ACSES Staff

In addition to being ACSES’s Executive Director, Shamit is a Visiting Professor at King’s College, London and an Emeritus Professor at the University of Essex. He has 36 years of experience in international academia, government, business, regulation and philanthropy, is a former Senior Advisor to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, and a Knowledge Exchange Fellow in the David Cameron administration. Shamit was previously Director of the UWA Public Policy Institute. He has held personal chairs, visiting professorships and senior management roles at Essex, Sussex, Liverpool and Queen Mary in the UK, and at UCLA, Yale and Toronto in North America. He has published six books, 70+ journal papers and book chapters, and 20+ policy reports. His research capture exceeds $70m research income.

John is Executive Director of the John Curtin Institute of Public Policy in addition to being ACSES’s Deputy Director. He has worked with ACSES since 2013 where he oversaw the Centre’s research grants program, and was Interim Director from August 2022 to July 2023. John has extensive senior level experience in the Western Australian Government, including as Chief of Staff to ministers and as director of intergovernmental relations in the Premier’s Department. He has researched and published on Australian public policy, politics, public administration and higher education, and is a regular media commentator on Australian and Western Australian politics and public policy. John has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of WA, a first class honours from Oxford University, and a Masters and PhD from the University of Sussex.

Ian is an applied economist with expertise in labour and health economics. He has a track record of research funding as chief investigator totalling AUD$7 million to-date from nationally competitive schemes including the NHMRC, NCVER and NCSEHE. Ian has published in the top journals in his field, including Social Science and Medicine, Higher Education and the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management. He is a grant panel member for the MRFF and assessor for the ARC, co-editor of the Australian Journal of Labour Economics and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management.

Gemma has a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Mathematics and a PhD in Genetic Epidemiology from the University of Western Australia. Gemma’s professional background includes roles in academia and government, with a primary focus in leveraging complex data to improve health and well-being outcomes. She has been awarded more than $3.5 million in research funding as Chief Investigator and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles. Gemma’s work at the Centre provides her with an opportunity to apply her extensive health research background to improving student equity outcomes in higher education.

Associate Professor Tim Pitman is a researcher of higher education policy with a focus on widening access and participation for groups of students historically under-represented in higher education. This includes people from low-socio economic backgrounds, Indigenous people, people with disability, people from non-English speaking backgrounds and people from regional and remote parts of Australia. Tim is a former Senior Researcher and Equity Fellow with NCSEHE. He has worked in the Australian higher education sector since 1996 and his PhD in Education was completed at The University of Western Australia in 2012.

Miriam holds a Master of International Relations from Griffith University and a Bachelor of Arts from The University of Western Australia. A former journalist, Miriam has worked in newsrooms in Australia, India and Nepal covering topics ranging from education, health and human rights through to mountaineering, music and mateship. She authored a book for the Australian Embassy Kathmandu, campaigned for women journalists’ rights, consulted for I/NGOs and United Nations agencies and taught English to impoverished children in tsunami-ravaged villages. Prior to joining the ACSES team, Miriam headed UWA Public Policy Institute’s communications and engagement strategy in Australia and the Indian Ocean Region.

Canki holds a Master of Finance and Double Degrees in International Business and Asian Studies from Curtin University. She has been working in the higher education sector for 13 years. Canki has been awarded twice as a professional staff member for the year for different areas. Her areas of expertise include project coordination, communication, and organisation. She is passionate about working with people from diverse backgrounds and understanding their cultures.

Patricia is a credentialed evaluator (designated by the Canadian Evaluation Society), with expertise in experimental and quasi-experimental designs. Her professional experience is broad, with 20 years of experience delivering well over 100 independent evaluations for various international governments and agencies. Her extensive experience ranges from leading small pilot studies to large-scale evaluations and trials of national significance as well as multi-country evaluations. She strives to achieve equitable outcomes through her work, which has spanned across the Pacific and within Asia, the Middle East, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Patricia worked as a consultant for the previous 15 years, and in the most recent 8 years, she founded and then served as the Director for Standard of Proof, an evaluation and research consultancy focused on helping people access and use quality evidence. Patricia also worked in various government research and academic roles, such as serving as a Principal Evaluator at the Education Review Office (New Zealand), an Associate Professor at Hokkaido University (Japan), and a Research Fellow at the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands). Patricia has two Masters degrees from the University of London (Queen Mary), and a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington.

