Professor Alison Garton, who has chaired APAC’s Accreditation Assessment Committee since 2018, will step down from the role once her term as APAC Director concludes in late November.
Over the past five years, she has presided over the introduction and implementation of the new Standards (plus the Evidence Guide and the revised Rules) and played an important role in explaining them to the sector.
In recent times that has included helping make two podcasts: Inside the engine room: APAC‘s Accreditation Assessment Committee and Benchmarking explained.
She also led the AAC through the COVID-19 pandemic and the pivot to Zoom site visits and now hybrid site visits. AAC meetings now alternate between Zoom and face-to-face.
The other major change under her watch has been that reports of site visits are written by APAC staff and not solely by an accreditation team leader.
Alison is Honorary Professor of Psychology at Edith Cowan University where she previously held the position of Professor of Psychology. She was Executive Director of the APS and held the position of inaugural Director of Training and Standards on the APS Board of Directors.
Alison was an Assessor for APAC and its predecessor from 2003 to 2017.
She has worked in academia, policy and management in various universities and state and non-government organisations.
She has authored one textbook, three monographs and three edited books, along with more than 100 refereed articles, chapters, reports and papers. She has supervised the research of countless students from Honours through to PhD and received awards for her supervision.
Alison is a Senior Sessional Member of the WA State Administrative Tribunal, a Deputy Member of the WA Reproductive Technology Council and Chair of the WA Country Health Service Human Research Ethics Committee.
APAC thanks her for her leadership and wishes her well for the future.