Centre for Work + Life people
Centre staff have backgrounds in many
different disciplinary areas (including economics, gender studies, public health,
psychology, industrial relations, sociology, political science,
labour studies, social work, legal studies and human resources). We are a multi-disciplinary team,
applying multiple research methods. We also have broad
experience in a range of employment occupations.
Prof
Barbara Pocock AM, Director
Barbara Pocock has been researching work, employment and industrial relations in Australia for over twenty-five years. She joined the University of South Australia and established the Centre for Work + Life in 2006. She was a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow between 2003-2007. Her first degree was in economics, her PhD was in gender studies, and both were undertaken at the University of Adelaide. She has worked in many jobs: in universities, advising politicians, on farms, in unions, for governments and as a mother. She is widely published. Her recent books include The work-life collision: what work is doing to Australians and what to do about it, The labour market ate my babies: work children and a sustainable future, Kids count: better early childhood education and care in Australia and Living low paid: the dark side of prosperous Australia (with Helen Masterman-Smith). She has a lifelong pre-occupation with work and inequality.
Assoc Prof Sara Charlesworth, Principal Research Fellow
Sara has a background in social work, political science, government law and legal studies. Late to academia she has worked in community development, in unions, in the public service, as an English teacher for adults, as a tribunal member and as a free lance researcher. Sara's central and long-standing research interest is gender equality in paid work and, in particular, the impact of employment and anti-discrimination regulation at the labour market, industry and workplace levels. Her research has focused on job quality, part-time work, work/life balance, sex and pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment. She has published and presented widely in a range of academic, policy and community forums and has been actively involved in a number of key gender policy reviews and debates. Sara joined the Centre for Work + Life in 2011 after almost a decade at the Centre for Applied Social Research at RMIT University.
Elizabeth
Oram, Centre Coordinator
Elizabeth Oram is the Centre Coordinator and the most recent addition to the team. Her work experience is varied, ranging through academic and commercial research centre management to charter yacht chef in the Caribbean. At the Centre for Work + Life, Elizabeth coordinates the full range of academic and research administration activities and processes that support the Centre's research and the development and delivery of its projects and specialist programs. She is also the Centre's key reference point for academic administration and is a conduit between the Centre, Division Services and University central units and is extremely busy most of the time. Some days she dreams of the Caribbean.
Dr Natalie
Skinner, Research Fellow
Natalie's primary research interests are around health and well-being in the workplace. She has conducted research on a range of issues including stress and burnout, job satisfaction, work overload and more recently the interaction between work and life. Much of her research has focused on the health workforce. Her background is in psychology, public health and the alcohol and other drugs field. Natalie is the project manager for the Australian Work and Life Index (AWALI) and the Work, Life and Health Project. She also has an interest in strategies to bridge the gap between research and practice to support evidence-based policy making and organisational interventions.
Dr Janine Chapman,
Research
Fellow
Janine's academic background is in psychology, with a specialist interest
in psychosocial models of behaviour change. Her PhD, from the University of
Sheffield, UK, involved designing and implementing interventions to change
dietary behaviour. Following her PhD, she moved to into UK primary care,
developing community-based projects to reduce diabetes risk and improve
preconception health in minority ethnic groups. Since moving to Adelaide in
2010, she has conducted research on a number of work-related projects,
including the impact of changes to workers' compensation law, and the
working practices of effective supervisors. Janine joined the Centre for
Work + Life in 2011 and is currently project manager for the ARC-funded
project Work, life and sustainable
living: how work, household and community life interact to affect
environmental behaviours and outcomes.
Dr
Pip Williams, Research Fellow
(Currently on extended leave)
Pip has studied a range of social, psychological and health phenomena over the past sixteen years and is now working on a large multi-method study exploring how people fit work, home and community together in urban Australia. Her background is in psychology and public health. She completed her PhD in public health at the University of Adelaide, where she used grounded theory to explore the meaning of social support to new mothers and grandmothers. She also has a Masters in Public Health from the University of New South Wales. Pip has worked in many jobs: as an educator, massage therapist, market research interviewer, dental nurse, waitress, kitchen hand, accounts clerk, shop assistant, kiosk attendant, stable hand, door-to-door sales person and cleaner and – not least – as a mother.
Anthea Worley, Research Assistant
Anthea joined the Centre in August 2011 to work as a Research Assistant
on an ARC Discovery Grant,
Sexual harassment
in Australia: Contexts, outcomes and prevention. Anthea has previously
worked as a Research Assistant for the International Centre for Allied
Health Evidence (UniSA) and was involved in systematic reviews and
developing guidelines across a range of allied health related fields. She
has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals. Anthea has studied
Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management and has post graduate
qualifications in International and Community Development studies. Anthea
has worked in government, non-government and the private
sector.
Jen Manning, Administrator
Jen joined the Centre for Work + Life in March 2008, as administrator and personal assistant to the Centre Director and provides efficient and continuous support to Centre staff. Prior to working at the university, she worked for many years in various administrative and office management roles in the private sector particularly in the medical field, as well as in government administration. She is also kept busy as the mother of two teenage children.
Suzanne Pritchard,
Project Officer
Suzanne commenced work with the Centre in early 2008 having undertaken several other roles in the university sector, including the management of student scholarships and policy projects. This followed her earlier work over many years in Commonwealth government and national agencies primarily in the school and higher education areas, with a focus on multicultural, language and literacy, ethnic community and tertiary education policy. She has had experience in executive officer roles to national advisory committees as well as to the board of a joint Commonwealth/state owned company.
Dr Jane Edwards,
Adjunct Research Fellow
Jane's academic background is in the sociology of health and illness and she has a PhD from the Department of Public Health, University of Adelaide. Her research has focused on mental health in rural settings, sexuality and its relationship to health and health service access; and service development and delivery in rural settings. More recently, Jane has focused on community-based research; the way people define community strength and its relationship to health, the impacts of water policy on communities and the development of tools to audit the capacity of communities to respond to opportunities or threats. She has recently been engaged on a project examining the integration of work, home and community in urban settings. Jane's past employment has included nursing, cleaning and factory work.
Dr Damian Oliver, Adjunct Research Fellow
Damian Oliver is a Research Fellow at the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) based in Adelaide. In 2009, he was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany. Prior to that, he was a researcher at the Workplace Research Centre at the University of Sydney. Originally from Queensland, he completed his PhD in industrial relations at Griffith University in 2006. Damian is working on a joint project involving the Centre for Work + Life and NCVER. The project will examine young people's participation in vocational education and training, focusing on which young people undertake further studies in VET. The project will use data from the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY).