Multiple appointments in the Faculty of Education at Southern Cross University
Southern Cross University offered the opportunity to join the leadership of its Faculty of Education at a time of transformational growth, seeking to appoint up to five senior academic positions. The appointees to these roles will make high-level contributions to research, teaching, and internal and external engagement in support of the Faculty’s new strategy. Of key importance to the University was a strong focus toward research contributions, including success in external grant funding and higher degree research student supervision.
Professor Pasi Sahlberg
Appointed as Professor and Deputy Director of SCU’s TeachLab, Professor Pasi Sahlberg joins SCU from the University of New South Wales, where he has been Professor of Education Policy and Deputy Director and Research Director of the Gonski Institute for Education.
A Finnish educator, thought-leader and author, Pasi brings deep experience in universities, schools and education systems as a policy advisor and scholar, with previous positions including Director-General of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. His international career has included senior specialist roles at the World Bank in Washington, the European Training Foundation in Italy, and as a visiting professor at Harvard University. He has also provided education policy advice to the OECD and several governments around the world. Pasi’s extensive publications focus on education policy, educational change, teachers and teaching, and school improvement are widely read and used by policy-makers around the world.. Pasi is recipient of the 2021 Dr Paul Brock Memorial Medal, and the 2021 Hedley Beare Award in Australia.
Professor Liz Mackinlay
Most recently teaching research methods, gender studies and arts education as an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Dr Liz Mackinlay joins the Faculty of Education at Professor level. Liz’s interdisciplinary research practice links through the fields of gender studies, Indigenous Australian studies and Indigenous Australian education, arts education and autoethnography. She has held roles at the University of Queensland since 1997, including several years in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit and she has participated on a number of committees, including as Chair of Ethics and as National Chair of the SAGE Athena Swan Gender Equity and Workload special interest group.
Professor Susan Walker
Professor Sue Walker has held a range of academic leadership appointments and program coordination responsibilities, including most recently as research training coordinator in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education at Queensland University of Technology.
With research interests in children’s developmental outcomes and the role of early intervention in early childhood, Sue has been a key researcher in the Cooperative Research Centre for Living with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Autism CRC) and she was formerly a part of the Excellence in Early Years Education CRN team.
Associate Professor Michelle Neumann
Dr Michelle Neumann joins the Faculty of Education as an Associate Professor, bringing a national reputation as a leader in early childhood research and substantial expertise in early years education and early literacy development. Michelle has successfully established interdisciplinary collaborations and is the creator of educational apps for literacy and assessment use in the classroom.
A former teacher and a champion and supporter of women in academia, Michelle was previously a senior lecturer and researcher in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University.
Associate Professor Louise Phillips
Associate Professor and Chair of Discipline (Initial Teacher Education), Louise Phillips has more than 30 years’ experience working with children across various settings, as an early childhood teacher, and storyteller, along with being an early childhood education consultant, researcher and tertiary educator. She is internationally known for her research and publications on storytelling, children’s rights and citizenship, arts and rights-based pedagogies and methodologies, decolonising methodologies, sensation and place.
Louise held earlier roles at James Cook University, the University of Queensland and University of Southern Queensland.