Dr Sue Elliott

Biography

Dr Sue Elliott Dip KTC, BSc (Hons), MSc, EdD. Sue was originally employed for over 25 years in various early childhood settings including long day care, mobile and sessional preschools as an early childhood educator and at the tertiary level in early childhood training courses at TAFE and university. She co-ordinated early childhood consultancy projects for various organisations including the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, Museum Victoria and Melbourne Zoo focussed on the development and facilitation of early years’ programs. In addition, she was a training co-ordinator with Community Child Care Victoria, Early Childhood Education Officer for Sun Smart at the Cancer Council Victoria and a sessional early childhood educator at the Melbourne Aquarium and Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. She moved fully into the university sector as a lecturer in early childhood education at RMIT University 2006-2011, the Australian Catholic University (ACU) 2012-2013 and lastly as a Senior Lecturer and Course Co-ordinator in the School of Education at the University of New England. Her responsibilities have included the supervision of Higher Degree Research students investigating play, outdoor pedagogies and nature play programs in varied contexts and consultative roles with the UNE on-campus early childhood centre and the new Boilerhouse Science Discovery Space under development. Sue has conducted funded research projects both locally and internationally around sustainability and outdoor play. Beyond UNE, Sue is regularly requested to present keynote lectures and workshops or engage in consultancies Australia-wide and internationally by various peak early childhood organisations and government departments. She has committee reponsibilities with various associations locally, nationally and internationally including Co-Convenor of the Transnational Dialogues in Early Childhood Education for Sustainability Research, as well as editorial roles such as Field Report Editor for Children, Youth and Environment. Her work has been recognised with several life memberships.