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.

Dr Christine Armatas

Academic Lead, Asynchronous Online Learning 

Christine joined ACU after returning from working overseas as the Associate Director, Educational Development at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. She has a background in educational development and curriculum design, particularly in the area of online learning. Her research interests include the use of technology to enhance learning outcomes for students and the application of learning analytics for unit and course quality assurance and enhancement.

Dr Agnes Au

Senior Interactive Developer, Interactive Development

Agnes comes to ACU from her role as a Lecturer in Audiology as well as a designer for online materials in audiology. Agnes is a passionate researcher and gets joy from bringing complex concepts and theories to audiences in a way that helps them to understand these concepts. Agnes has provided expert consultation on a specific learning tool to assist with paediatric hearing assessment. In her spare time, you can find Agnes sourcing the best filter brew known in Melbourne or tending to her whippet, cat or very vintage car, Margie.

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.

Kirstin Donaldson

Senior Manager, Online Student Experience and Retention

Kirstin has 15-years’ experience in database marketing consultancies and the education sector as an analytics professional. Passionate about team collaboration, Kirstin works to deliver timely quality results and communicates effectively with all stakeholders. Naturally curious, when it comes to data, Kirstin loves the challenge of translating complex data into evidence-based insights that allow organisations to make better-informed decisions. After work, she can be found at St Kilda Beach or Albert Park running with her very energetic Koolie, Buddy.

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.

Neil Grant

Lead Digital Learning Designer, Digital Learning Design

Words, learning and creativity are the three elements that occupy Neil’s working life. Neil has a Bachelor of Arts (Creative Writing) and a Graduate Diploma in Education which he utilises in both his life as an author and his extensive learning design career. Working in various senior and leadership roles, Neil has contributed to learning design for universities such as RMIT, Swinburne and Western Sydney University.  Neil believes empathy is the basis of good writing and education. He is an award-winning author of young adult fiction. 

David Hall

Lead Digital Learning Designer, Digital Learning Design

Dave’s interest and lifetime association with technology means that he not only feels comfortable in an online environment, but he is also able to identify and use tools particular to online education which are not available for face-to-face teaching. Dave is a keen innovator and has a natural curiosity for workflow models which he has championed in a variety of roles at RMIT, Swinburne and now ACU. He has worked on gamification of units in areas such as accounting and sociology. A passionate musician who has a talent for Brazilian percussion, he has been practicing for several years.

Emmyrose Hobbs

Program Manager, ACU Online

Emmyrose is a passionate quality assurance professional with a background in editing and publishing. Currently undergoing a Master of Business (Change Management) she also holds a Bachelor of Communication (Professional writing and editing). Emmyrose brings together her enjoyment of process-oriented work, problem solving and people management to ensure a smooth flow of work for the ACU Online operations. On weekends she loves having people over to her home in regional Victoria.

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.

Dr John Mahoney

Academic Lead, Higher Education Learning and Teaching Academy (HELTA)

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.

Dr Jonathan Molad

Team Leader, Content Quality and Editorial

Yoni is a long time academic teacher and researcher and has worked at ACU for the last few years as a sessional lecturer. He has a PhD in philosophy and joins the team after working as a digital news editor for an international media organisation. Yoni is passionate about communicating ideas and philosophical education. He spends his free time playing music and collecting vinyl records.

Dr Genevieve Morris

Academic Integrity, 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.

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.

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.

Adele Richards

National Manager, Centre for Education and Innovation

Adele manages all operational tasks for the Centre for Education and Innovation, provides strategic support to the Director of CEI and the leadership team, and is an integral link between CEI and ACU faculties and directorates. Previously, Adele was the Business Analyst for InPlace, the universities clinical and professional placement system. In this role she managed the application of the system, coordinated upgrades, managed 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.

Dr Yayoi Wai

Senior Manager, Digital Learning Design

Yayoi has a PhD in marketing and two bachelor degrees, one in arts (media communications) and in business (with honours). Her roles have included product development, project management, learning design, leadership and change management. Yayoi is passionate about people management and driving high functioning teams. She spent time in the corporate sector before expanding her skills in online education. When she is not working, Yayoi enjoys travel and shares her experiences with her colleagues through her virtual backgrounds in meetings.