Our new Secretary.
This month we are excited to be able to welcome immediately into the role of Secretary, Emeritus Professor John Lester. John brings to the role a wealth of knowledge gleaned from over 40 years experience working and in leadership across the education and government sectors, including a rich background of service in executive positions for a number of different National, State, and Community organisations including Director of Aboriginal Education and Training in the NSW Department of Education and Training. In 2017 he was awarded the AARE Ray Debus Award for Doctoral Research in Education, for his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) study that examined the impact of current school systems on Aboriginal student engagement. Professor Lester is the first Indigenous academic from the University of Newcastle to ever receive the award. As a AARE member and primary award recipient , it is our pleasure to welcome John to his new role with the association, and we look forward to drawing on his broad l expertise as a key member of the executive team.
Our new Research Development and Advocacy Executive member
We are also excited to confirm that Associate Professor Anna Sullivan has accepted the position of Research Development and Advocacy Executive Officer. Anna has already been involved in two meetings with the AERO and is working on confirming the shape and Position Description of the role. Anna is Director of the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion (CRESI) at the University of South Australia; and is Professorial Lead (Research Performance and Evaluation) in UniSA Education Futures. Anna is known for her work in the area of critical policy studies that examines the ways policies are developed and enacted at various levels of education, and the ways in which they may include and/pr exclude people, particularly those who are most vulnerable. Anna’s interests centre specifically on the interrelated areas of early career teachers’ work, school leadership and educational policy, and school discipline and behaviour. As co-founder and inaugural Board Chair of the award-winning Media Centre for Educational Research Australia (MCERA), Anna is recognised as a leading Australian academic who is influencing the way in which education research is being reported in the media. Her belief in the importance of making education research accessible has led her to appear in numerous print, radio and television media on issues related to student behaviour, school discipline and early career teachers. As recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Contribution to Research in Education Award from the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (South Australian Branch), and named as one of The Educator magazine’s top 50 educators for 2017, Anna will bring to her role substantive experience in raising the public profile of educational research in Australia. We are excited to have Anna on board to help shape this new research development and policy role for AARE.