Fellows

Dr Andrea Carson

Dr Andrea Carson is a political scientist and a Professor of Political Communication in the department of Politics, Media and Philosophy at La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her research focuses on gender, politics and the media. She has authored numerous books and articles on Australian politics, election campaigns and female representation in politics.

Andrea is a member of La Trobe University’s Council. She is also an inaugural council member of the Victorian Government’s Equal Workplace Advisory Council that advises government on achieving gender equity in the workplace. Recognising her leadership in academia, she is a finalist in the Australian Financial Review’s ’emerging higher education leader’ awards 2023.

Her leadership in research includes as a chief investigator on three nationally competitive Australian Research Council grants to study the pathways to politics for women in local government (2020-2024), trust in media and politics (2022-2027), and government policy responsiveness (2018-2021). She has written three books on media and politics, including as co-editor and author of Australian Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press).

Prior to academia, Andrea was a professional journalist at The Age and ABC. She founded the 2022 election podcast ‘Below The Line’ with The Conversation and is a regular expert commentator in the news media.

Dr Anjalee de Silva

Dr Anjalee de Silva is a Lecturer at Melbourne Law School, The University of Melbourne and an Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. She is an expert in administrative, anti-discrimination, and free speech and media law. Her research focuses on hate speech against women and its regulation, especially in online contexts.

Outside academia, Anjalee is a local government Councillor at the City of Monash, with particular interest in issues impacting on women and girls.

Chantelle Stratford PSM

Chantelle lives and works on Ngunnawal Country. She is a passionate feminist and leading global gender equality expert dedicated to advocating for and creating lasting improvements for women and girls globally. As part of the 2024 Australia Day Order of Australia Honours, Chantelle received a Public Service Medal for outstanding leadership and innovation in gender equality and women’s policy.

Chantelle is an experienced internationalist, representing Australia’s interests in women’s rights at the United Nations, OECD, G20, APEC, and other global fora over many years. As the Chair of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Policy Partnership on Women and the Economy (2023 and 2024), she played a pivotal role in centring equality and feminism in the global economic discussion. Her current work focuses on improving gender equality in Defence and national security settings, global advocacy for economic equality, supporting corporate and philanthropic efforts to eradicate inequality, and driving change across the care economy.

Chantelle has served as the Head of Australia’s Office for Women, overseeing the introduction of key economic and social policy reforms, including legislating pay transparency, introducing Australia’s first gender budgeting system, and securing policy reform for women in paid parental leave, housing, the Australian Skills Guarantee, care economy, and industrial relations.

Chantelle led national policy on Women’s Safety for many years, notably steering the National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children and securing record government investments. Her role included contributing to the Women and Women’s Safety Ministerial Taskforce, addressing sexual and family violence during COVID-19, and overseeing the 1800RESPECT national domestic violence service. She has served on the boards of Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) and Our Watch – Australia’s national primary prevention agency – in addition to leading large-scale reforms to modernise Victorian community services as part of their response to the Royal Commission into Family Violence.

Chantelle currently serves on the Boards of the International Women’s Development Agency, the National Council of Women Australia, and Global Sisters, and is the Principal Gender Specialist at VOXFEMINA, a global feminist start-up focused on eradicating gender inequality.

Chantelle holds a Master of Arts and post-graduate qualifications in gender mainstreaming, international development, and women’s health and human rights.

Prof Cordelia Fine

Cordelia Fine is a Professor in the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Her work analyses scientific and popular biological explanations of behavioural sex differences and workplace gender inequalities, explores the effects of gender-related attitudes and biases on judgements and decision-making, and contributes to debates about workplace gender equality. She is the author of Delusions of Gender (a Guardian and London Evening Standard Book of the Year, a Washington Post Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year pick) and Testosterone Rex (winner of the Royal Society Science Book prize, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2018, and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year so far.)

Cordelia was also the recipient of the 2018 Edinburgh Medal, for her work in challenging gender bias in science and for her contributions to public debates about gender equality.

