To contact the WATTLE Executive Committee or Secretariat, please email: academy-wattle@uow.edu.au
To contact WATTLE Members email: wattle-members@uow.edu.au (note: Emails will be moderated)
WATTLE Executive Committee
Associate Professor Xiaoping Gao
Principal Fellow and Chair of the WATTLE Executive Committee
Xiaoping Gao is Associate Professor of Chinese and Discipline Leader of Languages and Linguistics in the School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. She has over 25 years of teaching experience at universities in China, the US, New Zealand and Australia. Since her appointment at UOW in 2012, Xiaoping has received three prestigious teaching awards (2014 Australian Awards for University Teaching OLT citation and 2013 & 2018 Vice Chancellor's Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning) and over 30 internal and external grants (e.g., a 2022 Learning and Teaching Innovation grant). She is passionate about teaching excellence, teaching-related innovations, research collaborations, and community building. Her research expertise includes teaching methodology, educational technology, second language acquisition, cross-cultural communication, and teacher education. She has published widely in the above areas. Xiaoping has extensive experience conducting industrial training and assessment and educational consultancy for internal sectors and external bodies. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of International Journal of Chinese Language Teaching and the Committees of Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities and WATTLE.
Dr Sue Downie
Fellow and Deputy Chair of the WATTLE Executive Committee
Sue is a teaching intensive lecturer in the Discipline of Medical Science in the School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences (MIHS) in the Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health (SMAH). Sue coordinates large first year Anatomy and Physiology subjects and obtained her PhD in Medicine in 2008 from the University of Sydney in asthma physiology. Sue is passionate about the student experience, reflective and inclusive practice, and is an influential mentor of staff within and outside of her discipline. She led the WATTLE Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) hot topic group 2017-2019, mentors students in a volunteer demonstrator program, is a SMAH learning and teaching scholar, and an accredited peer reviewer. Sue has disseminated her TEL educational research at forums and conferences and was the recipient of the Faculty Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teaching and Learning in 2020.
Eileen Bodey
Associate Fellow and member of the WATTLE Executive Committee
Eileen is a lecturer and subject coordinator in the Diploma of Arts, Social Science and Humanities course offered at the UOW College. She has specialised in teaching adult learners who are engaged in enabling education through UOW College. Having over 14 years’ experience in the field has given her an admiration and appreciation of the journeys of adult learners. In 2019 she was a reviewer for the successful ‘Enabling Excellence Through Equity’ Conference which focussed on bringing together equity practitioners in higher education. She has been a staff representative on the UOW College Academic Board from 2014-2018.
She is passionate about making education accessible to all and about encouraging good teaching strategies. She believes that access to education has the potential to bring greater equality in society. In 2021 she was part of a WATTLE Teaching Circle and was encouraged by the passion of the teachers in the Circle. She wants to encourage the formation of Teaching Circles to increase collaboration at UOW.
Dr Zeenath Khan
Senior Fellow and member of the WATTLE Executive Committee
Zeenath is the Founding President and Board Member of the Centre for Academic Integrity in the UAE, Assistant Professor of Responsible Information Systems at Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, and Program Director for Freshman Pathway Programs at University of Wollongong in Dubai. She has been teaching in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences at the university since 2001. Zeenath is an Audit Board Member for European Network for Academic Integrity and Local Advisory Board Member of Our Own High School Al Warqa UAE (GEMS Education). Zeenath is passionate about her students’ learning experience and has conceptualized many teaching innovations such as the Responsible Business and IT Use Vlogs Program (ReBitVlogs) which won two Council for Australia-Arab Relations grants as a student exchange program between UOW and UOWD; and more recently her work on WISP Human Libraries and Program has gained traction with 33 alumni members supporting current students as mentors for various subjects. Zeenath currently holds the position of Editorial Board Member for International Journal for Educational Integrity, and edited book series from Springer on Ethics and Integrity in Education. Having received a number of internal and external grants from UOWD, UOW and other entities, Zeenath is a national and international award-winning academic with more than 80 publications to her name and an edited book titled Integrity in Education for Future Happiness (2021). Considered a Tier one speaker, Zeenath’s research interests are in academic integrity, ethics in IT, teaching and learning, and STEM for girls. In 2021, Zeenath was recognized for her research contribution by European Network for Academic Integrity as the recipient of their ENAI Research Excellence Award.
Grant Kinghorn
Associate Fellow and member of the WATTLE Executive Committee
Grant is currently a lecturer in the Academic Development & Recognition team in LTC. Drawing upon his educational leadership background in the healthcare industry, Grant is a dedicated teacher who believes that learning must be authentic and relevant to real-life issues, problems, and tasks to empower learners to live their lives in a better and more satisfying way. Based on the principles of strengths and positive psychology, Grant is passionate about fostering and promoting excellence in teaching standards across disciplines while promoting the principles of SoTL to enrich educational development further.
Dr Alyce Mason
Fellow and member of the WATTLE Executive Committee
Over the past 10 years, Alyce has worked internationally in the university sector in various academic and professional senior leadership roles that empower and shape learning and teaching excellence and innovation. She is currently the Deputy Director of Learning, Teaching and Curriculum (LTC) division at UOW, and manager of the Education, Technology and Innovation team. Prior to this, Alyce worked as a lead Academic Developer in universities in the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. Alyce’s qualifications include a Bachelor of Primary Education (1st Class Honours & University Medal) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Education) exploring student-generated approaches to digital media-making for enhanced communication (awarded Commendation for Outstanding Thesis & the School of Education Outstanding Thesis Award). Alyce plays an active role in local and global learning and teaching communities and professional networks, frequently chairing and/or presenting at various events and conferences. She is passionate about reflective and student-centred practice, digital pedagogies, blended learning, and the decision-making processes that inform the design of purposeful, inclusive and multimodal learning and teaching experiences. Alyce and her team were recently awarded the UOW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Professional Service Staff and the Australian Financial Review 2020 Higher Education Award for Learner Experience in recognition of their role in facilitating UOW’s rapid response and transition to online learning.
If you would like to express interest in joining the WATTLE Executive Committee contact academy-wattle@uow.edu.au