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Your SCEI-HE experience will be supported by an academic director, course coordinator, field placement officer, student welfare coordinator, and staff and student support officers.
Professor Adela McMurray
Chair – Academic Board
Professor Adela McMurray, PhD, has academic and industrial experience in manufacturing and service industries. She has over 82 publications, won best author and teacher awards and research grants totaling over $2.5 million. She is an active participant on corporate and academic boards of both universities and private higher education(HE) institutions.
Professor Christopher Trotter
Member – Academic Board
Member – Course Advisory Committee
Dr Chris Trotter is Emeritus Professor in the department of social work at Monash University. Prior to his university appointment he worked for 20 years as a child protection worker, probation officer and manager. He has undertaken more than 40 funded research projects and has more than 120 publications, including 3 sole-authored and 8 edited books. He has a strong international reputation, particularly for his work on pro-social modelling. His book Working with Involuntary Clients has been published in multiple languages and Professor Trotter has been invited to more than 15 different countries to present conference plenary sessions and workshops.
Associate Professor Kay Margetts
Member – Academic Board
Chair – Course Advisory Committee
Kay is an established expert in the Early Childhood Education sector, holding a Doctor of Philosophy, Master of Education and numerous publications specialising early years education. Kay holds an honorary membership with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education and consults independently for various universities and private higher education providers on both course development activities and board appointments.
Mr Hector Gaston
Member – Academic Board
Chair – Course Advisory Committee
Hector is an experienced local government executive with a broad history of working within service and regulatory/funding frameworks.
He has been responsible for setting and driving organisational strategy to ensure the successful development of inclusive communities and the delivery of significant community infrastructure.
Hector has further experience in the management of large budgets and the implementation of organisational change, service excellence and cultural change. Hector is currently the Director of Community Services at the Hume City Council.
Dr Natasha Ziebell
Member – Academic Board
Member – Course Advisory Committee
Dr Natasha Ziebell is a Senior Lecturer at Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. She has designed, coordinated and taught programs in initial teacher education and professional learning programs for teachers. Her research focuses on curriculum reform, curricular alignment and authorship, with a particular focus on the intended, enacted and assessed curriculum. Recent projects include the Learning+ mathematics tutoring program, the Australian Education Survey focusing on teaching and learning during COVID-19, exploring complementary classroom and museum experiences in collaboration with the Melbourne Museum, and cross-disciplinary collaboration to support students with diverse needs.
Natasha is the Deputy Lead of the National Ethics and Privacy Sub-committee for the Assessment for Graduate Teachers, and the Chair of the Parliament of Victoria Education Advisory Panel. Natasha began her career as a teacher in early childhood settings and primary schools before joining the University of Melbourne in 2007.
Ms Cherie Minniecon
Member – Academic Board
Cherie is a proud Yorta Yorta woman based on Kabi Kabi Country. She believes the future is an active space in the present (as is the past) that needs to be worked with to ensure we develop anticipatory resilience.
Cherie believes imagery and narratives about the future unpacked can impact on our sense of agency and ability to affect social change.
Cherie is passionate about the spaces that cultivate creativity, connection, play and joy, bringing moments of respite from uncertainty nurturing culture, healing and futurity. Futurity is described by Laura Harjo as the un-activated possibilities of our ancestors and speaks to the powerful ways in which futurity is being activated in everyday spaces.
Cherie has worked on international youth projects in Australia, Hong Kong, India and the Middle East. Locally, she has worked on projects such as Connection to Country projects for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who had been removed from their families and placed in state care.
Cherie has held a number of policy and program positions within government and non government organisations and I am an educator qualified in Social Work and Futures Studies.
Cherie is currently working on First Nations strategy and engagement in fire and emergency management.
Professor Marcelle Cacciattolo
Member – Academic Board
Marcelle is a sociologist and an Associate Professor in Teacher Education in the College of Arts and Education at Victoria University. She has worked in the Higher Education Sector for over twenty-five years.
Marcelle is an experienced researcher in inclusive pedagogies in higher education settings and have a strong research track record that has attracted over $2 million dollars of funding.
Marcelle is an experienced doctoral supervisor with 13 completions and have examined numerous doctoral theses.
Marcelle has a strong international profile because of my academic work. This has resulted in establishing strong partnership links with international schools, community stakeholders, Universities and Government Agencies.
In 2019 and 2016 she was a finalist for the VC Teaching Award in the College of Arts and Education.