ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Linda Simon
Conference Chair
Linda Simon has been a teacher in schools, TAFE and now at university. She currently teaches in adult education at Charles Sturt University. She was Secretary of the TAFE Teachers Association for over fifteen years, and Federal TAFE President of the Australian Education Union for six years. She is currently Vice-President of AVETRA. She has served on the Board of NCVER and on BVET in NSW, and is an educationalist and researcher committed to equity and public education.
Kira Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow in Youth Opportunity in the Social Policy and Research Centre (SPaRC) at the Brotherhood of St Laurence, where she leads SPaRC’s skills and training policy and research stream.
Prior to joining BSL in February 2020, Kira was a Lecturer in Education Policy within the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. As a national expert in vocational education and training policy, particularly as it relates to youth transitions and young people, Kira led the widely cited Entry to Vocations study of VET in Schools (2012–14) for NCVER, and co-led two research studies (2014–15, 2015–17) funded through the competitive National Vocational Education and Training Research (NVETR) program and in partnership with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence, examining the role of the vocational education for early school leavers. Kira is the current President of the Australasian Vocational Education and Research Association (AVETRA) and Victorian co-convener of WAVE (Women in Adult & Vocational Education).
Dr Llandis Barratt-Pugh
Llandis managed a large VET UK organisation winning two national Training Awards. As Associate Dean Research and MBA lecturer for ECU Business Faculty, Llandis twice gained University awards for exceptional teaching and learning. He has authored more then 60 refereed papers and articles, and supervised 30 higher degree candidates. He managed two ARC, and four NCVER, and 14 industry funded research studies. He was President of AVETRA from 2010/13 and a current executive member. He approaches VET from an HRD perspective and with a specific interest in researcher development.
Claire Field
Claire previously held senior positions in the NSW and Australian governments, as well as in TAFE NSW and Mission Australia. She also served as the CEO of the Australian Council for Private Education and Training.
Claire is a member of the Australian government’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) Advisory Group and in 2023 was awarded the International Education Association of Australia’s (IEAA) Excellence in Professional Commentary Award. Claire is the host of the ‘What now? What next? Insights into Australia’s tertiary education sector’ podcast, and is undertaking a PhD at Torrens University writing the history of the university’s first 10 years.
Natalie Gardam
Natalie Gardam is a Vocational Education and Training specialist having worked for 25 years in the industry. Natalie has 3 years VET experience internationally, working for the Abu Dhabi Vocational Education Training Institute.
Natalie has held various academic positions in TAFE NSW, including Teacher, Head Teacher, Manager Education and Faculty Director. Natalie has experience in senior leadership roles leading Compliance, Strategy and Governance.
Natalie is a novice researcher engaged in a professional Doctor of Education program at Southern Cross University. Natalies research interest are in Indigenous Education in the VET sector.
Natasha works as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Teacher Education and Leadership at Queensland University of Technology. She has a professional background in Vocational Education and Training, a research background in the Learning Sciences, and a passion for leveraging technology to support and empower learners and educators
Dr Keiko Yasukawa
Keiko Yasukawa is a lecturer and researcher in the School of International Studies and Education. Her work focuses on adult education, literacy and numeracy.
She has a strong interest and commitment to educating research-informed teachers who have both theoretical resources and practical expertise to exercise professional judgement and agency in their workplaces and support their learners.
Engagement in the professional fields of adult education is an important part of Keiko's work.
Keiko has held leadership positions in the NSW Adult Literacy and Numeracy Council since 2009. Through her involvement in these organisations she has undertaken a range of policy advocacy and professional development work in partnership with practitioners.
Keiko is a member of the Australian Council of Dean's Vocational Education Group. This Group consists of higher education VET teacher educators who work together in VET policy advocacy and current issues relating to the quality of teaching and learning in VET.
Keiko has had a long and active involvement in the National Tertiary Education Union at the Branch, Division and National levels.
Robin is an experienced Chief Executive, Institute Director and Adjunct Professor. Recently a contracted workforce development adviser with major project in Sydney. Demonstrated history of working in educational management as well as research and policy development in Australia and England. Successful professional skilled in Strategy Development, Skills Policy, Management of Large Organisations, Coaching, Training Delivery, E-Learning, and Public Policy. Looking to contribute by membership of not for profit and public sector boards and advisory committees. In UK on Boards of London Apprenticeship Company, Westminster Small Minority Business Council and Paddington Development Trust. In Australia on NSW Board of Studies, AeSharenet, Le Cordon Bleu Australia, AVETRA and Western Sydney University Enterprises. Represented Australia at Asian Development Bank and European Union meetings on VET. Managed joint venture in China.
Annette Bonnici
University of Technology Sydney.
Gregory is currently the Associate Dean Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Gregory undertook postgraduate studies in the United States at Kent State University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Prior to this, he completed a Graduate Diploma in Education (Adult and Tertiary) at Murdoch University and worked in both community and labour market programs in Western Australia.
In 2004 Gregory began his first academic appointment at Griffith University, Gold Coast. In 2008, he came to UTS where he has been involved in the adult and teacher education programs as well as other areas of the university including Jumbunna. His interdisciplinary research interests include, but are not limited to the following areas, learning across diverse contexts, curriculum and pedagogy, policy and participatory methodologies.
More recently, Gregory was the Course Director for the Master of Education (Learning and Leadership) which transitioned to fully online in 2021 and is now one of the fastest growing suite of courses at UTS. In 2022, he was also academic lead for the accreditation of the fully online Graduate Certificate Business Consulting and Technology Implementation.
Gregory is currently a Chief Investigator on an ARC research project into covert racism led by Dr. Bep Uink at Murdoch University.
Gregory is on the editorial boards of the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, Critical Education, Australian Journal of Adult Learning, Education Policy Futures, Teaching in Higher Education and the International Journal for Critical Pedagogy.
AVETRA
AVETRA
24 is organised by the Australasian Vocational Education and Training Research
Association (AVETRA), with the support of FineHaus
Telephone
AVETRA Secretariat
+61 3 3 8658 6641