The Melbourne School of Government works with academic and professional staff across the whole University, particularly in the disciplines of law, economics and business, and political science.
Professor Mark Considine
Professor Mark Considine is the Dean of the University's Faculty of Arts. Mark is also a Fellow of the Institute of Public Administration Australia and the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. His award-winning research focuses on governance studies, local development and organisational sociology.
He has received multiple accolades for his work, including the Marshall E Dimmock Award and the American Educational Research Association's Outstanding Publication Award. He plays an active role in government and community sector reforms and has been a key player in the implementation of a number of organisational reviews.
Professor Carolyn Evans
As well as being Dean of Melbourne Law School, Professor Carolyn Evans is an internationally recognised expert on human rights law, religious legal law and international dispute resolution. She's an active member of adjudicatory bodies including the Strasbourg Consortium on Religious Freedom and the Australian Constitutional Law Association.
Carolyn attained her first undergraduate degree from The University of Melbourne, but studied her doctorate at Oxford University, where she became a Rhodes Scholar and lecturer. She was also awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship as Visiting Fellow at American and Emory Universities.
Professor Paul Kofman
Professor Paul Kofman has a PhD in Economics from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He became Professor of Finance at The University of Melbourne in 2001 and Head of Department in 2006. He was appointed Young Researcher Programme Director of the ARC Financial Integrity Research Network in 2005.
Paul has lectured in econometrics and quantitative finance at Monash, UNSW and UTS and received numerous grants, including the ARC Discovery grant, for outstanding research. He's published in numerous econometrics journals, including the Journal of International Economics and worked as Associate Editor of the Asia-Pacific Futures Research Symposia, the International Journal of Managerial Finance and the Review of Futures Markets.
Professor Andrew Walter
Andrew Walter is the Interim Director of Melbourne School of Government. Andrew specialises in International Political Economy and joined The University of Melbourne as Professor of International Relations in 2012. His previous academic posts were at Oxford University and most recently at the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was also academic director of the TRIUM Global Executive MBA Program. He has been a visiting professor at universities across the globe, including Canada, Japan and America.
Andrew sits on the editorial board of the Review of International Studies, the journal of the British International Studies Association. He has co-authored and published many titles including East Asian Capitalism: Diversity, Change & Continuity, Analysing the Global Political Economy, Governing Finance: East Asia's Adoption of International Standards, and China, the United States and Global Order.
Professor Janine O'Flynn
Professor Janine O'Flynn studied both her PhD and Bachelor of Commerce at The University of Melbourne. She's now back at Melbourne as Professor of Public Management. She holds an Adjunct Professorship at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and was elected onto the Executive Board of the International Research Society for Public Management in 2012. Her research focuses on public sector reform and relationships and she has published widely on topics such as how government organisations work with external parties, joined-up government, and public value. She is currently engaged in a collaborative project with the Australian Public Service Commission to design and implement new performance management principles across the Australian Public Service.
Janine has won awards for teaching excellence, including a national citation from the Australian Teaching and Learning council in 2011.
In 2013 she was part of the team awarded the Charles H Levine award for best paper in the Public and Nonprofit Division and the Carlo Masini Award for outstanding scholarship in the fields of public and nonprofit management, awarded to the best paper examining the behaviour of public sector and nonprofit organisation at the annual Academy of Management conference in the United States.
Professor Paul Jensen
Professor Jensen is an industrial economist who has applied his technical expertise extensively in health services. His work relates to solving real-world problems and improving productivity via better public policy. He specialises in the economics of innovation, contracts and incentives, organisation resilience and the interface between the public sector and private actors and systems. Paul directs the Melbourne School of Government's research on Knowledge and Expertise which explores emerging ideas, tools and frameworks shaping public governance in the 21st century and how 'evidence' be best used to support better public institutions and outcomes. He brings extensive practical experience from working with IBM, the OECD, the European Commission, Asialink and the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Professor Jenny M Lewis
Professor Jenny Lewis is Professor of Public Policy and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow for 2013-16. She has published widely on policy influence, governance and the policy process and is currently working on the debate surrounding performance measurement. Jenny is currently the Vice President (Australia and New Zealand) of the International Research Society for Public Management, and a member of the Executive of the Australian Political Studies Association.
She has received multiple research prizes, including the Marshall E Dimock award for best article in Public Administration Review in 1999, a VicHealth health promotion research award in 2004, and the Kooiman prize for the best article in Public Management Review in 2012.
Erika Feller, Vice Chancellor's Professorial Fellow
From 2005 to April 2013 Ms Feller held the post of Assistant High Commissioner (Protection), one of the four top management positions with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. This was the culmination of a 26 year long career with UNHCR, and had been preceded by 14 years service as an Australian diplomat, in Canberra and overseas. For UNHCR, Ms Feller served both in Geneva and in the field. She was the initiator and manager of the 2001-2 Global Consultations on International Protection, which generated the Agenda for Protection, the internationally endorsed global "road map" on protection policy for refugees. She has visited all major refugee situations during her time with UNHCR, and is broadly respected as a refugee law advocate who has been widely published. She was made a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Most recently she has taken up an appointment as Vice Chancellor's Fellow at The University of Melbourne.
