AaeE2004 Keynote Speakers

AaeE2004: Creating Flexible Learning Environments
27th - 29th September 2004
Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia
The Garden City

Keynote Speakers

Professor Helen Garnett

Vice Chancellor, Charles Darwin University

Professor Helen Garnett commenced duty as Vice-Chancellor at the Charles Darwin University in October 2003.

Before taking up her role as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Garnett was the Executive Director of the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and Acting Executive Director since 1994. From 1992-1994 she was Deputy Executive Director of the same organisation.

Professor Garnett has a national and international reputation for her contribution to the life sciences and the peaceful development and application of nuclear technologies and as an Australian representative to the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency from 1994 till joining Charles Darwin University. She has played a significant role in numerous international initiatives. She has served on committees of both the ARC and NH&MRC.

Professor Garnett is a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has held directorships in a number of organisations.

Catherine O'Sullivan

Executive Director (Schools), Toowoomba District Office, Education Queensland, Queensland Government.

Catherine O'Sullivan is the current Executive Director of Schools for the Toowoomba District. Catherine has spent her previous 19 years working at the Goondiwindi State High School where she began as a classroom teacher and worked her way to the position of School Principal. Catherine is committed to the notion that Education must be delivered in partnerships with local communities and her work in the area of employment and training initiatives is recognised nationally. Catherine is a recipient of both a Churchill Fellowship and an Australian Rural Leaders Scholarship. Her work with education in the Goondiwindi Community was endorsed by her award as the 2002 Citizen of the Year. She is the current Queensland Telstra Business Woman of the Year - the first educator to be recognised by this award in Queensland.

We are looking forward to Catherine's presentation on the first day of the conference when we explore transitions from industry, school and TAFE to University.

Dr Gary E Miller

Associate Vice President for Distance Education and Affiliate Associate Professor of Education, Pennsylvania State University World Campus

D. Ed., Pennsylvania State University, 1985

Gary Miller is author of The Meaning of General Education: The Emergence of a Curriculum Paradigm (Teachers College Press, 1988), and has contributed chapters on continuing and distance education for five books published in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. He is author of a number of journal articles on distance education, use of IT in the teaching/learning environment, general and distance education, adult education, continuing education, use of interactive technologies in education, and similar topics.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Council for Distance Education and the Board of Directors of the Midwest Universities Consortium for International Activities, Inc; has chaired the Commission on Principles of Good Practice in Continuing Education for the National University Continuing Education Association; and served on the Taskforce on Quality Principles in Distance Education for the American Council on Education.

Prior to his current appointment, he was Executive Director of the International University Consortium and Associate Vice President for Program Development at the University of Maryland University College.

He was leader of the team which won the Bill Murphy 2002 Barrier Buster Award of the American Distance Education Consortium, for eliminating the barriers of time and place for thousands of students; and providing leadership in raising awareness and understanding within the national higher education community of effective approaches for online delivery in distance education. In doing so, the team worked effectively to overcome numerous institutional hurdles in order to mainstream online distance learning.

We are looking forward to Gary's presentation at the AaeE conference when we consider in-depth the current nature of, and long term possibilities of flexible learning environments.