Monika has a strong academic background in education, teaching across schools, residential colleges, and university undergraduate and graduate courses. Prior to joining Burgmann, Monika lived and worked in residential colleges in Sydney and Melbourne where she played key roles in supporting pastoral care, postgraduate life, and student success. Her PhD thesis, "Global Citizenship and Everyday Life in Australian University Residential Colleges" is a testament to her passion for student-led and student-centred education in an increasingly interconnected and rapidly changing world. Monika has a keen interest in fostering supportive learning environments that promote curiosity, critical thinking, and respectful dialogue as students engage with new and challenging ideas and knowledge.

Monika lives onsite in The Village and is a keen gardener and hiker.

I am an economist and executive leader with a superior track record of delivering fundamental insights with deep and enduring strategic impact, and assembling and developing world-class teams. I have a very wide range of expertise across global macro, public policy, finance, commodities, climate change, scenario analysis, market design, sports analytics, behavioural psychology and geopolitics. I'm passionate about forecasting and foresight, applying the lessons of history to the real world problems of today, building analytical and leadership capability in large teams, while leading with vision and purpose. I am attracted to complex problems, reclamation projects and confronting challenges where an effective resolution will achieve societal level impact.

Dr Lindy Edwards is an Australian Politics and Public Policy specialist at the University of New South Wales, Canberra. She has been an Economic Adviser in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, a press gallery journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald and was Economic Adviser to leader of the Australian Democrats Natasha Stott-Despoja. She has been a regular columnist for the Fairfax Press, ABC Radio and made repeat appearances on The Drum and The Project.

Dr Edwards books include ‘How to Argue with an Economist: Re-opening Political Debate in Australia’, ‘The Passion of Politics: The Role of Ideology in Australia’ and ‘Corporate Power in Australia.’ She was the author of the ‘Dark Money Report’ on political donations in Australia.

Dr Edwards has been a Fellow of the Australian Prime Ministers Centre and the Centre for Policy Development, on the economic advisory committee to the Australian Conservation Foundation, and on the boards of the think tank Catalyst and women’s homelessness service Toora, a as well as being media spokesperson for Good Process - the ACT GLBTQ law reform lobby group.

Dr Jenny Gordon is a Honorary Professor at the Centre for Social Research and Methods, at the Australian National University. She is also a non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute, one of Australia’s leading think tanks on foreign policy. Jenny is a member of the Australian International Agricultural Research Centre’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Advisory Panel, and on the Asian Development Bank Institute’s Advisory Committee.

Until recently Jenny was the Chief Economist at DFAT, joining in November 2019 to establish the Office of the Chief Economist (OCE), bringing together trade and investment economics with development economics. In the two years since its inception OCE expanded the data analysis and communication outreach to the department, building interactive dashboards, and offering more complex systems analysis backed by sound empirical evidence to support policy and program development and delivery. The program of development investment evaluation was incorporated into OCE in 2000.

Jenny joined DFAT from Nous Group, where she was the Chief Economist. Jenny’s work included the development of policy options for increasing business investment in innovation using a human centred design approach, and measuring the economic impact of earth and marine observing on the APEC economies.

Jenny spent 10 years with the Australian Productivity Commission as Principal Adviser (Research). She led the 2010 inquiry into reform of the not-for-profit sector and the 2012 inquiry into the approaches to regulatory reform, and major roles in inquiries into reforming aged care, childcare systems, migration, and the Five year Productivity Review. Prior to this she was a partner at the Centre for International Economics (TheCIE), where she worked on a wide range of issues, including financial development in Asia after the Asian Financial Crisis, benefit cost evaluations of major research proposals and completed R&D investments, and strategic planning for R&D investment.

She has a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and started her professional career at the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Gordon de Brouwer is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, working closely with the College of Business and Economics and Crawford School of Public Policy. From May 2023 to February 2026, he was Australian Public Service Commissioner, supporting the Government in its public sector reform program and performing the integrity, capability and workforce management duties of the Commissioner.

Gordon has almost 40 years' experience in public policy and administration in Australia, including as Secretary for Public Sector Reform, Secretary of the Department of the Environment and Energy, and senior roles in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (including as Associate Secretary Domestic Policy and G20 Sherpa), Treasury, ANU and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

He has been part of several major reviews including the Australian Public Service, the Reserve Bank of Australia, and the Woomera Prohibited Area.

Gordon is committed to public value, high-quality policy and implementation, and effective government.