1230 – 13:15

Welcome Lunch

13:15 – 14:00

Session 1 – Program overview and getting to know your mentors

14:00 – 15:15

Session 2 – Values Workshop

15:15 – 16:15

Afternoon tea and Session 3 – Small group discussions with mentors

16:15 – 17:15

Session 4 - Leadership

18:00

Dinner

7:00 – 8:00

Informal walk and talk with mentor (small groups) or peer mentor

9:00 – 10:45

Session 5 – Communication

10:45 – 11:15

Morning Tea

11:15 – 12:45

Session 6 – Navigating challenges and tools for resilience and wellbeing

12:45 – 13:30

Lunch

13:30 – 15:00

Session 7 – Econ Café – discussion of contemporary economic issues

15:00 – 15:45

Afternoon tea + Session 8 - Small group discussions with mentors

15:45 – 16:30

Session TBC

16:30 – 18:30

Free Time

1830

Dinner

7:00 – 8:00

Informal walk and talk with mentor (small groups) or peer mentor

9:00 – 10:30

Session 9 – Panel Discussion - Career tips and tricks

10:30 – 11:30

Session 10 – Small group discussion with mentors over morning tea

11:30 – 12:00

Session 11 – Retreat Closing Session

12:00 – 12:45

Lunch

12:45

Group photo and depart for airport (arrive at airport by 13:30)

Catie Bradbear
Assistant Commissioner
Productivity Commission

Catie is Assistant Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy and Reporting at the Productivity Commission, the Australian Government’s independent research and advisory agency.

Catie has worked on a diverse range of inquiries in the 12 years she has been at the Commission, including reviews of Resources Sector Regulation, the Economic Regulation of Airports, the Migrant Intake and International Education Services. Catie started her career at the Treasury in Canberra, followed by a stint at the Australian National University, conducting research through the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health.

Catie is a member of the ACT WEN Committee and is particularly interested in the role of mentoring in retaining women in economics. She has also recently started delving into the lives of women economists throughout history and will happily share stories of those who have gone before us. Catie lives in Canberra and has two small human children and one furry escape-artist dog.

Professor Louisa Coglan
QUT

Louisa is an applied economist with over 30 years of experience. Her research focus is on the measurement and assessment of economic and social values to inform decision-makers in the management of natural resources. Louisa is acknowledged for democratising economics education through disrupting the traditional economic dialogue to level one Business students (35 000 students to date), to aspiring female politicians through the QUT Pathway to Politics Program to helping fishers and fisheries managers to better understand the dark art of economics in balancing conflicting objectives in achieving sustainable fisheries. Louisa has received external commendations for her work in both the UK and most recently received Vice Chancellor’s Award for Mentorship and Sponsorship Excellence.

Professor Emily Lancsar
Chief Health Economist
Department of Health and Aged Care

Professor Emily Lancsar commenced as the Chief Health Economist in the department in April 2024.

Prior to this, Emily spent 25 years in academia, most recently as Head of the Department of Health Economics Wellbeing and Society at the Australian National University (ANU). She served as Associate Dean (Policy and Practice) in the College of Health and Medicine at the ANU from 2020–2022, where she remains a Professor.

Emily has also held academic appointments at Monash University (where she remains an Adjunct Professor), the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in the United Kingdom, the University of Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney.

While in academia, Emily published in excess of 100 peer reviewed journal articles, held numerous Australian and international grants and fellowships, was a member of a number of government advisory committees and served as Vice President of the Australian Health Economics Society.

Emily’s appointment represents a return to the Australian Public Service and the department, where she began her career as a cadet Health Economist.

Emily holds PhD, Masters, and Bachelors degrees in Economics, a Postgrad Diploma in Health Economics and Evaluation and a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies).

Dr Joanne Loundes
Deputy Head of Mission, Papua New Guinea
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Dr Joanne Loundes started her role as Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian High Commission in Papua New Guinea in February 2022. She returned from her assignment as Australia’s Ambassador to Iraq in 2021 to take up a position as Assistant Secretary, COVID-19 Coordination Unit. The position was responsible for overseeing the department’s input on a range of COVID-19 policy matters related to reopening Australia’s international borders. Prior to her appointment as Ambassador in 2018, she spent a year as DFAT’s inaugural Chief Economist (Trade and Investment). Her other Assistant Secretary roles have covered the G20 and economic advocacy and analysis. Prior to joining the Department, she worked at the University of Melbourne and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Dr Loundes obtained her PhD in economics from the University of Melbourne in 2003.

