Our people
<p>Helping researchers develop, connect, and succeed</p>
In the Researcher Development Unit we are a dynamic and collaborative team of people development experts motivated to do good for academics and research.
Louise leads the division of Researcher Training in the Research Portfolio. The Researcher Development Unit is one of three teams in the division. Louise is a clinical psychologist with a PhD in health psychology from the University of London.
Louise researches the interface between clinical and health psychology, focused on the development of clinically significant psychological problems in people with chronic health conditions.
She has awards from the Australian Psychological Society and Australian Association for Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for her contribution to clinical psychology and cognitive behaviour therapy. Louise is a Fellow of the AACBT and the Association for Social Science in Australia.
Miriam leads the Researcher Development Unit – a passionate team with researchers at their heart of all they do.
She works with and mobilises diverse people from across the organisation to deliver new, University-wide initiatives that develop and support our academics.
Miriam’s PhD was in biochemistry (2012) and she has worked as a researcher in Australia, Denmark, and Germany.
She also brings a decade of research management experience including developing researchers, research and funding strategy, project delivery, and team leadership.
Alison designs and delivers researcher development opportunities for targeted cohorts across the University.
She manages the Horizon Fellowship development program to support the success of our future global research leaders in climate, sustainability and health. She believes a collaborative approach within and outside the University is vital and, having undertaken substantial user research into EMCR needs, is rolling out new programs to our emerging research leaders.
Alison hails from the UK and was a teacher before moving to Australia. She has held various roles supporting university staff in their learning and career development before joining the RDU in 2022 to focus on her passion of supporting researchers.
Danielle creates and delivers broad-scale programs, initiatives, and resources to support researchers across the University.
Danielle runs Research Insights, a workshop series designed to showcase areas of support at the University in a short, accessible, and interactive format. She also organises our twice yearly Stepping Stones career development symposium for ECRs.
She enjoys thinking of new and creative ways to help academics thrive in their careers and co-developing new initiatives with researchers.
Danielle has a PhD in American History from the University of Sydney and has a passion for writing and all things old.
Seema manages the Researcher Development Hub website, with a focus on creating material that fosters career development and academic excellence.
As the Digital Content Producer, Seema develops tailor-made content to suit the needs of researchers at the University of Sydney. She is passionate about storytelling as a means to connect and inspire like-minded thinkers, and uses it to build knowledge and community among them.
Seema received a Master of Philosophy in Communication from the University of Newcastle, where she spent six years working in roles across research, teaching, learning design, and research communication. Originally from Los Angeles, USA, she loves all things writing, design and film.
