Our people
Our leadership
Professor Rae Cooper, AO, FASSA - Director
The Director of the Centre is Rae Cooper AO, Professor of Gender, Work and Employment Relations at the University of Sydney Business School. She is President of the International Labor and Employment Relations Association (ILERA) and has published over 70 articles and chapters on employment relations, workplace policy and aspects of women's working lives. Professor Cooper was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2019 recognition of her contributions to Australian higher education and her impact on workplace policy and practice. She has undertaken numerous collaborative research projects within an array of industry sectors for some of Australia's most well-known organisations including the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD), the Human Rights Commission, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Law Society of NSW and she has worked as an advisor to key multi-lateral organisations, including the OECD and International Labour Organisation (ILO). Through these collaborations and her experience as a non-executive director and strategic advisor to industry and government, she is known for her clever and grounded approach. Professor Cooper is a globally recognized leader in the gendered dimensions of the workplace, and an expert in collaborative research programs that incorporate an evidence- based approach with world leading practice to identify practical, data-driven policies that achieve positive change.
Professor Elizabeth Hill - Deputy Director
Elizabeth is Professor in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney. She is co-convenor of the Australian Work and Family Policy Roundtable and co-convenor of the Body@Work Project. As a leading researcher on the future of women, work and care in Australia and the Asian region, she has collaborated on research into gender equality, work and care with leading national and international institutions, including the International Labour Organisation and UN Women. Elizabeth’s research focuses on how economic institutions shape women’s paid work, unpaid care and the care workforce, especially as they evolve in response to the rapidly evolving dynamics of the global political economy. Elizabeth has served as a non-executive director on a number of non-profit Boards and is an experienced media commentator and advisor to government, unions, and business. She is currently a member of the NSW Women’s Advisory Council.
Dr Isabella Dabaja
Dr Isabella Dabaja is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre. She is a skilled qualitative researcher with expertise in public sector employment. Her research encompasses industrial relations, the political economy of the state, and the impact of public policy on workplace dynamics. Isabella recently completed her doctoral thesis in the discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney.
Dr Niamh Dawson
Dr Niamh Dawson’s research explores interpersonal inclusion processes in the workplace, with applications across diverse contexts, including employee recovery, hybrid work, and academia. She has a strong passion for research methods and enjoys applying innovative analytical approaches to address real-world organisational challenges. Niamh completed her PhD and Master of Organisational Psychology at the University of Queensland. She joined the University of Sydney Business School, where she continues to advance research on workplace inclusion and employee wellbeing.
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Dr Meraiah Foley
Dr Meraiah Foley is a researcher specialising in gender inequality at work, with specific focus on women's experiences working in male-dominated occupations, the gendered dimensions of workplace technological change, and how the concepts of merit and meritocracy shape inequality at work. Meraiah has published extensively in highly ranked journals, including Human Relations, Gender, Work & Organization, and the Journal of Industrial Relations.
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Dr Natalie Galea
Dr Natalie Galea is a 2024 ARC Discovery Early Career Fellow. Her research focuses on gender equality and human rights in male-dominated work sectors, as well as human rights in elite sports. Her most recent research examines the effects of a five-day workweek on the well-being of construction workers and their families, and the impact of flexible work at the coalface on construction sites. She has undertaken research into why gender equality and diversity policies in the Australian construction sector fail to attract, retain, and advance women professionals. She has examined the structural and institutional mechanisms that maintain and reinforce male dominance in the Australian construction sector. Natalie has studied the barriers to the inclusion of LGBTQ+ workers in the Australian construction industry.
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Dr Laura Good
Dr Laura Good is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre. She is an expert in gender dynamics in frontline service sector work, the impact of digitalisation and gender dynamics in workplaces and gender, skills and technology. She has established research expertise in sexual harassment and gendered customer interactions with service sector workplace contexts. Laura holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and is currently completing her PhD from the University of Sydney.
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Associate Professor Dimitria Groutsis
Associate Professor Dimitria Groutsis is Academic Director of the Athena Swan Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Program at the University of Sydney and a leading scholar in the intersecting fields of migration, labour mobility and ethno-racial diversity in the business context. Her work appears in highly regarded journals and builds a bridge between the academy and business practice, engaging with industry partners, government and non-government entities. Her innovative applied work has been recognised by the Australian Business Deans Council (2023, ABDC Award for Innovation and Excellence in Research, Established Researcher) and the University of Sydney Business School (2023, Research Engagement Award). She has received multiple fellowships.
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Associate Professor Myra Hamilton
Associate Professor Myra Hamilton is an ARC Mid-Career Industry Fellow in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney. She is a sociologist and social policy scholar whose research focus is on gender, work and care over the lifecourse. Myra’s research explores how workplace and public policies and programs can build wellbeing and financial security in work and in care over the life course. She combines traditional academic research with applied policy research for government, industry and non-government organisations, including evaluations of policies and programs. She has close working relationships with the community sector including peak bodies in the areas of parents, carers and seniors, and sits on the NSW Carers Advisory Council and the Board of Council on the Ageing NSW. In her previous two roles she was Principal Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research at the University of Sydney, and prior to that Senior Research Fellow at the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales.