Dr Loundes is married to Cameron Gill. Her hobbies include running and gardening.

Dr Alicia Mollaun
Senior Economic Analyst
Australian Government

Alicia has over 18 years of experience in domestic and international public policy making, including in the federal government and as a consultant.

She has worked at Equity Economics and Development Partners, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (including as a diplomat in New Delhi), the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon Julia Gillard MP, and at the Australian National University. Alicia has worked and studied in India, Pakistan, Kenya, France and the United States. 

Alicia holds a PhD in Public Policy from the ANU. Her research examined elite perceptions of US foreign aid to Pakistan.  She also has a Master of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies from the ANU, a Master of International Economics and Finance from the University of Queensland.

When not chasing after 3 young sons, Alicia loves to read and drink coffee in the sun (preferably all at the same time!), is a meditation teacher and is doing extra study in mindfulness mentoring.

Dr Aruna Sathanapally
CEO
Grattan Institute

Dr Aruna Sathanapally joined Grattan Institute as CEO in February 2024. She heads a team of leading policy thinkers, researching and advocating policy to improve the lives of Australians. A former NSW barrister and senior public servant, Aruna has worked on the design of public institutions, economic policy, and evidence-based public policy and regulation for nearly 20 years. Before joining Grattan, Aruna worked in senior roles in the NSW Treasury.

She led the 2021 NSW Intergenerational Report and led the economic analysis for the 2022 Women’s Economic Opportunities Review.

On the non-work side – Aruna is a recent convert to the joys of team sport, having stepped off the sidelines of her son’s soccer games to playing for her local club, in an appropriate grade and division.

Sruthi Srikanthan
Partner
Deloitte Access Economics

Sruthi is a health economist by training and has a particular interest in the measurement of social impact using economic tools. In the last couple of years, Sruthi has led the development of two significant pieces of thought leadership on the criticality of changing our gender norms to realising the economic benefits associated with gender inequality across work and the community. In the most recent release – Remaking the Norm – the gender economics team consider practical actions which can be taken to change the gender norms in our workplaces, communities and households.

She leads the health economics and social policy practice and co-leads of Deloitte’s gender economics practice area.

Beyond gender, Sruthi’s work considers equity of access to health and human services as well as social inclusion and economic participation for persons with disability, First Nations persons and people from culturally diverse backgrounds.

At home, Sruthi is a personal assistant to her vivacious three girls – Maya, Aaliya and Leela. She is at her happiest when staring out the window at the family farm in a precious moment of peace.

Dr Katherine Trebeck
The Next Economy
Centre for Policy Development

Katherine is a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. Her roles include writer-at-large at the University of Edinburgh, Economic Change Lead at The Next Economy, and Strategic Advisor to the Centre for Policy Development. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance (WEAll) and also WEAll Scotland, its Scottish hub. Katherine instigated the group of Wellbeing Economy Governments (WEGo) – comprising Scotland, New Zealand, Finland, Wales, Iceland, and Canada. She is 2025 thinker-in-residence at the Australian Health Promotion Association, a New Economics Senior Fellow at the ZOE Institute, and a Fellow of The Post Growth Institute.

She is a member of the Club of Rome and sits on the boards of Hands Across Canberra, the Wellbeing Economy Lab Denmark, and the Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity.

She has over eight years’ experience in various roles with Oxfam GB, where she developed Oxfam’s Humankind Index and led Oxfam’s work on downscaling the ‘doughnut’ for various national contexts.

Katherine has Bachelor Degrees in Economics and in Politics (University of Melbourne) and holds a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University.

Her most recent book The Economics of Arrival: Ideas for a Grown Up Economy (co-authored with Jeremy Williams and published by Policy Press) was published in 2019 and her two Tedx talks are about ‘Why the future economy has to be a wellbeing economy’ and ‘a new definition of wealth and prosperity’.

Katherine is mainly based in Australia, but every now and again makes it back to her beloved Scotland. When life allows she is invariably cooking for friends, ideally accompanied by a glass or two of Aussie wine and almost inevitably some old school music!