lifecourse. Myra’s research explores how workplace and public policies and programs can build wellbeing and financial security in work and in care over the life course. She combines traditional academic research with applied policy research for government, industry and non-government organisations, including evaluations of policies and programs. She makes regular contributions to public and media debate on issues such as grandparenting, economic security in retirement, balancing work and care, young carers, intergenerational relationships and income inequalities. She has close working relationships with the community sector including peak bodies in the areas of carers and seniors, is Reviews Editor of the International Journal of Care and Caring and sits on the NSW Carers Advisory Council and the Board of Council on the Ageing NSW.

Kate is a Professor of Practice and Academic Director of the Sydney Policy Lab, a multidisciplinary initiative of the University of Sydney. She is an Honorary Associate at the Sydney Law School. Her work broadly asks how policy can be developed for the common good. In particular, she is interested in how universities can be understood as a community of communities that actively conciliates estranged interests and knowledges. Her work is rooted in the connections between political economy, political anthropology, democratic participation, and deliberation. With the Sydney Policy Lab, she researches how the practices of politics and community-building affect policymaking. This research gives emphasis to human dignity, relationships, trust, communities and institutions.

Kate leads the partnership with SEED Futures on a National Primary Preventative Framework and with the Centre for Mental Health Research in Action (CAMHRA) at SOAS at the University of London. She is co-lead of the Campus Collaboration project, the Universities, Responsibilities and Natural Disasters project with the Sydney Environment Institute, and the Housing Distress project with CAMHRA. Along with Professor Ian Hickie at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, she founded the Beyond the Bell project, rethinking the after-school hours landscape in Australia. She collaborates closely with Professor Brendan McCormack, Academic Chair of the CARE program at the Sydney Policy Lab, championing Australia's relational economy. She is co-convenor of the Adaptive policy systems node and co-convenor of the Community of Practice on Universities and Communities.

Prior to joining the University of Sydney in 2022, Kate was the Head of Policy & Design at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, working with communities in Australia to secure thriving futures.

From 2015 to 2020, Kate was CEO of Anglican Deaconess Ministries, a 130-year-old Christian women's foundation, where she worked to reimagine the vision of the organisation and re-establish their work in public and practical engagement.

In government, Kate was an adviser to former Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Working with the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff, she worked across the policy portfolios and on caucus management. She had also previously served former Deputy Prime Minister Gillard in the portfolio of social inclusion. Prior to joining the Office of the Prime Minister, she was Director of Strategic Communications and Global Affairs at the Australian Consulate-General in New York.

Kate is a graduate of the University of Sydney and a NSW Rhodes scholar. She holds a D.Phil in Politics and an M.Phil in Development Studies (International Development, with Distinction) from the University of Oxford. She was awarded the Eugene Havas memorial prize for first place in the M.Phil in Development Studies. During her postgraduate studies, Kate was Research Officer at the Global Economic Governance Programme at Oxford, member of the Global Health Governance team, and an Advisor to Richard Curtis on issues in international development. She was awarded a Fleet Fellowship by Magdalen College Oxford to attend Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs.

Kate serves on the Board of World Vision Australia and on the Board's People, Culture and Governance Committee. She has been elected to serve as Director on the Board of World Vision International. She serves on the Advisory Council of SEED Futures.

Kate has published an edited volume on Making Global Institutions Work, articles, policy reports, working papers and submissions to government. Kate has been a reviewer for the British Medical Journal (BMJ). She has written for The Guardian Australia, ABC Religion & Ethics, TechCrunch, Pro Bono Australia and The Conversation. She has been Executive Producer of a documentary in East Timor and she regularly speaks to the news media including the BBC, Bloomberg, and ABC.

Associate Professor Leigh-Anne Hepburn is a design researcher whose work sits at the intersection of health, policy, and community resilience. Her research advances critically engaged, practice-led design approaches to understanding how care, decision-making, and wellbeing are produced within complex social and institutional systems.

Her work integrates design theory, participatory and co-design methodologies, and qualitative inquiry to examine how lived experience functions as a form of evidence in shaping services, policies, and systems. Across a sustained program of collaborative research in health and wellbeing, inclusive policymaking, and community-based resilience, she has developed design-led methods that surface relational, informal, and often overlooked infrastructures of care.

Internationally recognised for her contributions to transdisciplinary and policy-engaged design research, Hepburn works across academic, government, and community contexts to build shared capacities for systems change.

AO MD FRANZCP FASSA FAHM FRSN

Professor Hickie AO is a NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow, Professor of Psychiatry and the Co-Director of Health and Policy, Brain and Mind Centre, University of Sydney. He has led major public health and health services developments in Australia, particularly focusing on early intervention for young people with depression, suicidal thoughts and behaviours and complex mood disorders. He is active in the development through codesign, implementation and continuous evaluation of new health information and personal monitoring technologies to drive highly-personalized and measurement-based care

Disclosure of external interests

• Co-Director, Health and Policy at Brain and Mind Centre, The University of Sydney
• Chief Scientific Advisor to, and an equity shareholder in, Innowell Pty Ltd
• Commissioner in Australia's new National Mental Health Commission(2012-18)
• Board member of headspace: the national youth mental health foundation ( 2007-2012)
• Professor Hickie has led projects for health professionals and the community supported by governmental, community agency and pharmaceutical industry partners (Wyeth, Eli Lily, Servier, Pfizer, AstraZeneca) for the identification and management of depression and anxiety.
• Professor Hickie has received honoraria for presentations of his own work at educational seminars supported by a number of non-government organisations and the pharmaceutical industry (including Servier, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Eli Lilly).

Dr Claire Hooker is Associate Professor in Health and Medical Humanities at Sydney Health Ethicsand President of the Arts Health Network NSW/ACT.

Claire undertakes research and advocacy in two areas - risk communication, particularly in relation to infectious disease, and the creative arts and health. She combines creative research methods, critical humanities scholarship, cognitive psychology approaches to risk perception and communication, and the history and philosophy of science, to produce new insights into ethical communication in health.Her approach centres a practice of listening to and honouring the perspectives and expertises of all knowledge holders and knowledge users, in order to create spaces where people from different backgrounds and disciplines can work together to improve health. Much of her research has explored the humanistic elements of doctors' experiences. With the Sydney Arts and Health Collective, Claire has recently used verbatim theatre and drama-based to understand and improve healthcare workplace training, culture and communication, through the Collective's playGrace Under Pressure, and the Grace Under Pressure workshops, which use acting techniques to build strong, values based repertoire for communication.

Claire has published widely on risk communication in relation to infectious disease, and has recently been prominent in the media in relation to COVID-19 response. She has published 4 books and over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on topics as diverse as non representational theories of empathy and infection control, critiques of cultural norms in the medical humanities, the use of video-reflexive ethnography to improve hospital practice, and the history of radio astronomy. Most of her work is now available open access, some via the Sydney eScholarship Repository.