Dean's Report

Assistant Dean, Indigenous

I’m delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Melitta Hogarth to the position of Assistant Dean, Indigenous. This is a new key leadership role and Melitta will be working across all areas of MGSE to build staff and student confidence and awareness of Indigenous education, building relationships with external stakeholders, promoting research initiatives and supporting Indigenous students. Melitta is a Kamilaroi woman and has worked for over 20 years in Queensland schools and is acclaimed for her academic work. I’m looking forward to working with Melitta in her new role and I’m particularly pleased that she will have oversight in delivering the commitments of our Divisional Indigenous Development Plan (DIDP).

MGSE Executive

The MGSE Executive provides senior leadership of the strategic direction for MGSE and is a crucial decision-making body. From time to time it is pertinent to examine the structure of committees to ensure they continue to be effective and representative. With this in mind the Executive has decided to expand its membership to include our Assistant Deans. This means Dr Richard Sallis, Acting Assistant Dean, Diversity and Inclusion, Dr Melitta Hogarth, Assistant Dean, Indigenous and Associate Professor Kylie Smith, Acting Assistant Dean, Graduate Research will be joining us at our next meeting on Tuesday 23 June. I’m also pleased to announce that Professor Lindsay Oades will now fill the available Professoriate position.

The Cognate Group leaders and Research Centre Directors have also been joining the Executive for the first 30 minutes every fortnight which will continue for the foreseeable future. New voices and perspectives are particularly important at a time when we navigate through the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

MGSE Staff Awards

While we are unable to hold an MGSE Award ceremony this year, with all face-to-face events being cancelled across the University, we have still gone ahead with our awards process. I am delighted to announce our 17 winners of the MGSE Excellence Awards for 2019.

CategoryRecipient/s
Special Academic Service Award


Helen Cahill

Engagement Excellence Award
  • Suzanne Rice and team
  • Yvette Slaughter
  • Lorraine Graham and team
Professional Staff Excellence Award
  • Jeni Rasche
  • Jenny Lowe
  • Pian Zhang
Early-Career Research Excellence Awards


Babak Dadvand

Mid-Career Research Excellence Award
  • Zhonghua Zhang
  • Jenny Chesters
Research Leadership Excellence Award


John Polesel

Research Partnership Excellence Award


Sandra Milligan

Research Supervision Excellence Award


Shelley Gillis

Research Mentor Excellence Award


Lesley Farrell

Teaching Excellence Award
  • Kathryn Coleman
  • Lisa McKay-Brown and team
  • Aaron Jarden and team

Congratulations to you all - I was most impressed by the excellent standard of all the nominees and by the high quality and diversity of work represented in the applications. My thanks to all those who were nominated for their exceptional work, thanks also to those who took the time to nominate and highlight the achievements of their colleagues. My last thanks are to the Awards Panel, Professor Janet Clinton, Professor Suzanne Rice, Associate Professor John Quay, Professor Sophie Arkoudis and Keryn Negri for their diligent work in assessing and awarding the 2019 MGSE Excellence Awards. An awards booklet detailing each of the awards will be available soon.

Jim