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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.

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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.

WLIA Fellows

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.

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Dr Ramona Vijeyarasa

Ramona Vijeyarasa is the Chief Investigator behind the Gender Legislative Index, a tool designed to promote laws that advance women’s rights and gender equality. Ramona is one of Australia’s leading scholars on gender and the law. Her current research focuses on strengthening accountability for women’s rights at the domestic level across diverse and often over-looked areas of law.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Prof Michelle Evans

Dr Michelle Evans is inaugural Director of Dilin Duwa Centre for Indigenous Business Leadership. She holds an Associate Professorship of Leadership at the Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE) and the Melbourne Business School (MBS).

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Stacey Ong

Stacey Ong is an experienced management consultant with over 17 years’ experience in both private, public and community sectors and a leader in social policy.

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Emma Dawson

Emma Dawson is Executive Director of public policy think tank Per Capita. Emma has published reports, articles and opinion pieces on a wide range of public policy issues, and is the co-author of Per Capita’s landmark report ‘Measure for Measure: Gender Equality in Australia’, and 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. 

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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.

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Dr Anjalee de Silva

Dr Anjalee de Silva is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Melbourne Law School node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Anjalee is an expert in administrative, anti-discrimination, and free speech and media law and theory, with a focus on harmful speech and its regulation, particularly in online contexts.

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