Sharon Bessell

Sharon Bessell is Professor of Public Policy and Director of Gender Equity and Diversity at Crawford School of Public Policy at The Australian National University (ANU).

Sharon heads the Children’s Policy Centre and the Poverty and Inequality Research Centre (PIRC). She also leads the Individual Measure of Multidimensional Program program, which has developed a groundbreaking approach to assessing poverty that is sensitive to gender, age and disability, and is policy relevant. Sharon teaches on social and development policy, with a focus on the global context.

In 2019 she was named as one of the Australian Financial Review’s Women of Influence. Sharon’s research interests focus on issues of social justice and human rights, particularly the gendered and generational dimensions of poverty. She has a keen interest in research ethics and methodology and has published widely on undertaking research with children.

She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2016 received the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific Award for Teaching Excellence.