Our Team – Centre for Future work

Staff

Fiona Macdonald

Interim Director

Dr Fiona Macdonald has worked in research, policy and leadership roles in community services, vocational education and training and as an academic on work, employment and social policy.

Fiona has researched and written extensively on women, work and industrial relations, including on social care and markets, insecure work, wage theft, gig work and contracting, equal pay, collective bargaining and low-paid workers.

Her book, Individualising Risk: Paid Care Work in the New Gig Economy was published in 2021 by Palgrave Macmillan.

David Peetz

Laurie Carmichael Distinguished Research Fellow

David Peetz is Professor Emeritus of Employment Relations at Griffith University. He is a co-researcher at the Interuniversity Centre for Research on Globalisation and Work, Montreal, and a member of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

His most recent book is The Realities and Futures of Work (ANU Press, 2019).

Lisa Heap

Senior Researcher

Dr Lisa Heap is a labour lawyer with over 30 years’ experience in industrial relations. She has held senior positions in the union movement and was previously the Executive Director of the Australian Institute of Employment Rights, and a technical advisor for the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Lisa came to the Centre after completing her PhD (Law). Her research has focussed on gender and inequalities at work, work health and safety, workers’ privacy, and the regulation of work.

Sarah Hollingsworth

Administration and Communications Coordinator

Sarah Hollingsworth is a communications professional with more than a decade of experience spanning government, publishing, and the arts.

She has held communications, marketing and publicity roles with the Organ and Tissue Authority, Pantera Press, Writers Victoria, Hardie Grant Publishing, and Melbourne University Publishing. She holds postgraduate qualifications in editing and communications and is currently undertaking further study in information management.

Board of Directors

Jim Stanford

Chair of the Board of Directors

Jim is a Canadian economist who served for 22 years as Economist and Director of Policy with Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector trade union. He is the Harold Innis Industry Professor in Economics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada; Honorary Professor in the Department of Political Economy at the University of Sydney; and Senior Fellow at the Robert E. Heilbroner Center for Capitalism Studies at the New School for Social Research in New York City.

Jim received his Ph.D. in Economics from the New School for Social Research in New York. He also holds an M.Phil. in Economics from Cambridge University, and a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics from the University of Calgary.

Jim was the founding Director of the Centre for Future Work in Australia (2016–2024). He relocated back to Canada to found a separate Centre for Future Work in Canada in 2020, which has become a high-profile centre of labour economics excellence.

He has provided research and advice through numerous federal and provincial government panels and inquiries on economic policy, innovation, jobs, and social policy. He is quoted frequently in the print and broadcast media, including through a regular column with the Toronto Star.

Frances Flanagan

Frances is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Faculty of Law. Her academic research focuses on the intersections between labour law, environmental issues and changing formations of technology, gender and migration. She is the co-author of the book Work and Industrial Relations Policy in Australia (2025, Bristol University Press), a monograph published by Oxford University Press, and numerous journal articles on the regulation of work. Outside academia, Frances has practiced as a lawyer in the not-for-profit sector and served as National Research Director for the United Workers Union (formerly United Voice).

Chris Wright

Chris F Wright is Professor of Work and Labour Market Policy at the University of Sydney Business School. His research examines the institutional drivers of and barriers to the attainment of decent work, particularly the regulation of work, employment relationships and labour migration in low-wage sectors. His research has impacted industrial relations and migration policy reform in Australia and internationally.

Chris has published over 100 journal articles and scholarly book chapters, co-authored Work and Industrial Relations Policy in Australia (Bristol University Press, 2025), and edited/co-edited 10 journal special issues and book volumes. He is an Associate Editor of Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, a past President of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, a member of the Australian Government’s Ministerial Advisory Council on Skilled Migration Expert Subcommittee, and a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts.

Dave Henry

Dave Henry is the Assistant National Secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU), bringing experience in workplace health and safety, industrial relations, apprentices, skills and training and worker advocacy. A fitter and machinist by trade, Dave has dedicated his career to ensuring safe and fair working conditions across Australia’s manufacturing sector.

Throughout his tenure at the AMWU, he has held key roles including National Senior Coordinator, Organising & Member Development, National WHS Coordinator, NSW WHS Officer, and NSW Organiser. A former director/chair of the Workers Health Centre and director/deputy chair of the Asbestos Diseases Foundation, Dave is currently a director/chair of the National Printing Industry Training Council, member of the Jobs and Skills Australia Ministerial Advisory Committee and deputy commissioner of the Safety Rehabilitation and Compensation Commission.

Dave is committed to campaigning and advocating for stronger health and safety standards, fair work practices, building the value of Australian workers through meaningful and transferable skills, and ensuring workers’ voices are central to policy decisions.

Nicole Calnan

Nicole Calnan is the Federal Secretary of the Australian Education Union (AEU), leading national efforts to strengthen and advocate for Australia’s public school, early childhood, and TAFE sectors. She brings decades of experience as a teacher and union leader, grounded in her early career as a public primary school teacher in regional New South Wales.

Nicole has held senior leadership positions within the union movement for more than 20 years. From 2005 to 2020 she served in multiple roles with the NSW Teachers Federation, including Organiser, Membership and Training Officer, and Deputy Secretary (Communications and Administration). She went on to serve as the AEU’s Deputy Federal Secretary from 2020 to 2025 before being appointed AEU Federal Secretary.

Nicole is Chairperson of the Board of Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA, where she supports international solidarity projects that empower workers and communities across the Asia‑Pacific region. Her work reflects a longstanding commitment to social justice, collective advocacy, and empowering the next generation of educators and union leaders.

Damien Cahill

Damien Cahill is General Secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). Before his election to a full-time trade union role in 2018, Damien was Associate Professor in Political Economy at the University of Sydney. He is the author of numerous scholarly publications with a primary focus on the political economy of neoliberalism.

Samantha Abeydeera

Samantha has worked as a CEO, COO and MD, leading large, complex organisations across transport, operations and the not-for-profit sector.

Samantha has held several significant executive roles throughout her career, including leading one of Australia’s largest public transport providers with more than 3,000 employees delivering close to 50 million annual customer journeys across bus, ferry and e-mobility services. As Executive Director of Strategic Operations at Transport for NSW, she drove end-to-end multimodal strategy across a network facilitating up to 700 million annual customer journeys. She has also held senior private sector leadership roles at NRMA Group, including Managing Director of Transport and Chief Operating Officer for Maritime.

In 2018, Samantha was recognised as one of the Top 50 Women in NSW Government for her transformational leadership as Director of Train Crewing at Sydney Trains, where she led a team of more than a thousand drivers and guards, who delivered over 400 million customer journeys each year. Samantha holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University and has completed executive education at Harvard.