Associate Professor Niusha Shafiabady

PhD (Electrical Engineering-Control & Systems), FHEA (UK), MSc (Mechatronics), BEng (Hons) (Software Engineering)

Associate Professor- Computational Intelligence, Department of IT, Peter Faber Business School, ACU

Expertise: Computational Intelligence, AI

Associate Professor Shafiabady is an internationally recognised expert in the field of Computational Intelligence with many years of professional experience in both academia and industry. She is the inventor of a computational optimisation algorithm and has developed Ai-Labz which is a simple Computational Intelligence predictive analysis tool. The highlight of her work is blending academic knowledge and research findings into industrial applications and creating a bridge between academia and industry. She has developed expert decision-making systems for variety of applications using Artificial Intelligence in solving real-world problems. Her ultimate vision is to utilise her expertise in Computational and Artificial Intelligence for enhancing human life.

Professor Joy Parkinson

Professor Joy Parkinson, Associate Dean (Research and Enterprise), Faculty of Law and Business,
Australian Catholic University

Expertise: Consumer behaviour

Professor Joy Parkinson is Associate Dean Research at Australian Catholic Education. Joy is a consumer behaviour expert. As such, she works in systems social marketing, transformative services research, service thinking in social marketing and social value creation. Dr Parkinson’s research focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of health services, including digital services. Joy’s research interests include transformative service design for behaviour change in healthy weight management and more recently, service design for minority and vulnerable consumers. Behaviour change programs Joy has developed have directly engaged over 200,000 participants resulting in improved health behaviours and health quality of life. Professor Parkinson is a management board member of Australian Association of Social Marketing and the Evaluation Strategic Advisor on the Queensland Health Alliance My health for life Operations Management Committee.

Professor Ambika Zutshi

Dean, Peter Faber Business School, Australian Catholic University

Expertise: social responsibility, food waste/insecurity, higher education, supply chain management, and stakeholder relationships

Ambika is Professor and National Head of the Peter Faber Business School. Her current research is focused on corporate social responsibility, food waste/insecurity, higher education, supply chain management, and stakeholder relationships. Ambika has over 100 publications and her research has achieved significant impact nationally and internationally. She is lead CI or co-CI on funded projects with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Tata Consultancy Services, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Ambika is currently an Australasian Associate Editor of the European Business Review, editorial board member of the International Journal of Consumer Studies, and editorial advisory board member of Management of Environmental Quality. Ambika is also an active contributor to several peak bodies, including the Academy of Management, the International Association for Business and Society.

Dr Betty Frino

Senior Lecturer in Human Resources & Management

Expertise:

Employee engagement, worker motivation and productivity, employee voice, worker wellbeing, psychological health and safety, gender at work, labour law, wage growth, and bargaining

Biography:

Betty’s professional career spans academe and applied/policy research exploring contemporary workplace issues and implications for government policy and professional practice. Betty conducts scholarly research that has real-world application to inform organisational leaders, practitioners, and policy makers about ways to address modern workplace challenges such as employee engagement, voice, wellbeing and psychological health and safety at work, wage compliance and bargaining, and pay equity. 

Dr Juan Diaz-Granados

Lecturer, Thomas More Law School, Australian Catholic University

Expertise: Commercial Law

Dr Diaz-Granados is a Lecturer at ACU Faculty of Law and Business. He holds an LLB (Hons); Grad Dip Commercial Law; Grad Dip Business Law; Grad Dip Insurance Law (Summa Cum Laude); LLM International Commercial Law (Distinction); and a PhD in Law and Technology. Dr Diaz-Granados is a lawyer with an international focus and brings more than 14 years of experience between practice and teaching. As a practitioner, he has worked in the private sector in law firms and multinational companies. As an academic, he has experience teaching in different legal systems at undergraduate and graduate levels in a wide range of subjects, including Innovation Law, Digital Platforms and New Technologies, and Torts.

Dr Marzena Baker

Senior Lecturer, Peter Faber Business School, ACU

Expertise: Workplace gender equity and diversity

Dr. Marzena Baker is an expert in workplace gender equity and diversity. Her research primarily focuses on assessing the effectiveness of equality and diversity strategies and practices within organisations, with focus on HR recruitment, retention and work-life balance programs. She often employs a mixed-method research approach, utilising archival data and primary qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her research spans key Australian economic sectors such as construction, property, engineering, manufacturing, and retail, drawing on her extensive industry experience in these fields. Dr. Baker’s research has been widely published in high-impact journals, and she collaborates closely with industry partners, translating academic findings into practical applications for improving gender equality and diversity in the workplace.

