Dr Michelle Lasen

DipT Griffith, BA (Hon) JCU, PhD ANU

Associate Professor Michelle Lasen is a Principal Research Fellow at ACER and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Over the last six years at ACER, Michelle has led a series of large-scale international projects, partnering with ministries of education, UNESCO, and AusAID, focusing on teacher and leader quality, curriculum review and design, and educational system transformation.

Michelle was Co-Director on the Building a World-Class Curriculum Project (2024), wherein she has worked with the UAE Ministry of Education (MoE) and ACER experts in the development of an overarching curriculum framework, curriculum review tools, orientation and capability building programs for Ministry staff, and wider stakeholder engagement activities and research instruments.

Michelle was Technical Lead on the UAE Career Progression for Educational Professionals Project (2023), which sought to attract, retain, and develop high quality teachers through development of a career progression model and interrelated architectures. Michelle worked in close consultation with the Emirates School Establishment and ACER experts to develop a Teacher and Leader Professional Development and Appraisal Scheme, articulating with a growth-oriented Competency Framework for Educational Professionals.

Michelle was Technical Lead on the Emirates School Establishment Strategy Project (2022), which aimed to develop a coherent and student-centred framework for transformation of the public education system. Michelle led engagement with a range of UAE stakeholders and ACER experts to develop international benchmarks and strategic plans, related to enhancing teacher quality, and Pedagogical and Curriculum Implementation Frameworks to support teachers’ practice.  

Michelle was Technical Lead on the Strengthening Pre-Service Teacher Education in Myanmar Project (2020-21), where she worked with UNESCO, the MoE, and ACER experts to lead development of Years 2 and 3 curriculum of a new four-year teacher education program for implementation across Myanmar’s Education Degree Colleges.

Prior to joining ACER, Michelle held leadership roles at James Cook University including coordinating pre-service teacher education programs – Bachelor of Education (Primary) and Graduate Diploma of Education (P-9) – and working within a central division of learning and teaching to lead whole-of-university staff induction and professional development programs, curriculum and research initiatives, policy development, and quality assurance and accreditation processes.

• Principal Fellow, Higher Education Academy, awarded in recognition of a sustained record of strategic leadership in learning and teaching (2018)
• International Conference of STEM in Education Best Paper Award, University of British Columbia, Vancouver (2014)
• Sustainability Collection International Award for Excellence, ‘New Research or Thinking’ category (2013)
• Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, Australian Awards for University Teaching (2013)