Professor John Howe
Professor John Howe is Deputy Dean of the Melbourne Law School, and a Director of the Centre for Employment and Labour Relations Law at the Law School. His research interests include regulatory theory, corporate accountability and labour law, and he teaches in the areas of corporations law, corporate social responsibility and labour law. John is also a member of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation.
Prior to commencing an academic career, John worked in private legal practice, and also as a researcher for public policy and advocacy organisations in Washington DC. John was Secretary of the Australian Labour Law Association between 2005 and 2009. He presently serves on the Organising Committee of the Regulating for Decent Work Network, the Steering Committee of the Labour Law Research Network and the Editorial Committee of the Australian Journal of Labour Law.
Professor John Langmore
Professor John Langmore lead's the Melbourne School of Government's research on Security and Political Engagement. Between 1963 and 1976 he worked in Papua New Guinea as a public servant where he led the preparation of the first national plan. Between 1976 and 1984 he was an economic advisor to the Labor Party and proposed the negotiation of the Accord. In 1984 he was elected as the Member for Fraser in the House of Representatives and was re-elected four times. One of his achievements there was chairing the committee which planned the adoption of the first comprehensive committee system for the House of Representatives. He retired from parliament in 1996 to become Director of the UN Division for Social Policy and Development in New York for five years and then Representative of the International Labour Organization to the United Nations for two. He was responsible for the organisation of the 24th special session of the General Assembly which was the first world conference to agree on a global target for halving serious poverty. Professor Langmore teaches two graduate subjects, The United Nations: Review and Reform for the Master of International Relations and Socio-Economic Development for the Master of Development Studies. He has published extensively in books, journals and in the media, including Dealing with America: the UN, the US and Australia and To Firmer Ground: Restoring Hope in Australia.
Dr Sara Bice
Dr Sara Bice is the Director of Research Translation at Melbourne School of Government. Sara has a decade of experience assisting private firms, non-profits and government agencies to plan and advance sustainable development agendas. Her research for the Public Policy in the 'Asian Century' project investigates how shifting economic, political and social relations affect public policy in a context of increasing Asian influence. Previously, Sara examined institutional factors influencing corporate social responsibility in Australian mining. Her career is committed to creating shared value for communities and companies through evidence-based decision-making, risk management and strong stakeholder engagement.
Nicholas Reece, Principal Fellow
Nick is a Principal Fellow with the Melbourne School of Government and the School of Social and Political Sciences.
Nick has over 12 years of experience working at the highest levels of government in Australia including for the Prime Minister and two Victorian Premiers. His key roles during this period included Deputy Chief of Staff, Head of Policy and Director of Strategy. Earlier in his career Nick worked as a journalist with the Australian Financial Review and as a lawyer specializing in industrial relations and commercial law.
Nick has a Master of Public Administration from ANZSOG and degrees in Law, Economics and Arts. His areas of expertise include public policy development particularly in the fields of education, innovation and public infrastructure as well as public sector management and strategic communications.
Outside of the University Nick is a director of the social enterprise and street newspaper The Big Issue and the men's health movement The Movember Foundation.
Stephanie Amir
Stephanie Amir is the Program Manager for the Pathways to Politics Program. She has worked across all three levels of government in research, policy development, as secretariat for a Victorian parliamentary committee and advisor to Ellen Sandell MP. She has also worked as a social policy consultant advising clients in the government and community sectors, and as a manager at the Foundation for Young Australians. She has a Bachelor of Science (Honours), Bachelor of Arts and postgraduate specialist certificate in Social Inclusion, all from the University of Melbourne. Outside the university she is on the Board of Directors at community radio station JOY 94.9 and is proud to be the youngest current Councillor at the City of Darebin.
Molly Thrasher
Molly Thrasher is the Communications and Public Relations Manager in the Melbourne School of Government. Molly works with academic and professional colleagues across the University to extend the reach of MSoG’s research, executive education and stakeholder engagement activities.
She is also the Founder of Try Freedom Stories, a not-for-profit dedicated to telling stories of community solutions to social issue problems. She holds a Masters in film production from American University in Washington D.C. and a Bachelors from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Molly has over a decade of experience in video production, communications, and public relations. She has consulted for U.S. political campaigns as a communications specialist and worked as a staffer for Tucson Councilman, Steve Kozachik. Her documentary films include a short on a neighborhood food collection project, one about a global health program in Africa, and a historical piece tracing the beginnings of bluegrass music. She was a contributing author to the textbook Creating Wealth: Ethical and Economic Perspectives with an article called "Try Freedom."