Dr Zaman Khorseduzzaman

Lecturer, Thomas More Law School, ACU

Expertise: International Law

Dr Zaman is a research-active academic at ACU. His research expertise lies mainly in the areas of International Economic Law, World Trade Organisation (WTO) Law, International Trade and Investment Law, and Intellectual Property Law. He regularly publishes in these areas of law in high impact-factor national and international law journals. He supervises Honours, Master of Research and PhD students. Besides teaching and research, he has the experience of active engagement in administrative and community roles in the department, faculty, and university.

Dr. Jak Kakhkharov

Senior Lecturer in Finance at Australian Catholic University

Expertise: Finance

Dr. Kakhkharov holds PhD degree in Finance from Griffith University, Australia and a Master’s degree from Columbia University, New York, USA specialising in International Banking and Finance, and has done postgraduate research in Economics at University of Oxford, UK. His past work experience includes a number of consultancy projects with World Bank, UNDP, ADB, GIZ and staff positions with ABN AMRO Bank. Dr Kakhkharov's current research interests focus on the impact of remittances on socio-economic phenomena, investments, financial management, FinTech, banking, corporate governance, and financial sector development in transition economies.

Dr Sarah Digan

lecturer in STEM education, ACU

Expertise: climate modelling, geospatial analysis, environmental science, STEM education: critical thinking with large data, media literacy

Dr Sarah Digan, a lecturer in STEM education, holds a PhD in earth science from the University of New South Wales. Her academic experience, together with a 12-years teaching career in the ACT primary and secondary school system, have shaped her current research interest in STEM education: data practices, computational modelling, the critical use of scientific evidence and climate science. Sarah’s expertise lies in empirical, mixed-methods research. She is leading an ACU FEA discovery grant. She is included on five other university grants and is expanding her research to the critical use of AI assisted technology and large data to solve real-world problems.

Assoc Professor Kate Letheren

Associate Professor of Marketing at the Australian Catholic University

Expertise: humanised technology design and interaction, ethical and human-centred design

Dr. Kate Letheren is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Australian Catholic University and an Adjunct Associate Professor at QUT Business School. Her research focuses on human-centered design of AI and robotics, exploring how consumers trust and interact with humanised technologies to enhance individual and societal wellbeing.  She has collaborated with over 20 government and industry partners, translating academic insights into practical applications. Her interdisciplinary approach and focus on socially responsible technology implementation contribute significantly to understanding how humanised technologies can create positive social outcomes, aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Dr Anne C Pickering

Thomas More Law School, Australian Catholic University

Expertise:  Law reform, policy development, and interdisciplinary research

Dr Anne Pickering is a scholar at the Thomas More Law School at ACU. Her specialisation in mixed legal systems, customary law, policy, and law reform in property law — particularly land tenure and legal pluralism — is complemented by her practical experience as a lawyer and policy advisor.  She has worked with government entities, private sector organisations, nonprofit groups, academic institutions, and community-based organisations. Anne is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom. she received the 2023 FLB Executive Dean’s Learning and Teaching Innovation and Impact grant at ACU. Anne received the 2018 Owen Fletcher Postgraduate Research Award at The University of Queensland. In 2008, she received the Hernando de Soto Fellowship awarded to undertake research and prepare the International Property Rights Index 2009 (IPRI).

Dr. Joanna Vogeley

Lecturer, Peter Faber Business School, ACU

Expertise:  Impact investing

Dr. Joanna Vogeley (PhD, Macquarie University)  works on impact investing. She is interested in fostering collaborations between governments, businesses, and communities. With over 20 years of experience in corporate consulting and impact investing, Joanna has worked across various countries, including Australia, Germany, Singapore, and Indonesia. Her work utilises frameworks like the Theory of Change or Actor-Network Theory to ecosystem map actors and develop innovative solutions with measurable outcomes. In 2021, she received the Carole Muller Award from the University of Sydney to investigate Balinese social entrepreneurs. Her contributions to programs such as the N-Peace Innovation Challenge or the eMpowering Youths Across ASEAN initiative have advanced projects in education, gender, disability, water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Dr Perla Guarneros-Sánchez

Lecturer at the Thomas More Law School, ACU

Expertise: public law; international human rights law; international criminal law; migration law and policy; women's rights

Dr Perla Guarneros-Sanchez's research focuses on international human rights law, particularly the rights of irregular migrants and their intersection with international criminal law. Admitted to legal practice in Mexico, she holds an LLM from the University of Turin/UNICRI, as well as an LLM and PhD from La Trobe University. Before joining academia in Australia, she worked as a legal counsel and barrister in Mexico. She also served as a legal officer at the National Human Rights Commission and the human rights branch of the Attorney General's Office. Currently, she is an editor for the Australian Feminist Law Journal and leads research on the involvement of Australian NGOs in proceedings before the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Dr Thuy-Linh Nguyen

Lecturer, Peter Faber Business School, ACU

Expertise: information technology, community engagement

Dr Thuy-Linh Nguyen holds a PhD in Computer Science at Monash University, and Graduate Certificates in Theology and Higher Education at Australian Catholic University. She is also a Fellow of Higher Education Academy and member of Australian Computer Society. Dr Nguyen has been lecturing at Monash University, RMIT University and Australian Catholic University for over 20 years and is particularly interested in the use of technology in education and work for social good.

