Dr Mary Crawford was a high school teacher for 20 years during which time she taught in Australia, UK and Cyprus. In 1987 she was elected to the House of Representatives as the MP for Forde and remained there as a member of the government until 1996. During her time in the Australian Parliament she led the Crawford Committee which developed and implemented a National Policy on Child Care and established the Child Care Accreditation Council. She was instrumental in ensuring child care centres became part of tertiary institutions in Australia on University and TAFE campuses. Dr Crawford was also responsible for the ‘Sticks and Stones’ Report which examined violence in schools and sought to establish a National policy. Her work also led to the implementation of the National JET (Jobs, Education, and Training) scheme for women re-entering the workforce and she developed and implemented the first ‘women only’ job clubs in Australia. These gave individual case workers for women entering or re-entering the workforce. From 1994-1996 she was also the Parliamentary Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister with responsibility for Local Government. In 1997 Dr Crawford was employed at Queensland University of Technology as a Lecturer in Government/Business relations in the School of Management within the Faculty of Business. She developed and redesigned courses for students in both Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes. She also taught for QUT in China, in both Suzhou and Hong Kong. Dr Crawford was awarded her PhD in 2008 for work on ‘Gender and the Australian Parliament’ where she explored the way in which the Australian parliament is gendered as male but much of its processes and practices remain hidden. In January 2020 she was awarded Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for significant service to women, and to the people and Parliament of Australia. Dr Crawford was appointed Executive Director of the TJ Ryan Foundation in April 2017, succeeding Professor Roger Scott.

Veronica is a Project Officer in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the Queensland University of Technology

Dr Robert Anderson OAM is a well respected Ngugi Elder from Mulgumpin in Quandamooka, South East Queensland and currently lives in Brisbane. Since Native Title for the for Quandamooka Nation was recognised on the 4th July 2011 by the High Court of Australia, he has been a Family Representative on the prescribed body corporate, Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation, QYAC, established to progress the native title interests of the Quandamooka Peoples. He is well known for both striving to progress and protect the rights of workers through the trade union movement and for his efforts to maintain and promote the reconciliation process as an Aboriginal Elder and currently as a member and delegate of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples.. Known as Uncle Bob, he served as a trade union delegate and State Organiser for the Building Workers Industrial Union from 1951 to 1978 and has been recognised as an Honorary Member of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

Professor Tom Cochrane AM is Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law at the Queensland University of Technology where he was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Technology, Information and Learning Support) until retirement at the end of 2013. He serves on a number of Boards and projects including the Library Board of Queensland, Queensland Poetry, the Australian Digital Alliance and others. He was co-leader of the Creative Commons Project for which QUT was the institutional leader for Australia. This, together with other open access initiatives, signals Tom's long-standing commitment to access to knowledge, and to research outputs worldwide. His academic research in earlier years focused on Queensland in the time of Premiers Ryan and Theodore.

Dr Linda Colley is an Adjunct Professor at the QUT Centre for Decent Work and Industry.

Bruce Hawker is the Managing Director of Bruce Hawker Consulting. For the last forty years he has worked at the highest levels of government and politics in Australia. After graduating from the University of Queensland in 1977 with a BA in Government, he moved to Sydney to study law. Thereafter he served as a ministerial adviser to the NSW Attorney-General in the Wran Government and later as Chief of Staff to Opposition Leader and later Premier, Bob Carr. In 1997, he established Hawker Britton, Australia’s leading campaign and government relations firm. Bruce has worked on more than forty political campaigns in Australia and abroad, including the elections of Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Bob Carr, Peter Beattie, Anna Bligh, Steve Bracks, Jim Bacon, Mike Rann, Geoff Gallop and Clare Martin. Bruce is a published author, public speaker, documentary maker and regular commentator in the electronic and print media.

Emeritus Professor Mary Sheehan retired from the directorship of CARRS-Q on 30 June 2008, but continues her research and postgraduate mentoring and activities at the Centre. Professor Sheehan’s specific area of research interest is the application of social psychological theory to educational and rehabilitation initiatives to enhance community road safety, particularly the safety of young people, and in reducing the incidence of drink driving. This has resulted in some of CARRS-Q’s most successful and innovative road safety programs such as: the development of the seminal Under the Limit (UTL) Drink Driving Rehabilitation Program a trial of alcohol ignition interlocks with high-risk Queensland drink drivers (UTL 2) the Rural and Remote Road Safety Research project in North Queensland the Skills for Preventing Injury in Youth (SPIY) school-based first aid and peer protection program. Mary has received international recognition for her work in alcohol, drugs and traffic safety through ministerial and executive appointments such as the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS) and the United States Academy of Science Transportation Research Board (TRB). She is a foundation member of the Australian College of Road Safety (ACRS), and was awarded a Fellowship in 2000 for her contribution and commitment to road safety. Professor Sheehan was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in the 2003 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for service to education and to public health through research work into the causes and prevention of road, work and social accidents in Australia, and through the development of community awareness programs raising the level of debate in the area.

Dr Liz van Acker is a Senior Lecturer, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith Business School. She has an Honours degree from the School of Humanities at Griffith University and a PhD from the Department of Government at the University of Queensland. She was one of the Chief Investigators of a project funded by an Australian Learning and Teaching Grant (2010-2012). This project provided a national study of capstone subjects. Her research interests include innovation and industry policy, relationship support programs and government policies, gender and politics and service delivery by the third sector.