About CHASS: Previous Boards

See also: Current Board

Professor Sue Willis: President
Professor Sue Willis is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Social Inclusion), Monash University and was until recently Dean of the Faculty of Education at Monash. Sue was past President of the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE). Sue began her career in Western Australia as a secondary mathematics teacher before moving into curriculum development and then university teaching and research. Her research, curriculum and professional development work have had two foci: mathematics and numeracy, and equity and social justice in and through education. Sue has engaged extensively in consultancy and policy work and served on a number of Boards and Steering and Consultative Committees at state and national levels. Sue is currently a Director of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Limited (AITSL) and on the Board of the VCAA, chairing its Post Compulsory Curriculum and Assessment Committee.
Emeritus Professor Faith Trent AM FACE: Vice President
Faith Trent recently retired as a member of the senior executive at Flinders, a post she held from 1991. Faith was an inaugural member of the national Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching from 1992-1996 and is the immediate past President of the Australian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH), a position she held from 2006-2010. She has undertaken consultancies in higher education in curriculum design and implementation, teaching and learning and multicultural education, and provided advice to the governments of Brunei, Hong Kong and Canada. Faith was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 for service to education as an academic, as a contributor in the area of educational reform, and to the community, particularly in the areas of Indigenous and Multicultural Affairs. In 2007 Faith was awarded a Fellowship of the Australian College of Educators for distinctive contributions to educational leadership at a national, state and institutional level. Faith was approved as an AUQA auditor in 2010 and became an Emeritus Professor in July 2011.
Associate Professor Peta Ashworth
Peta Ashworth leads CSIRO's Science into Society Group (SISG), researching stakeholder perceptions to areas of national significance to Australia. Peta holds an Adjunct Associate Professor position at the University of Queensland. She manages over 20 social science researchers working across five CSIRO flagships and her group has grown from 3 to 23 in the past five years, signifying the importance of integrating complex issues into society. The current profile of research for her group includes working across energy, climate adaptation, oceans, minerals, and sustainable agriculture domains. Researchers in her team are also involved in the Centrelink Alliance project aimed to improve service delivery for Centrelink stakeholders. In each project researchers develop social processes to engage with a range of relevant stakeholders on the topic of research. This approach aligns with Peta's own research interest on how to deliver information to best effect. In her current work Peta Chairs the International Energy Agency's Greenhouse Gas (IEA GHG) Social Research Network and has gained an international reputation in researching stakeholder perceptions to climate change and low emission energy technologies.
Dr Camilla Couch
Camilla Couch is the Outreach Coordinator at Ultimo College, Sydney Institute, TAFENSW. She has broad professional experience in the development and delivery of innovative place/community based Vocational Education and Training (VET) programs in inner and south western Sydney, particularly in public and social housing communities. Camilla has a strong professional and academic background in education and she has ongoing practitioner research experience on advisory research committees and is active on many local education and cross sectoral community committees across the Sydney LGA. She has a strong commitment to social justice, VET and quality research and is the key contact for Sydney Institute for the DEEWR Innovations Fund 'Promising Futures' PLACE (Partners in Learning and Community Enterprise) project. Camilla is interested in strengthening relationships between VET and the humanities, arts and social sciences and building research capacity through innovative collaboration between the tertiary education sectors.
Michael Crayford
Michael Crayford is the Assistant Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Australian National Maritime Museum and is responsible for a number of key functions of the museum including research, collections, preservation, curatorial, library, design, registration, exhibitions, USA Gallery, and Indigenous programs. Other accomplishments are planning and managing major museum/heritage sites with primary responsibilities in strategic planning, exhibition development and project management, financial management, advocacy and liaison. Michael has been involved in a range of cultural activities and initiatives outside of museums including music copyright, contemporary craft, public art and community cultural development. He is a board member of AusHeritage and has been a member of numerous cultural committees over a 25 year period. Michael is committed to capacity building between university research in the humanities and research applications in cultural agencies such as museums.
Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham
Stuart Cunningham is Distinguished Professor of Media and Communications at Queensland University of Technology, and Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation. He is currently completing Hidden Innovation: Policy, Industry and the Creative Sector. His most recent books are The Media and Communications in Australia 3rd ed (with Graeme Turner, 2010) and In the Vernacular: A Generation of Australian Culture and Controversy (2008). Cunningham holds a ministerial appointment to the Library Board of Queensland and is an elected member of the Council for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, after serving as President to 2008. He has chaired the Humanities and Creative Arts panel of the Australian Research Council College of Experts, and served on the Executive and Council of the Australian Academy of the Humanities for five years.
Associate Professor Rhian Parker
Rhian Parker is an Associate Professor and senior research and policy synthesis fellow at the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute based at the ANU. Rhian's research focuses on the organisation and delivery of primary health care services, with a particular focus on nurses and non medical health professionals and on preventive activities. Over the past 5 years she has published 23 papers and book chapters and a book. Over the same period she has also been involved as a chief investigator on 15 funded research projects. Rhian's role at APHCRI also involves engaging with researchers, policy makers, consumers and practitioners to support the use of research evidence in policy development and in primary care practice.
Professor Linda Rosenman
Linda Rosenman is Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Exchange) at Victoria University. Professor Rosenman was Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Missouri before returning to Australia in 1987 as Head of School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Queensland. Whilst there she served as President of the University of Queensland Academic Board, and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Professor Rosenman has a PhD in Economics and Social Work from Washington University, with extensive experience in research, both in the United States and Australia. She has a long history of community engagement within and beyond the tertiary sector, and was awarded an Australian Centenary medal for her services to education and the community. She is the former President of the Australasian Council of Deans of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (DASSH) and a number of other Boards, Commissions and advisory councils in education and human and community services sectors. Professor Rosenman has served on the Board of CHASS since its foundation, and was recently President for three years until March 2011.
Associate Professor Michele Simons
Michele Simons is Associate Professor in Education at the University of South Australia at the University of South Australia. Michele has made a significant contribution to scholarship in the field of vocational education and training in Australia. Since 1996 she has won more than two-million dollars in research funding for a range of projects in vocational education and training – many of these were Category 1 funded projects managed by the National Centre for Vocational Education and Research (NCVER) under the National Vocational Education and Training Research and Evaluation (NVETRE) research program. Associate Professor Simons' research interests include learning in non-formal settings such as workplaces and community organisations; apprenticeships and the development of the vocational education and training workforce. Associate Professor Simons has been a member of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) since its inception and is currently the Secretary of AVETRA. She is also holds the position of Treasurer for the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE).
Professor Ted Snell AM
Ted Snell is Director of the Cultural Precinct for the University of Western Australia. He was previously Professor of Contemporary Art and Dean of Art at the John Curtin Gallery, Curtin University of Technology, Perth. He has chaired a number of significant Australian visual arts sector boards and councils; Artbank, Asialink Visual Arts Advisory Committee, Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools and been a Director of the National Association for the Visual Arts. He is currently chair of the Visual Arts Board of the Australia Council and has been member of the Council since December 2006. Ted has curated many exhibitions and has published several books and catalogues. He has been shortlisted twice for the Western Australian Premier's Book Award. He is the Perth art reviewer for The Australian newspaper and has been a commentator on the arts for ABC radio and television. A practising visual artist since 1968, his work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Perth, Melbourne and Brisbane, and in group exhibitions throughout Australia.

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