Cordelia writes regularly for the popular media on the topic of gender, including for the New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, Scientific American and Wall Street Journal.

Dr Elise Stephenson

Dr Elise Stephenson is a multi award-winning gender researcher with an entrepreneurial background. She is Deputy Director at the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, Australian National University and her work focuses on intervening at critical junctures to be at the forefront of projects on gender, sexuality and leadership.

As a political scientist and international relations scholar, Elise focuses on research in frontier international affairs, from researching space policy, to politics and government, diplomacy, national security, intelligence, AI, climate and the Asia Pacific. In addition to her research, she is the curator of multiple women’s and youth leadership and entrepreneurship programs across Southeast Asia, including the Australia-ASEAN Council’s flagship program, the Australia-ASEAN Emerging Leaders Program.

Elise was recently awarded the 2022 Fulbright Scholarship funded by Monash University for her research on diversity in space, and her book The Face of the Nation: Women in International Affairs will be published with Oxford University Press.

Emma Dawson

Emma Dawson is Executive Director of the Chifley Research Centre, the official think tank of the Australian Labor Party. Previously she was Executive Director of independent public policy think tank Per Capita. She has worked as a researcher at Monash University and the University of Melbourne; in policy and public affairs for SBS and Telstra; and as a senior policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Governments.

Emma has published reports and articles on a wide range of public policy issues, with specific expertise in media and communications, gender equality, economics and the care economy. She is a regular contributor to The Age and SMH and Guardian Australia and is a frequent guest on various ABC radio programs nationally. She appears regularly as an expert witness before parliamentary inquiries and often speaks at public events and conferences in Australia and internationally.

Emma is the co-editor, with Professor Janet McCalman, of the collection of essays What happens next? Reconstructing Australia after COVID-19, published by Melbourne University Press in September 2020, and author of several papers and book chapters on social policy in Australia. She is a Fellow of the Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the UTS Business School, and sits on the boards of Every Age Counts and the Council of Single Mothers and their Children.

Isabelle Reinecke

Isabelle Reinecke is a prominent leader successfully driving system change on the critical issues of our time, helping build a fairer, safer and more inclusive Australia. 

In 2017, Isabelle founded Grata Fund, a leading not-profit based that acts as a campaigner, litigation incubator and funder for people and communities challenging systemic gridlocks across three key areas: human rights, climate injustice and democratic freedoms. 

Grata has incubated numerous landmark cases that have set significant precedents and shifted the dial on important subjects, from challenging climate change injustice, to exposing abuse in offshore refugee detention centres, and establishing new rights to humane housing in remote First Nations communities. Prior, Isabelle had more than 10 years’ experience as a director and lawyer at organisations including Getup, Immigration Advice and Rights Centre, and as a solicitor at Clayton Utz, where she acted for First Nations clients seeking stolen wages reparations in remote East Kimberley.

Isabelle was named the 2022 Emerging NFP Leader in Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, is a Churchill Fellow, and the 2021 Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia Fellow, awarded to women “who are leaders in their respective fields, women who have innovative approaches and the courage, conviction and capacity to create real change”. 

A mum of one, she is also part of the big conversations about providing more support for working mothers and female leaders.

Dr Leonora Risse

Leonora Risse is an economist who specialises in gender equality. She is a Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Canberra, a Research Fellow with the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia, and an Expert Panel member on gender pay equity at the Fair Work Commission. She has served as a Senior Research Economist with the Australian Government Productivity Commission and spent time as a Research Fellow with the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University. She is a co-founder and former National Chair of the Women in Economics Network in Australia.

Leonora’s research focuses on gender gaps in the workforce, including the gender pay gap and women’s under-representation in leadership. She focuses on identifying evidence-based ways to close gender gaps and applying a ‘gender lens’ to economic analysis and policy design. Her areas of expertise extend to labour economics, demographics, economic psychology, disadvantage and wellbeing.

