Speaker Profiles

Adam has had long experience in both government and academia. His most recent government position was Head, Cabinet Office, Government of South Australia (this post also had responsibility for federal/state relations and COAG matters). His most recent academic post was Dean, School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.

He spent nine years as Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology, a Commonwealth Government agency whose task is to provide quality information and conduct policy oriented research, so as to inform government decisions on crime and justice, locally, nationally and internationally. Before this he worked in government policy positions in ageing, employment and skill development, and higher education.

He has held academic positions in social policy, political science and criminology at Flinders University, The University of NSW, Rutgers, and has held visiting professor posts at University of California Berkeley, University of London, Yale University, University of Sydney, University of Hong Kong and National University of Singapore.

Graycar has had long experience in policy making, research, and research management at the most senior levels in Australia and has also represented Australia in various international forums (OECD, UN etc). He has two doctorates from the University of NSW, is the author of some 200 scholarly publications, and is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Phillip Glyde is a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. He has responsibility for matters relating to agricultural productivity, food regulation and security, international farm trade and market access.

Phillip Glyde is also responsible for the department’s economic and scientific research activities and is the Executive Director of the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE). ABARE provides economic policy analysis and forecasts to enhance the competitiveness of Australia’s agricultural, fishing, forestry, energy and minerals industries.

Phillip has worked for the Australian Government on natural resource management, environment and industry issues both domestically and internationally, for the last 28 years.

Phillip has an Honours Degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of New England and a Bachelor of Economics Degree from the Australian National University.

Anne Baly was appointed as the Head of Division, Research in the Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research in January 2010.

Anne has extensive experience in tertiary education policy development and program management in the Australian Government. During 2008, Anne was Secretary to the Review of Australian Higher Education (Bradley Review) and subsequently led a taskforce that developed the Government’s response to the review. She has also held other senior positions in the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations in both higher education and vocational education and training. This included roles in policy analysis and development, stakeholder engagement and program delivery.

During 2007, Anne was Minister-Counsellor (Education, Science and Training) at the Australian Embassy in Brussels.

Dr. Wendy Jarvie has had a diverse career, alternating between government administration and research. She spent 22 years working in Australian Public Service departments including Finance, Employment and Industrial Relations, Prime Minister and Cabinet, Health and Ageing, and Education and Training. Seven years of this was as a Deputy Secretary in the Departments of Education, Science and Training and Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. She has worked in research including three years managing evaluations and strategy development at the World Bank in Washington, and at the University of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley Research Foundation.

She is now undertaking research in innovation in public policy and sustainability in Indigenous development. Additionally, she is working for the World Bank to assist the Vietnamese government develop an early childhood development strategy and improve their early childhood education outcomes.

Dr. Jarvie has three degrees from the University of Newcastle (BA (hons) in History, Diploma of Computer Science, and Master of Engineering Science), and a Ph D in Geography from Flinders University. She has also completed an Executive Development Program at Harvard University.

Professor Anderson obtained a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the University of New England in 1968 and his PhD from the University of Adelaide in 1972. He then spent three postdoctoral years at the Harvard Medical School in the USA, before returning to the University of Sydney.

Later he was appointed Deputy Director of the Baker Medical Research Institute and from 2001 to 2006 was Head of School of Biomedical Sciences at Monash University.

He has published more than 150 scientific papers, primarily in integrative cardiovascular and renal physiology and high blood pressure, and has made significant contributions over many years to the community, research societies and numerous Boards and Committees. He was Chair of NHMRC’s Research Committee between 1997 and 2003.

In January 2005 Professor Anderson was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to health and medical research through leadership roles with NHMRC, to the development of medical science at Monash University, and to hypertension and renal physiology research.

In April 2006 the Minister for Health and Ageing appointed Professor Anderson as CEO of NHMRC. The five-year appointment commenced on 7 June 2006.

David Engel is currently Assistant Secretary, Policy and Planning Branch at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Prior to this he held the position of Assistant Secretary Global Issues Branch and Assistant Director-General, Southeast Asia Branch.

Andrew has extensive international experience in the Australian Government, most recently as foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister John Howard. Previously he occupied a senior position in the Australian Embassy in Washington DC and was strategic policy adviser to former Defence Minister Robert Hill. He occupied various positions in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Office of National Assessments.

Andrew has honours degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Melbourne. He was awarded a UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholarship and has an MPhil degree in international relations from the University of Cambridge.

Professor Margaret Sheil is currently CEO of the Australian Research Council, having been appointed in August 2007. Professor Sheil is a member of the Cooperative Research Centres Committee, the Prime Minister’s Science Innovation and Engineering Council and the National Research Infrastructure Council. She is also a member of the Board of the Australia-India Council, the Advisory Council of the Science Industry Endowment Fund and the National Research Foundation of Korea.

From 2002 to 2007 she was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Wollongong (UOW). She joined UOW as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry in 1990, was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2000 and appointed Dean of Science in January 2001. Prior to joining UOW she held positions as a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and the University of Utah, USA.

Professor Edwards is an economist with a PhD from the Australian National University. Through her career, Professor Edwards has been a lecturer, researcher, policy analyst and administrator.

Professor Edwards worked in the Commonwealth Public Service from 1983 until 1997, advising on major social policy, education and labour market issues. She became Deputy Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in 1993 and held that position until 1997. Professor Edwards served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canberra from August 1997, when she also became Professor, until August 2002. She set up the National Institute for Governance in 1999 and was appointed its Director in that year, stepping down from this position in December 2004. In 2005 she became Emeritus Professor at the University of Canberra.

In 2001, she published a book “Social Policy, Public Policy: From Problem to Practice” based on case studies she was involved in during her career in the Commonwealth Public Service. Her current major research interests are: a major ARC project on issues relating to the governance of the public sector; the research-policy relationship and community engagement issues.

In her varied career Elizabeth has been a school leader, an academic researcher in Australia and the UK, and a consultant working across all education sectors.

After three years researching at the University of Nottingham, she took up the position of Group Manager, Research Branch, in the Office for Policy, Research and Innovation in the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victoria, in 2008.

Her interests lie in gathering data and analysing evidence in many forms, in strengthening the links between research, innovation and policy, developing partnerships and communicating with a wide range of audiences.

Alix has worked in a range of senior management and policy roles within the human services sectors, working within the disability sector over the past five years.  She presently holds the position of Director, Prevention and Pathways within Ageing, Disability and Home Care, Department of Human Services, NSW.

Linda Bencic is currently the Assistant Director of the National Statistical Literacy program at the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Prior to this, Linda was the Design Manager for the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children at the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

Previously, Linda worked as the Research Coordinator for the Graduate Careers Council of Australia conducting and reporting on a range of national surveys relating to higher education outcomes.

Linda’s career also includes teaching at primary and tertiary levels as well as various research projects at RMIT and the University of Melbourne. Linda has a background in education with post graduate qualifications in statistics.

Dr. Kate Liley is the Manager, Evidence and Modelling Unit (EMU), Queensland Department of Communities. EMU has responsibility for evidence based planning in the department and provides leadership and coordination for the governance of Research Evaluation and Review across the department.

Professor Ilan Katz joined the Social Policy Research Centre in January 2005, becoming Director in July 2007. He started his career as a social worker and manager in several local authorities and NGOs in the UK. He was Head of Practice Development and Research at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. After spending some time as a civil servant in the Department for Education and Skills, he returned to research. His research interests include parenting, child protection, youth justice, early intervention, prevention and family support, children and communities, social inclusion and child outcomes, comparative child welfare systems, adoption, migration, race and ethnicity and children of parents with mental illness.