Dr. Mehdi Rajaeian

Lecture in Information Technology, ACU

Expertise: Artificial intelligence (AI), and their profound influence on digital transformation

Dr. Mehdi Rajaeian is a seasoned educator and researcher, with about twenty years of experience in academia, specialising in the fields of business intelligence, data analytics and data mining, decision support systems, databases, system analysis and design, IT project management and IT sourcing strategies. He has completed a PhD in Information Systems at University of Southern Queensland, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering at Sharif University of Technology, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education at the Australian Catholic University.

Dr Murooj Yousef

Lecturer, Peter Faber Business School, ACU

Expertise: Marketing, social marketing, behaviour change

Dr. Murooj Yousef is a behaviour change expert specializing in social marketing, focusing on empowering communities through evidence-based strategies. Her work centres on reducing harmful behaviours like vaping in schools by providing students and teachers with resources on alcohol, drugs, and health-related issues. Murooj’s research explores the role of emotions in digital and social media advertising to drive behaviour change both online and offline. She is passionate about education and effective communication as tools for inspiring informed decision-making and positive social change. Murooj is a sought-after commentator and presenter, frequently engaging with media to make knowledge more accessible. Her goal is to inspire the next generation of marketers and business leaders.

Dr Usha Pappu

Lecturer in Marketing, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Discipline, Peter Faber Business School, ACU

Expertise: sensory marketing, emotions, and consumer behaviour

Usha's research focuses on consumer psychology, social psychology, consumer behaviour, and marketing communication. She is passionate about using advanced modelling and analytics methods to examine the impact of human senses and sensory information on consumer cognitive and emotional responses, as well as their subsequent perceptions and behaviours. Her work contributes to understanding consumer perception, imagery, mindfulness, and affective and cognitive responses relevant to social psychology and behaviours. Usha's research has been published in top-tier marketing journals such as the European Journal of Marketing and presented at premier international conferences (AMA, ANZMAC). She specialises in experimental design, multivariate analysis, and modeling, with expertise in understanding consumers' physiological, emotional, and cognitive responses.

Dr Christine Lee

Lecturer in Criminology, Thomas More Law School, ACU

Expertise: Cybercrime

My research interests include online abuse on social media, critical race theory, intersectionality, gendered violence, and online stalking and/or harassment. The research looked at factors (aside from gender) to understand the occurrence of online abuse. Most research into this subject took a feminist lens that seemed to concentrate mostly on female targets of online abuse, who are mostly targeted by males. My research showed that males also became targets of online abuse from both males and females. It also found that females also abused other females, so online abuse and stalking is a far more nuanced problem than just gender.

Dr Andy King

Academic Lead, Research Translation and Impact, ACU

Expertise: Research Translation and Impact

Dr Andy King is the Academic Lead, Research Translation and Impact, with responsibility for coordinating ACU's knowledge translation activity, including research impact and engagement. He is responsible for industry engagement work across research programs at ACU. By working closely with active researchers and research support staff, Andy is committed to fostering impactful, high-quality research. Andy is a researcher and scientist by background, with 15 years' experience conducting laboratory and applied research in human metabolism. Since completing his PhD in 2015, he has held roles as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research and as a senior lecturer in exercise nutrition and metabolism at Leeds Beckett University (UK), where he established a sports science clinic to embed his research into practice with elite and amateur athletes.

Ms Sam Alex

PhD Candidate, ACU

Expertise: Strategic Communications, Health and Social Impact Research

Sam is a communications and content strategist and PhD candidate specialising in integration of AI into communication frameworks to enhance engagement and drive positive health and social outcomes. With over 15 years of experience in leading large-scale communication and marketing initiatives across health, education, and government sectors, Sam has successfully navigated complex change projects and spearheaded national program redesigns. Her research is focused on developing innovative AI-driven communication models that bridge the gap between technology and human-centric storytelling. As the Impact Communications & Marketing Director at Impact-Co, she combines her strategic expertise with a passion for social impact, aiming to transform traditional communication practices through cutting-edge AI applications.