Leonora holds a PhD in Economics, Bachelor of Economics with Honours and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland.

In 2021 she was named as one of Apolitical’s 100 Most Influential People in Gender Policy.

Prof Michelle Evans

Dr Michelle Evans holds a Professorship in Leadership at the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne, specialising in the areas of Indigenous leadership and entrepreneurship. She is Director of the Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership working to contribute through education and research to an economically powerful Indigenous Australia.

She is also founder of the award winning MURRA Indigenous Business Masterclass Program, based at Melbourne Business School where she completed her PhD. Professor Evans has been awarded five Australian Research Council competitive grants, international research grants (Spencer Foundation, Endeavour Grant, Fulbright Scholarship) and is widely published.

Prof Ramona Vijeyarasa

Dr. Ramona Vijeyarasa is one of Australia’s leading experts on the ways in which legal systems address gendered issues, known for her innovative work on quantifying and addressing gender inequality in law. A Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology Sydney, she pioneered the Gender Legislative Index (GLI), a ground-breaking tool using human evaluators and machine learning to evaluate the gender-responsiveness of laws worldwide. Through extensive research, she has highlighted how legal frameworks often perpetuate or insufficiently address discrimination, particularly against women and marginalized groups.

Dr Vijeyarasa’s work has influenced policy reforms, legal scholarship, and advocacy efforts, making significant contributions to international debates on gender justice. Prior to UTS, she worked for over a decade on women’s rights in international organisations, non-profits and international NGOs, including the Center for Reproductive Rights, the International Organisation for Migration in Vietnam and Ukraine and as head of women’s rights at ActionAid International’s headquarters for six years.

Ramona is author of The Woman President: A study of law, leadership and legacy on women’s lives based on experiences from South and Southeast Asia(OUP 2022), editor of International Women’s Rights Law and Gender Equality: Making the law work for women(Routledge, 2021) and author of Sex, Slavery and the Trafficked Women: Myths and Misconceptions about Trafficking and its Victims (Routledge 2015). Her latest book, Rewriting the Rules: Gender-Responsive Lawmaking for the Twenty-First Century, will be published by University of California Press in January 2026.

Dr Rebecca Huntley

Dr Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia’s foremost researchers on social trends. With degrees in law and film studies, and a PhD in Gender Studies, she has lead research at Essential Media and Vox Populi and was a director at Ipsos Australia. For several years, she ran her own research and consultancy firm working closely with climate and environment NGOs, government and business on climate change strategy and communication. She is now Director of Research at the agency 89DegreesEast.

In collaboration with Plan International Australia, Rebecca has been an integral part of building the Gender Compass – a groundbreaking research project segmenting the Australian public into six groups according to their beliefs, policy preferences and behaviours regarding gender equality.

Writing regularly for The Monthly, Australian Traveller Magazine, The Guardian and the SMH, Rebecca is also the author of numerous books including How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way that Makes a Difference (Murdoch books, 2020).

Her board and advisory positions include Australian Parents for Climate Action, the Climate Solutions Centre at the Australian Museum and the Sydney Environment Institute, The Bell Shakespeare Company, The Whitlam Institute and The Dusseldorp Forum.

She was an adjunct senior lecturer at the School of Social Sciences at The University of New South Wales. She is a registered Commonwealth marriage celebrant. She is the mother of three girls and lives in Sydney.

Stacey Ong

Stacey Ong is an economist by training, and Director of One Red Step, a social equity consulting practice. One Red Step works with clients to address issues such as gender inequality, family violence, homelessness, disability, disadvantage and marginalisation.

Stacey is an experienced management consultant with over 17 years’ experience in private, public and community sectors. Prior to founding One Red Step, Stacey was a Director in management consulting with PricewaterhouseCoopers focusing on social policy and was their national staff lead for cultural diversity and inclusion for three years. Stacey is also on the Board of Melbourne City Mission and Women’s Health Victoria.