Dr Patrick Broman has most recently been HEPPP Evaluation Manager at Swinburne University of Technology and was previously Lead Adviser, Network at the New Zealand Ministry of Education. He holds continuing appointments as Research Fellow at the Centre for Health and Social Practice, Waikato Institute of Technology (Hamilton, New Zealand) and the Centre for Just Places, Jesuit Social Services (Melbourne).

He is a demographer by training and applies strong quantitative and statistical modelling skills to his research and evaluation practice, much of which has involved regional disparities, especially in education; innovations in tertiary education and training; and the classification and counting of ethnic groups.

Paul Koshy works in the Research and Policy Program examining issues relating to equity status and higher education participation and outcomes. His recent work has included research on parental expectations and higher education enrolment, and policy analysis on equity participation targets and the potential for equity rankings in Australian higher education.

Novia holds a Master’s in Biostatistics from the University of Sydney and is currently completing her PhD, focusing on the comparative metabolic mapping of obesogenesis and metabolic disease across different populations. With a diverse background as a biostatistician, she has worked in areas such as paediatric, maternal, and infant health, as well as physiotherapy and exercise science. Novia is enthusiastic about applying her research experience to contribute to higher education.

Anna holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is a highly experienced Communications Specialist, having worked in various roles with a communications focus in New Zealand and Australia—from large public sector organisations to small private businesses. She has been a presenter for workshops on topics such as Plain Language for Business Writing and Use of Social Media for Marketing, and has run private marketing coaching sessions for small business owners. Throughout her career, Anna has shown a particular interest in making a difference to the lives of others in the roles she performed, which is what attracted her to the work of ACSES. Outside her corporate roles, Anna is a certified yoga and meditation instructor with a special interest in mindfulness and functional movement practices for physical and mental wellbeing.

Indu has a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English from Maharshi Dayanand University, India. She also holds Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management. She has around 10 years of experience as an educator and administrator within public and private universities in India. Indu has undertaken additional duties as assigned and worked as a member of several committees, including examinations, student placement, anti-ragging and admissions. She has also done her research work in the field of Behaviourist and Humanistic psychology and published and presented several papers in conferences and seminars.

Fardowsa is a third-year student with a background in communication and marketing, currently serving as a Communications Officer at ACSES as part of Curtin University’s Earn While You Learn program. Fardowsa’s academic journey has equipped her with skills in content creation and social media management, and she has practical experience in campaign planning and data analytics. Fardowsa previously worked in retail. She is enthusiastic about contributing to ACSES’s communications program and growing professionally within the team.

Varun Mehta joined ACSES in 2024 as a Research Assistant. Varun is a junior economist who recently completed an Honours degree at The University of Western Australia. He worked in the public sector for the last two years across a number of roles in labour market research and economic modelling. His research interests include labour market dynamics, behavioural economics and welfare economics.

Daniel Doss is a second-year Bachelor of Science (Actuarial Science) student at Curtin University. In his role as Data Analyst, Daniel brings his programming experience in R and Python to conduct various studies about student equity areas. His appointment through the Earn While You Learn program at Curtin has allowed him to combine his passion for students and education, as well as gain valuable professional experience while contributing to ACSES’s mission of promoting student equity. 

Avishi Milentis works with ACSES Research and Policy Program Director Professor Ian Li as a Research Assistant. Avi recently completed his Honours degree in Finance on the topic of ‘European football player price determinants’. Hailing from a small town in the lower South West of WA Manjimup, Avi enjoys conducting research to improve student equity.