ACEMS had a total of 438 academic members across 2020, who were supported by the Centre’s large professional staff team. This dedicated team provides exceptional support across administration, finance, stakeholder engagement, outreach, and communications and media and aims to lead the way in which ARC Centres of Excellence operate.
ACEMS has two large nodes at QUT and UniMelb which are home to the Central professional staff ranging from the Centre's Chief Operating Officer, our specialised portfolio officers of Stakeholder Engagement, Outreach, Communications and Media, and Finance, as well as our dedicated Central administration officer and project officer. The Centre also has Node administration officers which support the day-to day-operations at UniMelb, QUT, Monash, UoA, UNSW and UTS.
ACEMS experienced numerous changes to its professional staff team during 2020.
The Centre welcomed Angela Dahlke as ACEMS Stakeholder Engagement Officer in mid-February. Angela replaced Jessie Roberts who started maternity leave at the end of 2019 and was subsequently appointed to Manager, Industry Engagement (Data Science) at QUT where she will no doubt continue to engage with many ACEMS members. Angela will stay on as the Stakeholder Engagement Officer into 2021.
ACEMS Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dr Emily Duane commenced maternity leave in July in the lead up to the birth of her third child. Emily’s maternity leave replacement, Anita Vecchies, commenced in July albeit remotely due to the pandemic. Anita has been seconded from Research Innovation and Commercialisation at UniMelb and she is familiar with the ACEMS having supported the Centre in preparation for its mid-term review.
In July, the Centre farewelled Project Officer Claudia Deasy who commenced a new role as Senior Administration Officer, Marketing and Communication at QUT. Claudia’s valuable contributions to the Centre included supporting ACEMS Strategic Initiatives, namely the International Mobility Programme, the ACEMS mentoring programme and the Equity and Diversity Programme. Tracy Kelly (ACEMS Node Administrator at QUT) was appointed into the Project Officer position and commenced in August. Thanks to Tracy who supported both roles for a period before the new Node Administrator commenced.
ACEMS also said a temporary goodbye to Outreach Officer Anita Ponsaing who started maternity leave in September. Anita will return to her position at ACEMS in January 2021.
The Centre welcomed Luna Liu (UniMelb Node Administrator) back from maternity leave in September 2020 and farewelled Charlotte McLoughlan who was seconded to the Node Administrator role from the School of Earth Sciences (UniMelb) and ensured that things ran seamlessly during her time at ACEMS.
The ACEMS community thanks Claudia, Jessie and Charlotte for their contributions to the Centre and wishes them all the very best in their future endeavours.
The Centre was delighted to welcome two new Node Administrators during 2020: Helena Beck (UTS) and Kris Mann (QUT). They have both made great contributions to the efficient and effective running of their respective nodes, and their contributions are much appreciated.
There has been no change to the make-up of the remaining members of the professional staff team – Finance Manager Minh Nguyen, Outreach Business Officer Rosanna Verde, Media and Communications Officer Tim Macuga, Centre Administrator Ben Hess, and Node Administrators Angelika Nikolov-Arvela (MU), Sarah Keany (UoA) and Zosia Wargocka (UNSW) – and these team members continued to make great contributions to the Centre’s day-to-day operations and broader activities in their respective roles.
Throughout 2020, the team met regularly via Zoom to enhance and refine the Centre's operations. The restrictions to travel meant that plans for interstate visits for professional staff did not happen. This included time normally spent together in person undertaking face-to-face training and professional development and at the Annual Retreat. Whilst used to interacting virtually due to the geographical spread of professional staff, working from home added an extra challenge, particularly for those staff that commenced new roles in the Centre. The team were united during this period, building on the collaborative and supportive work environment which resulted in some fantastic achievements in the operations of the Centre and a stronger team.
The professional staff team stay in touch with each other using Microsoft Teams with an assortment of specialised channels. They also meet online regularly, with all Central and Node staff meeting fortnightly, and Central staff meeting every other week. These regular meetings contribute to the Centre’s efficient and effective operations by helping the team to be across all major activities, to join the dots, share expertise and information, learn about each other’s roles, share challenges and offer ideas and solutions, and build strong and positive working relationships. For much of the year, particularly the nodes that were working from home, the team also had daily informal zoom meetings where they could join if needed and maintain a sense of connection.
Our casual catch ups were nice moment of normality in these odd times.
– Zosia Wargocka
Our daily catchups provided a great source of connectedness during such a time of uncertainty and change. It was lovely to have a coffee in hand and chat with the team and share new ways of entertaining ourselves in a lockdown world from what to see on Netflix, comparing our step challenge results, what books to read, the ins and outs of homeschooling etc.
– Rosanna Verde
One of the ACEMS Professional Staff fortnightly meetings
ACEMS is dedicated to ensuring that all its staff are getting the best opportunities to progress their careers so that they can gain valuable experience while with ACEMS that will hold them in good stead for future roles beyond ACEMS. Staff are encouraged to take the initiative when it comes to progressing their career and should have access to appropriate opportunities to allow them to do so. These include mentoring, informal (on the job) training, additional responsibilities, secondments and formal (internal and external) training.
To recognise the importance of professional staff development, ACEMS created a formal policy and process and dedicated Professional Staff Development Fund towards more formal training activities in 2020 and 2021. ACEMS has allocated $20,000 for central staff (up to $3,000 per staff member, pro-rated per FTE) and node staff are to be funded by their respective nodes up to the same level.
In 2020, ACEMS supported the following development opportunities through its Professional Staff Development Fund:
Professional training | Professional staff | Training dates |
---|---|---|
Certificate IV of Leadership and Management – Australian Institute of Management | Minh Nguyen (UniMelb) | Sept 20 – Sept 21 |
Diploma of Project Management, Leadership and Management – Australian Institute of Management (ACEMS jointly funded) | Tracy Kelly (QUT) | Aug 2020 – Jul 2021 |
Knowledge Commercialisation Australia's Digital Event 2020 | Angela Dahlke (QUT) | Sept 2020 |
2020 was a year of babies and maternity leave for ACEMS professional staff, and working from home also meant that children were often part of the meeting landscape.
ACEMS Professional Staff at Emily’s virtual baby shower
Jessie and Lawrence welcomed Remy in January, Luna and ACEMS Associate Investigator Thomas welcomed their second child Leon in February, Emily and Jason welcomed their third child Owen in July, Anita and ACEMS Associate Investigator Anthony welcomed Isobel, who was born in October.
Anthony, Anita and Isobel
Leon
Owen
As the Centre nears its conclusion at the end of 2021, the professional staff team will continue to focus on mentoring, windup and legacy, as well as gaining more valuable experience while with ACEMS to assist with planning for future roles. The also look forward to hopefully being able to meet up in person at the final ACEMS celebration retreat.