Academic Board

Professor Linley Lord has been Pro Vice-Chancellor and President of Curtin Singapore since 2018. She plays a critical role in strengthening Curtin Singapore’s relationships with industry and government and enhancing its reputation in teaching and research. 

Professor Lord commenced with Curtin in 2001 and has held a number of significant positions including as a member of the University Council and Council Executive and Chair of the Academic Board. She is the Co-Lead of the Curtin Athena SWAN project and was the inaugural Academic Director of the Curtin Leadership Centre. She is the Director of the Maureen Bickley Centre for Women in Leadership and was part of the AusAid Leadership for Development Program at Curtin. 

Her research interests are in gender and leadership, leadership, feminist research methods and qualitative research methods. She holds a Doctor of Business Administration and a Postgraduate Diploma Business (Human Resource Development) from Curtin and a Bachelor of Science from the University of WA.

Professor Seth Kunin has been Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Global at Curtin University since 2016. In this role, he leads the University’s international activities, including strategic policy, international marketing strategy, and international partnerships.

Prior to joining the University, he was Vice-Principal, Internationalisation at the University of Aberdeen and also held senior roles at Durham University.

A prominent anthropologist, Professor Kunin attained his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia University in New York and his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Cambridge in the UK. His research focused on the application of structuralist theory and methodology to Jewish texts and culture.

Professor Paul Brunton joined Curtin University as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic in 2022, having previously been the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Health Sciences at the University of Otago in New Zealand for four years. He is responsible for the learning and teaching portfolio, specifically achieving the University’s strategic goals in learning and teaching and ensuring an outstanding experience for students.

After graduating from the University of Leeds, School of Dentistry in 1984, he obtained his Master of Science in Restorative Dentistry in 1992 and his PhD in 1996 from the University of Manchester. Professor Brunton graduated with a Doctor of Dental Science from the University of Otago in 2021. He was granted his Fellowship in Dental Surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1995 and in 2022 he was awarded a Fellowship by election from the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

Professor Brunton is well published, and his research interests include the development of new technologies to improve patient care, clinical and translational research, operative dentistry, specifically tooth preparation and the early diagnosis and treatment of tooth wear.

Professor Chris Rawson is the Dean, Learning and Teaching for the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Professor Rawson is a strong advocate of innovative teaching practices, communicating his ideas to staff in the department and the School. Professor Rawson’s teaching philosophy stresses the importance of developing learning experiences that ensure graduate readiness and that there are opportunities to exercise leadership and learn key leadership skills in all units. Professor Rawson works hard to ensure the curricula and assessments reflect highly relevant work tasks that would be expected in the workplace. Student feedback on these tasks is that, while challenging, they are some of the more rewarding of their degree.

Associate Professor Nicole Slatter is the Dean, Learning and Teaching for Humanities Learning and Teaching at Curtin University. Nicole completed her Bachelor of Education in 1995, her Bachelor of Arts (Art) (Honours First Class) in 1996 and a Master of Creative Arts (Research) in 2001 and completed her PhD at RMIT University. She is a practicing artist whose research contributes to the field of representational landscape painting and experiences of suburbia. Nicole has had solo and group exhibitions in Perth, Melbourne and Canberra.

Associate Professor is currently the Dean, Learning and Teaching for the Faculty of Business and Law and an Associate Professor of International Business and Innovation. As Dean, Associate Professor Ananthram provides academic leadership for the Faculty’s Learning and Teaching portfolio. He is also a Fellow of the Curtin Academy and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK).

Associate Professor Ananthram has previously held several leadership roles at Curtin including Discipline Lead (DL) of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategy and International Business (IESIB) discipline (2021-22) and Course Lead for several undergraduate and postgraduate courses including the Master of International Business & Entrepreneurship (MIBE) between 2017 – Feb 2021.

Marina Ciccarelli is an Associate Professor in the School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, with a background in occupational therapy. Marina returned to academia at Curtin in 2000 after 10 years of clinical work in the United States where she worked in the fields of ergonomics, occupational safety and health, injury management, adult physical rehabilitation and pediatrics. She is presently the Discipline Lead for Occupational Therapy at Curtin University.

Marina coordinates the capstone unit in the final year of the occupational therapy program and supervises honours, masters, and doctoral students in their research studies.  When not involved in T&L activities, Marina researches in the area of children’s ergonomics, with a focus on promoting healthy use of technologies among children and adolescents, and evaluating the outcomes of technology to improve participation among people living with a disability.

Bev has been working in international education for thirty years in four countries. Prior to becoming CEO of University Partnerships, Australasia in July 2018, she was working for Navitas in North America for 12 years across a number of roles including: College Director and Principal at Navitas’ first pathway program in North America; Fraser International College; General Manager for Navitas Canada and as President and CEO of University Partnerships, North America.

Her current responsibility is to manage all University Partnerships operations in Australasia as well as being responsible for determining the strategic direction of the division, overseeing the learning and teaching direction to ensure the quality of delivery and strong student outcomes.

Bev has been involved in all aspects of international education including curriculum design, student services, faculty and administration. She has developed and implemented the strategic vision for internationalisation at several universities including internationalising the curriculum, international recruitment and marketing, student support, and international partnership development.

Bev received her Master of Education from Edith Cowan University. In 2014, she was awarded the International Education Distinguished Leadership Award from the British Columbia Council for International Education.

Associate Professor Lim Swee Hia is the President of Singapore Nurses Association’s Executive Council. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Curtin University in recognition for her exceptional achievements and contributions in Singapore and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the universities’ School of Nursing & Midwifery.

Grace serves as Head of Project Management, in Engaging Leaders Pte Ltd, a company which specialises in designing, producing and facilitating, unique remote workplace, people activation and engagement solutions.

With her last role as Senior Vice President at Sembcorp Industries Ltd (an indexed stock on the Stock Exchange of Singapore), Grace brings to the team, more than 20 years of background experience in various roles spanning Promotions & Publications, Corporate Image & Branding, Marketing, Business Development & Strategy, Corporate Planning and Organisation Development. The last 10 years of her career was dedicated to People Development, which many insightful organisations now consider, as an important part of business strategy.

Dr Ashley Tong has been teaching and researching as a Lecturer at Curtin Singapore since 2020. Dr Tong received her PhD in Finance from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in 2018.