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Associate Professor Josh Healy
Associate Professor Josh Healy is a mixed methods researcher and media commentator with expertise in industrial relations and the future of work, including the gig economy. His research spans employee well-being, labour market dynamics, and the workplace impacts of disruptive technologies, and he is pioneering approaches and policies that deliver decent employment and equality in the future of work. Josh has an extensive track record of internal and external research funding success, as a leading member of productive, multi-disciplinary teams. Josh is currently an Associate Editor of Labour and Industry: a journal of the economic and social relations of work and Vice-Chair of the Industrial Relations Society of NSW, Newcastle branch.
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Dr Jessie Liu
Dr Jessie Liu a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Centre. She has research expertise on Chinese migrant women’s work and racialisation of the Australian labour market. Jessie is a skilled mixed-methods qualitative researcher with experience across academic, non-academic organisations and industry. Her research focuses on gender disparities and segregations, and specialises in ethnicity, migration and its intersection with feminised labour. Jessie’s doctoral thesis from the Australian National University is currently under examination.
Dr Vanessa Loh
Dr Vanessa Loh is a quantitative researcher interested in helping organisations to create more inclusive and sustainable workplaces that better support employees in a rapidly changing world. A specific focus is on understanding how individual-level factors such as gender, age, knowledge, skills and attitudes, along with work-level factors such as HR policies, job demands and job resources, influence people’s work experiences and wellbeing across the life course. Vanessa is also a registered psychologist, an Associate Investigator with the ARC Centre of Population Ageing Research (CEPAR), and a member of the Body, Heart and Mind in Business Research Group at the University of Sydney.
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Dr Suneha Seetahul
Dr Suneha Seetahul is an applied microeconomist specialising in gender, labor markets, and development economics. She earned her PhD from the Bordeaux School of Economics and has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Sydney's Department of Political Economy and the Australian National University's Crawford School of Public Policy. In 2021, she was awarded a World Bank Africa Fellowship to work with the World Bank Gender Group.
Dr Seetahul's research focuses on gender inequalities in labor markets across developing and industrialised countries. Her work also explores the intersections of gender with climate change, nutrition, and social protection systems. In her current role as a Senior Research Fellow, she is in charge of developing innovative metrics for measuring gender equality at work. With a strong commitment to evidence-based policymaking, she has provided expert advice to government bodies and consulted for World Bank Global Practices, including Social Protection and Jobs.
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Professor Helen Watt
Helen M. G. Watt is Professor of Educational Psychology specialising in motivation research. Her influential longitudinal and international research addresses disparities in gender-typed fields of education and occupation, especially STEM, teaching, and the important socialising role of teachers. She has published extensively on these topics, edited books and special issues, held leadership roles in national and international associations, and is initiator of the international Network Gender & STEM to coordinate interdisciplinary researchers/policyworkers worldwide. Helen’s multiply-awarded research has been funded by the Australian Research Council (Discovery, Linkage, Fellowships), state and federal departments of education and Office of the Chief Scientist. She is frequently consulted concerning gender equity in educational pathways. Helen is elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, former Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Director of Research Development (Social Sciences) at USyd. She previously served at Monash (where she retains an Honorary Professorship) including as Head, Educational Psychology and Inclusive Education; Michigan; Western Sydney; Sydney; and Macquarie Universities.
Amy Tapsell
Amy Tapsell is a Research Officer for the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion @ Work, supporting the Centre’s researchers across a range of projects. Amy has worked as a Research Officer for over five years and is experienced in mixed-methods research methodologies. Amy's research work spans across the disciplines of social sciences, health, psychology, and gender and work, as well as in the public sector, for NSW Health. Amy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Public Health (Health Promotion) from the University of Wollongong.
Sydney Colussi
Sydney is a Research Associate in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies and is a convenor of The Body@Work Project. Her research focuses on the relationship between gender equality, paid work and reproductive health across the life cycle.
McCaye Nixon
McCaye is a PhD candidate in the Discipline of Work and Organisational Studies. Under the supervision of Professor Rae Cooper and Dr Meraiah Foley, her doctoral thesis offers a gendered analysis of how power is understood and accumulated in the legal profession.
Talara Lee
Talara Lee is a PhD candidate with an interest in gender, workplace relations and the future of work. Talara's PhD investigates gender inequality in the legal profession, focussing on the role of the client in shaping legal careers, which employs a mixed-method approach to data collection on designing gender equality into the future of work in the law.
Nicholas Avery
Nicholas is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Economy. His thesis employs heterodox theories of segmented labour markets and capitalist competition to explain the persistence of low-paid work in the Australian meat processing sector.