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Lemi Baruh (Ph.D. University of Pennsylvania, Annenberg School for Communication, 2007) is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Communication and Arts at the University of Queensland. He is the co-founder of the Social Interaction and Media Lab at Koç University, Istanbul. His research spans various topics, including the effects of social media on interpersonal attraction, surveillance, online security, privacy in online environments, and the role of media in shaping public opinion. His recent work also investigates misinformation and conspiracy theories in the context of health communication, with a particular focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and the influence of news and social media on public perceptions and behaviors related to health.

Dr Cassandra Chapman holds a PhD in the psychology of charitable giving (University of Queensland) and is now an Associate Professor of Marketing and ARC DECRA Fellow, specialised in donor psychology and fundraising.

Having come to academia with a background in nonprofit marketing, Cassandra’s research focuses on the social psychology of charitable giving, effective and ethical fundraising, and charity scandals. She uses diverse methods to understand when and why donors are more (or less) willing to give to particular causes and the implications such preferences have for how charities communicate.

Cassandra’s research has won national and international research awards, including the AFP Early Career Emerging Scholar Award (AFP, 2023), the Skystone Partners Prize for Research on Fundraising and Philanthropy (AFP, 2020), and the Gabriel G. Rudney Memorial Award for an Outstanding Dissertation in Nonprofit and Voluntary Action Research (ARNOVA, 2019). She has published over 35 articles in international journals, such as Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Psychology & Marketing, and the Journal of Business Ethics, and has served as Associate Editor of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.

Michael joined the Business School in 2019 after completing a PhD in Organisation and Management at UNSW Business School in 2016. Prior to this he served as a Commissioned Officer in the Australian Defence Force for 15 years and as a Director of a management consultancy until 2018.

During this period he gained extensive front-line to executive leadership experience across a diverse range of organisations and cultures. He has worked across a broad range of industries, including finance, mining, rail and government, and his consulting expertise encompasses organisation development and learning, talent management and leadership assessment and development.

I am a Sociologist from Universidad Central of Chile. I have studied for a Master's (MSc) in Social Policy (research) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and I am finalising a PhD research in Sociology at the Australian National University (ANU). I have at least ten years of professional experience designing, organizing, implementing and leading qualitative and quantitative research projects in the public and private sectors. In this work, I have worked in research teams to evaluate public programs and market research and marketing evaluation for different study centres and private companies. My doctoral thesis analyses the subjective perceptions of inequality and its effects on today's society. My subjects of interest are inequality, subjective perceptions of society, social classes, social stratification and social mobility.

Fiona is a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology with research interests in grief & loss, trauma emtion regulation and anxiety. Her work is mechanism focussed. She applies experimental and longitudinal methods including experience sampling to better understand the pyschological processes that contribute to resilence and development of psychopathology. Her work is also focussed on improving supports for those struggling with grief and trauma.

Fiona completed her Master of Psychology(Clnical) and PhD at UNSW and undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in the Loss, Trauma and Emotion Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University. She also has experience working as a clinician in public health and private practice.

Kiara is a social psychology researcher at the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at The University of Queensland as a research fellow. She is currently focused on strengths based approaches to sexual health and relationships and sexuality education for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She received her doctorate from the University of Queensland in July 2021 for her PhD research project, The role of idealising jealousy in inhibiting the identification of and response to non-physical intimate partner violence: a schema theory approach. She has since completed a post-doctoral research fellowship on sexual consent in Australia.

Kiara has a passion for applying quality research techniques to identify practical strategies for real improvements across a range of social issues. Kiara is experienced in quantitative and qualitative research methods, and holds a strong commitment to research transparency, methodological rigour, and collaborative research as the foundation of positive social change. She is also dedicated to research communication and has previously written and edited a blog page for social change research.

Dr David Smerdon is a Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) in the School of Economics. He primarily works in behavioral and development economics. His research involves theory and modelling, experiments in the lab and field, and microeconometric analysis in order to investigate topics at the intersection of these fields.

David earned his PhD from the Tinbergen Institute and the University of Amsterdam (UvA) as a General Sir John Monash scholar, and afterwards worked as a PODER fellow at Bocconi University in Milan. His research often involves collaboration with non-academic partners, ranging from aid agencies and NGOs like US AID and Save the Children, to tech companies like Chess.com.

Prior to his academic career, David spent three years working for the Australian Department of Treasury as a policy analyst. David is also a chess Grandmaster and has represented Australia at seven chess Olympiads. Combining his passions, David occasionally conducts niche research in chess economics on topics such as gender inequality, cheating, and the life cycle of cognitive performance, supported by organisations such as the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and Chessable.

An experienced researcher with a multi-disciplinary training background, Ning is a Research Fellow in the Education and Disadvantage group at ISSR. Ning has worked on the Student Engagement Research and Analysis Project for the New South Wales Department of Education, as well as a number of other projects funded by the Australian Department of Education, Brisbane Catholic Education, Queensland Department of Education, and NGOs.

Ning has strong expertise in delivering multi-year collaborative research projects, including complex mix-method evaluation projects (e.g., the national evaluation of the Australian Government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme and a follow-up ARC Linkage Project, funded by the Department of Social Services).

Ning has also significantly contributed to a number of projects funded though various research grant schemes, utilising data from LSIC, LSAC, LSAY and HILDA to investigate the impacts of a range of factors (e.g., individual, family, school and community) on disadvantaged students’ outcomes, such as socio-emotional wellbeing, academic achievement, university participation and graduate labour market outcomes.

Ning has specialist expertise in literature review, constructing theoretical framework to guide data analyses, data preparation, management, screening and analysis, which she has applied to great effect in these projects. Ning has a track record of successfully delivering accessible and policy informing documentation. She also specialises in longitudinal data analysis, and has published extensively on school climate, student engagement, and long-term education and labour market outcomes for students from equity groups.

I am a Research Fellow in the Institute of Social Science Research at The University of Queensland.

My research interests coalesce around issues of social justice within organisations. I am particularly curious about how the way we perceive others informs our treatment of one and other in the workplace. I spend a lot of my time exploring this idea in the context of leadership. For example, collaborators and I have been working with industry professionals in Australia and North America to understand what organisational structures inhibit minority leaders' (e.g., women, racially diverse) progression and retention. We've also been investigating possible disrupters that may serve to improve minority leaders' chances of success in leadership roles.

I also spend a lot of time on applied research problems through partnering with industry to examine the effectiveness of practical initiatives or policy shifts. Recently, we've been working on understanding the supportive mechanisms that enhance boat safety in Northern Australia, while another partnership has focused on understanding how novel bail support programs can be enhanced to support young people to meet their youth justice orders.

I received my BPsycSc and MPsyOrg from UQ Psychology before completing a PhD in Leadership / Organisational Behaviour at UQ Business School. In 2019 I moved to The University of Illinois for a postdoctoral fellowship before joining the Institute of Social Science Research in 2021.

I work with collaborators in Australia and North America, and I have the good fortune of supporting several RHD candidates at present.