Who has COVID left behind? - ONLINE ONLY

Stefanie Schurer is a Professor of Economics in the School of Economics at the University of Sydney. She is an internationally recognised expert in the field of the Economics of Human Development. She has produced some of the first insights on the stability and determinants of non-cognitive skills over the lifecourse. Her current research program focuses on the impact of public policy on human development. She is a chief investigator on several linked administrative data projects in Australia. She uses such big data to study the consequences of Australia's key family, welfare, and medical policies for (Indigenous) children. Professor Schurer has been deeply engaged with Indigenous researchers and research on Indigenous children in the past years. She leads the NHMRC-funded Against the Odds: Indigenous Youth Wellbeing project, has led multiple evaluations on the impact of the Northern Territory’s controversial income management and alcohol restriction policies, is a co-investigator on several evaluations of the NSW child protection system where Indigenous children are heavily over-represented, is the secretary and board member of the international Association for Economic Research of Indigenous Peoples, and is a member of the Charles Perkins Centre’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Steering Committee. Since 2020, she is also a member of the National Economic Panel of the Economic Society of Australia. In 2021, she was awarded the Economic Society of Australia’s Young Economist of the Year award and the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research.

Silvia Mendolia is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Wollongong. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and a Master in Economics from the University College of London (UCL).

Silvia previously worked as a Lecturer in Economics at the University of Aberdeen, and as a Research Associate at the Social Policy Research Centre (UNSW). She is also a Research Fellow of IZA- Institute for the Study of Labour.

Silvia’s main research interests are in empirical health and labour economics, with a strong interest on family well-being, education and mobility. Her research has a focus on the well-being of children and young people, and on the role of education and health in their lives.

Silvia’s recent work investigates important topics such as: long term impact of bullying; impact of social media use on young people's mental health; and changes in young people’s mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Silvia has published extensively in the fields of Health Economics, Economics of Education, and Applied Microeconometrics.

Cherie Josephson is an experienced policy advisor, strategic planner, management consultant and researcher. As Manager of the Policy and Advocacy team at the CCIQ, Cherie manages the development of CCIQ’s policy submissions and research projects across a broad policy space, advocating for the interests of small business across all sectors and regions in Queensland.

Cherie has 15 years’ experience in research, management consulting and industry advocacy. Prior to CCIQ, Cherie worked as a management consultant at one of the top four accounting and consulting firms, gaining extensive experience in planning and leading economic development and industry strategies, feasibility studies and business case projects, particularly on regional economic development and tourism and leisure projects and strategies across Australia. Prior to her career in consulting, Cherie was a senior industry policy advisor with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council, and prior to that worked as a strategic planning consultant on economic development strategies and tourism planning projects across regional Victoria.

Sustainability is a strong theme in Cherie’s career, through her experience consulting on nature-based tourism projects and destination strategies, and more recently, advocating for a more sustainability-friendly business environment. Cherie holds a Master of Urban Planning degree from the University of Melbourne, and dual Bachelor of Business and Arts degrees from AUT University in Auckland.