CEI Leadership Team

Professor Anthony Whitty

Director, Centre for Education and Innovation

Anthony has held significant leadership roles in the Faculty of Health Sciences. Initially Deputy Head of School in the School of Exercise Science and more recently Associate Dean of Learning and Teaching and Head of Professional Experiences. In this role, Anthony successfully integrated the Office of the ADLT and the department of Professional Experiences into a single fully functioning entity to service the Faculty’s requirements in all aspects of learning and teaching. One of the key successes in this role was the implementation of the FHS Professional Learning Community to highlight staff engagement and the scholarship of learning and teaching.

Anthony was an integral driver of the Faculty of Health Sciences Future in Youth Project in Timor Leste, this ongoing program has been successful in giving students authentic learning experiences and supporting the transfer of their learnings into a real-life situation in a developing nation.

Anthony is a recipient of the Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student. Anthony was also a member of a team that received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Student Experience (2020) for the response to COVID-19.

Associate Professor Christian Lorenzen

Manager, Student Engagement and Success

Christian is an ACU Alumni, having recently served his 15th year as an ACU Academic. As incumbent Chair of the Courses and Academic Quality Committee (CAQC), he has extensive experience working closely with academics to promote understanding and capacity around curriculum excellence and to ensure ACU's strategic initiatives genuinely articulate with the needs of our students and the disciplinary strengths of academic colleagues in all faculties.

Within his own discipline, as National Undergraduate Course Coordinator (Exercise Science) he has been responsible for overseeing the curriculum development and implementation of 9 degrees. In 2016, he was seconded to the Provost’s office to the new position of Lead Academic (Core Curriculum). In all of his roles he has always shown a genuine commitment to delivering distinctive, innovative, student-centred curricula that reflect our unique Mission and values.

James Nicholson

Manager, Learning Experience Design

James Nicholson’s first degree was in Information Engineering from Massey University in New Zealand. His love of teaching drew him to the classroom where he taught high school maths and science in New Zealand, Australia and England. A break from teaching led him back to his technology interests where he worked for an electronics company, assisting clients design their circuit boards and program microprocessor chips.

At the University of Sydney James discovered true Learning Design which combines both his passions for technology and education. He worked at Sydney for six years developing and delivering online, face-to-face and blended courses for numerous groups including Cancer Australia and the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons. His move to ACU saw him work as an Educational Designer, eLearning Advisor and head up ACU’s first centrally located team of Learning Designers.

Dr Genevieve Morris

Academic Integity, Education Lead

Genevieve earned her undergraduate degrees from the University of Melbourne (Bachelor of Veterinary Science and Bachelor of Science), before travelling to the UK on a working holiday. She earned her PhD from Cambridge, investigating the fighting behaviour of horned aphids. On returning to Australia, she worked in various roles at the University of Melbourne, and also completed her Graduate Certificate of University Teaching.

On moving to ACU in late 2012, she rapidly took on additional responsibilities, as DHoS in the newly established School of Science. She has extensive experience in university teaching and the investigation of potential academic misconduct. In 2021, she was seconded to implement the recommendations arising from the 2020 Review into Academic Integrity at ACU.

Associate Professor Alison Owens

Academic Lead, Scholarship and Professional Learning

Alison has worked in the Australian higher education sector for over twenty-five years. At Central Queensland University she began lecturing in Arts and Communications before taking leadership roles as Associate Director Academic (CQU, Sydney Campus) and then Director of the International Education Research Centre (CQU). She completed her Doctorate in Education (UTS) in 2005 focusing on teaching and learning in culturally diverse university contexts. In 2018, she completed a PhD in Creative Arts (historical fiction).

Alison began working at ACU in 2017 as an academic developer where she has further developed her long interest in scholarship and professional learning in the university context. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance Higher Education, a TEQSA Expert and an ACU representative on the Council of Australasian University Leaders of Learning and Teaching (CAULLT). Alison collaborates widely in scholarship and professional learning projects within ACU, across Australian universities as well as internationally.

David Heath

Manager, Strategic Projects

David has joined ACU from RMIT, where he worked as Lead, Digital Experience in the Digital Campus team. In this role he managed a team responsible for both institution-wide multimedia production and the user experience of staff and students with Canvas and other integrated learning tools. Prior to working at RMIT, David taught in the Bachelor of Social Work at Charles Darwin University and also worked as a research project manager on multiple category 1 projects, focused on academic leadership and learning analytics. As Manager, Strategic Projects in CEI, David looks forward to working alongside ACU's faculties and CEI colleagues on the Canvas implementation project, developing an institutional approach to quality and improving our end-to-end unit design and production process.

Adele Richards

Business Analyst

Adele is the Business Analyst for InPlace, the universities clinical and professional placement system. In this role she manages the application of the system, coordinates upgrades, manages projects to implement new and improved functionality. Adele has been a part of the ACU Family for over 15 years starting out in Student Administration in 2007 within the Student Centre, then moving into Student Systems, undertaking a number of different roles to build knowledge in system processes, testing, training, and supporting stakeholders. In 2018 She took on a new challenge in the Business Analyst role for the InPlace project, then moved into the Centre of Education and Innovation to manage the transition from project to business as usual. She is very eager to continue her work with her team and stakeholders from across faculty placement services, ACU Engagement and Student Administration to improve both staff and student experience across the placement space.

Associate Professor Georgia Clarkson

Academic Lead, Quality Enhancement

Georgia has a mixed disciplinary and work background in arts, teaching and paramedicine. Georgia has a strong focus on inclusivity in education having completed her PhD around the impact of inclusive educational practice for LGBTQI+ health students and practitioners. Georgia has been an academic since 2008 and has been employed at several universities, where she worked in school, faculty, university and cross institutional programs and project leadership roles. Georgia has also led numerous teaching development grant projects in collaboration with colleagues from a broad range of disciplines.

Guido Ernst

Manager, Academic Skills Unit

Guido holds two teaching degrees and a Master of Arts (in literature, linguistics and philosophy). He held academic and professional roles at the University of Melbourne since 2004. From 2011 to 2021, Guido was the Manager of Academic Skills at the University of Melbourne. In that role he successfully implemented a number of initiatives including a peer academic writing service, a ‘students as partners’ initiative and a new service model that saw academic skills development embedded in curriculum. He joined ACU as the manager of the Academic Skills Unit in 2021. Guido is committed to data informed decision making and to the development of high performing teams.

Dr John Mahoney

INSPIRE, Academic Lead

John is a psychologist by training, with an interest in leadership, coaching, and performance. In his academic role, John teaches into undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the School of Behavioural and Health Sciences. He also has a strong track record of leading learning and teaching projects with a focus on student engagement and learning. His passion, however, is to support academics in using highest-level evidence to inform their learning and teaching practices. Along with three colleagues, he established INSPIRE, which aligns closely with his passion. He continues to grow INSPIRE and scale it, as well as work on other learning and teaching projects aimed at providing high-quality student experiences.