The Inclusive Education Professional Learning has been designed by a highly experienced team from Macquarie University, who bring specialist knowledge and expertise from the fields of Inclusion and Special Educational Needs, Disability Studies, Educational Psychology and Educational Technology.
Associate Professor Kathleen Tait
Kathleen is a renowned international expert in special and inclusive education; communication disorders, assessment, intervention and developmental disability. In addition to her educational qualifications, Kathleen has post-graduate psychology qualifications in Applied Behaviour Analysis, and she is a registered graduate psychologist with the British Psychological Society. She has published over 130 peer reviewed publications including 30 chapters in books with high quality publishers. Kathleen is co-editor of the Oxford University Press text: Diversity, Inclusion and Engagement, 4th Edition which is used as a required text in over 27 Australian Universities.
Dr Anne McMaugh
Anne is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Psychology and Child Development in the Macquarie School of Education at Macquarie University who regularly collaborates with the Australian Institute for Health Innovation and the Australian Hearing Hub in her research. She originally trained as a secondary school educator with a focus on inclusive education and critical disability studies. Now her research focuses on the intersections between education, health and social outcomes with a focus on outcomes in vulnerable childhood and schooling contexts.
Dr Susan Silveira
Susan is the Course Director for the Master of Disability Studies at Macquarie University and teaches in the area of vision impairment. She is also a senior research fellow with the NextSense Institute. She is the chief investigator on the project which has established the Australian Childhood Vision Impairment Register.
Dr Diana Tan
Diana is a Macquarie University Research Fellow with over 10 years of experience in autism research. She has recently been awarded a research fellowship to understand autistic people’s experiences of university in Australia, particularly their experiences of stigma and discrimination. The penultimate aim of her research is to develop ways in which educational environments can become an enabling, rather than disabling, learning environment for autistic and otherwise neurodivergent students. Diana is also passionate about improving our research practices through increasing engagement – and sharing decision-making power – with autistic people as active collaborators in all aspects of the research process.
Dr Iliana Skrebneva
Iliana Skrebneva is a Lecturer in Inclusive Education and the Coordinator of the Master of Inclusive and Special Education at Macquarie University. With over 15 years of professional experience in both mainstream and specialised educational settings, her work spans diverse areas such as Inclusive and Special Needs Education, and Indigenous Education. She is also a professionally accredited primary school teacher by the New South Wales Education Standards Authority.
Dr Poulomee Datta
Poulomee is a Senior Lecturer in Inclusive Education at Macquarie University. She has been involved in teacher education and teacher training in Special and Inclusive Education across different universities in Australia. Poulomee has worked in national and international funded research projects in Inclusive Education securing $971,855.42 research income and the research projects have been successfully completed. She has published one sole-authored research book (with Springer publishers), five book chapters with high-quality publishers (e.g., Springer and Palgrave Macmillan) and more than 30 international peer-reviewed journal articles in high impact publications (e.g., the International Journal of Inclusive Education, British Journal of Visual Impairment, Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Autism, and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders).
Dr Jodie Torrington
Jodie researches and teaches in the School of Education at Macquarie University. Her research interests include self-regulated learning in digital contexts, technology-enhanced learning and AI in education. Jodie is currently the project manager for the Macquarie School of Education Professional Learning team. Jodie has 26 years of primary school teaching experience and has published a variety of first and co-authored publications, in top-ranked international journals, Australian journals, newspapers and blogs. She has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Teachers' Guild of NSW in recognition of being an outstanding educator who has made major contributions both within her mainstream sphere of work and more broadly across the profession.
Trudy Smith
Trudy is Manager of Continuing Professional Education at NextSense Institute and Adjunct Lecturer at Macquarie University. She has held appointments as a classroom and itinerant teacher, and an appointment in executive management of educational services for children with sensory disabilities in Queensland. Trudy is a LSLS Cert AVT and has extensive experience in telepractice and remote services. She has also worked as a global rehabilitation manager for MED-EL, providing training and coaching for teachers, therapists and families around the world. She is a member of the Family Centred Early Intervention (FCEI) International Executive Committee, the AG Bell Academy Global Matters Committee.