Director

Dr Margaret Simons is Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism and the coordinator of the new Master of Journalism at Melbourne University. An award-winning freelance journalist and author, her most recent work includes Journalism at the Crossroads, published by Scribe in 2011, and the book Malcolm Fraser: The Political Memoirs co-written with Malcolm Fraser. This book, published by The Miegunyah Press in 2010, won both the Book of the Year and the Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-Fiction at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards 2011. In addition to her academic work, Margaret is the media commentator for the online news outlet Crikey and blogs on journalism and the media at The Content Makers. She also writes for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, The Monthly and other publications.

Email: margaret.simons@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +61 3 8344 7640

Business Manager

Louise Wilson brings to the Centre more than 16 years' management experience within the higher education sector, including 9 years at the University of Melbourne. She has a BA(Hons) from La Trobe University, majoring in History. In 1989 she was joint recipient of the D.A. Myers University Medal for outstanding honours graduates in the School of Humanities.

Email: wilsonl@unimelb.edu.au


Phone: +61 3 8344 4731 (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)

Program and Communications Coordinator

Lucy Chancellor-Weale has gained extensive experience in Australia and the UK in cultural arts, and has a strong background in public relations and stakeholder communications, event coordination and campaign management.  She produced the Production Directory for Victoria (99-01) which won an AFC international marketing award. Prior to joining the Centre she was a marketing and communications consultant, with a focus on public relations. Lucy has previously worked with Melbourne Theatre Company, Film Victoria and Melbourne Film Office and has many years experience as a Senior Adjudicator, Australasian Reporting Awards (ARA).

Email: lucycw@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +61 3 8344 7637  (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)

Editor, The Citizen

Simon Mann is the editor of The Citizen, a new online publication to be launched in 2013 that will showcase the work of students in the Master of Journalism program, as well the Centre's research efforts. A journalist for more than 30 years, Mann has held a series of senior reporting and editing roles at The Age, and is a two-time foreign correspondent having been based in Europe and, more recently, Washington DC. He was awarded the Walkley Award for international journalism in 1999 for his coverage of the war in Kosovo and refugee crisis in the neighbouring Balkan states.

Email: simon.mann@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +61 3 9035 4037

Editorial Assistant, The Citizen

David Milner is the Editorial Assistant at The Citizen, the centre's new online publication. A recent graduate from the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at The University of Melbourne, he received first class honours for his thesis on conspiracy theorists, The Truth Movement Is Out There: History, Conspiracy and 9/11. David is also an  freelance journalist with an ongoing role at a popular, national magazine. David was recently named 'Best New Journalist' at the 2013 Australian IT Journalism Awards ('The Lizzies')

Email: dmilner@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +61 3 9035 9600

Senior Lecturers

Dr Denis Muller is a leading expert on media ethics and worked as a journalist for 27 years including Assistant Editor at The Sydney Morning Herald and Associate Editor at The Age. Since 1995 he has conducted independent social and policy research across education, health, environment and media fields. Dr Muller teaches media ethics and is the author of Media Ethics and Disasters. Together with Michael Gawenda, Dr Muller has been conducting the Centre's research into how the media covered the Black Saturday Bushfires and the second stage of this project, consulting with bushfire-affected communities about their experiences with the media. Denis is a Fellow at the Centre.

Email: dmuller@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +61 3 8344 9439

Dr Gael Jennings is an award winning national TV and radio broadcaster with 25 years’ experience as presenter, reporter and TV executive. She was the ABC’s first national science and medical reporter for TV News, and for the 7.30 Report, presenter of Victoria’s 7.30 Report, reporter of ABC TV’s Quantum and Catalyst, host of ABC radio 774’s mid-morning and afternoon programs, presenter of the weekly studio-based television current affairs program “Insight” on SBS, and a development producer with ABC TV in the commissioning process for factual content. She is an award-winning author of 2 non-fiction books and is a regular commentator on ABC TV News Breakfast and 774 ABC radio.

Email: gael.jennings@unimelb.edu.au

Phone: +613 9035 7637

Fellows

Michael Gawenda is one of Australia's best known journalists and authors. In a journalism career spanning three decades, Michael has been a political reporter, a foreign correspondent based in London and in Washington, a columnist, a feature writer, a senior editor at Time magazine and the Editor-in-Chief of The Age in Melbourne from 1997 to 2004. He has won numerous journalism awards including three Walkley awards, the Australian equivalent of the American Pulitzer prizes. Michael was the inaugural Director of CAJ and remains as a Fellow at the Centre.

Email: mgawenda@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 8344 7637
Mobile: 0421 238 922

Research Team

Dr Damien Williams is employed in the Centre as project officer on the Australian Research Council Linkage project A History of Press Photography in Australia, led by Michael Gawenda. The partner organisations on the project are the National Library of Australia and the Walkley Foundation. Damien trained as an historian in the (then) School of Historical Studies at Melbourne University. He also works as a research fellow in the School of Journalism, Australian and Indigenous Studies at Monash University.

Email: damienw@unimelb.edu.au
Phone: +61 3 90357818