Professor Ruth Wallace

Professor Ruth Wallace is the Dean of College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society, and Director of the Northern Institute at CDU.

Her research interests relate to the links between identity, marginalised learners and the development of effective learning and workforce development pathways. This work is situated in regional and remote areas of Northern Australia and Indonesia, with a specific focus in research approaches to improve service delivery and adaptation, undertaken with Aboriginal people in remote and regional areas.

Ruth leads the Regional, Economic & Workforce Development research team, which focuses on collaborative, sustainable and scalable approaches to workforce development and engagement with community, governments and industry.

Ruth is the social science technical advisor for the Plant Biosecurity Cooperative Research Centre, with a focus on building resilience through community engagement and collaborative knowledge and management systems for biosecurity surveillance.

Ruth won the NT Leader/Manager of the Year category at the 2016 Australian Institute of Management’s Leadership Excellence Awards for creating a culture of excellence at the Northern Institute. Ruth was also recognised for her ability to exercise strong leadership in a complex and multidisciplinary setting, and for building the Institute’s profile among key stakeholders including government agencies, industry organisations, Indigenous communities and in the wider non-government sector.

Also in 2016 Ruth became the first female Australian researcher to be awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Agriculture and Life Sciences, which as sponsored by Kansas State University.

In 2017 Ruth travelled and lived in the United States for her scholarship, and while based at Kansas State University, built on her research engaging remote communities in biosecurity surveillance.

Research interests: