We take a scientific approach to improving educational outcomes.

Richard Holden is a Professor of Economics at UNSW Business School, Director of the Economics of Education Knowledge Hub @UNSWBusiness, Co-director of the New Economic Policy Initiative, and President-elect of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Prior to that he was on the faculty at the University of Chicago and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received a PhD from Harvard University.

He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Richard’s homepage.

The Hon Adrian Piccoli is the former NSW Minister for Education and former Director of UNSW’s Gonski Institute for Education. He is a highly regarded policy reform advocate particularly in relation to addressing inequality in Australian education as well as improving access for students to high-quality education wherever they may live or go to school.

In 2017 he was made a Fellow of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders.

In 2019 Adrian published his first book, 12 Ways Your Child Can Get the Best Out of School.

Associate Professor Isabella Dobrescu is the Deputy Director of UNSW’s Scientia Education Academy. A microeconometrician by training, she is currently involved in several evaluation studies designed to identify 'what works' in education, providing insights into ways to address the challenges of modern higher education. Her broader research spans cognition and decision-making, with a focus on economic well-being.

Alberto is an Associate Professor of Economics at UNSW Business School. His interests are in contract theory, development economics and labour. He studies the types and features of organisational design that are most effective in firms, enforcement agencies and media. More recently, he combines theory, empirical analysis and randomised controlled trials to help design interventions that aim to improve educational outcomes using technology.

Sarah Walker is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics at UNSW Business School. Her research focuses on topics in applied microeconomics, including economic development, economic history, culture and institutions, and the intersection of these issues with the environment. Prior to completing her PhD at the University of Wisconsin in 2015, Sarah held consultancies with the World Bank and UNHCR, and worked for several years in boutique financial services. In 2020, she was awarded the Paul Bourke Award for Early Career Research by the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) by the Australian Research Council.

Pasi Sahlberg is a Visiting Professorial Fellow at UNSW Business School. He is a Finnish educator and author who has worked as schoolteacher, teacher educator, researcher, and policymaker in Finland and has advised national education reforms around the world. Pasi has held senior education expert posts in World Bank and European Commission, and leadership positions in the Finnish Government. His research interests include whole-system educational change, international education policies, equity in education, and learning through play.

Rosalind Dixon is a Professor and Director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law at the Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW. She is passionate about education at all levels, and involved in the NSW DET Game Changer challenge as a judge and stream co-designer, and on the educational advisory board of Cluey Learning.

Philip is an Associate Professor in Curriculum Inquiry & Rural Education at the University of Canberra, where he is the research leader for the Rural Education and Communities research group within the Centre for Sustainable Communities. His research has focused on rural schools, the attraction and retention of professionals in rural schools and access and achievement in the senior secondary curriculum.

Philip was a High School Teacher and School Executive in rural schools and has led a number of large-scale research projects in the rural education and curriculum fields.

He is an ARC DECRA Fellow (2020-23). Philip Received his PhD from Charles Sturt University.

Fabio is a Research Associate at UNSW Business School. He is an empirical economist focusing on issues around family, education and law. He studies household formation and dissolution and their ramifications on the well-being of children.

Notwithstanding a background in Philosophy, he is an avid programmer and is currently working on applications of natural language processing (NLP) techniques to the study of Family Law.