Our people

STEP UP Chair and Co-Founder Professor Isabella Dobrescu is the Head of the UNSW School of Economics and co-Director of the Scientia Education Academy Research Lab. A microeconometrician by training, her research combines theory, structural econometrics and large-scale randomised controlled trials to identify what works in education and how to expand educational equity and social mobility.

STEP UP Chair and Co-Founder Professor Alberto Motta is the Senior Deputy Dean (Education & Student Experience) at the UNSW Business School and Director of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy. His research spans the economics of education, organisational design and labour economics, combining theory, econometrics and experiments to understand how learning environments can be redesigned to improve educational outcomes.

Professor Keith Ooi (MBBS, PhD, FRACP, AGAF, FGESA) is Professor of Medicine at the School of Clinical Medicine, Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, UNSW Medicine & Health and consultant Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, Australia. He is listed in the World’s Top 2% Scientists (Elsevier) in his field and has brought his clinical approach to medical education, with a specific focus on technology driven educational tools. 

Dr Michael Coffey (BMed, MD, PhD, FRACP) is a Paediatric Gastroenterologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, Australia and Conjoint Senior Lecturer at UNSW Medicine & Health. He has secured over $2 million in research funding and published extensively in the fields of cystic fibrosis, gut microbiome, pancreatitis, and and technology-enhanced medical education, with a particular interest in serious games and simulation-based learning.

Associate Professor Murad Tayebjee is Associate Dean (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) and an academic in the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering at UNSW, where he leads a research group investigating light–matter interactions. His research uses advanced laser spectroscopy to explore the fundamental processes that govern how light interacts with materials, with the overarching aim of enabling the design of next generation solar energy harvesting devices.

Professor Rigissa Megalokonomou is an Professor of Economics at Monash University and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland. Her research in applied microeconomics examines education, migration and labour policy. Widely published, she uses novel data to address causal, policy relevant questions. She currently leads ARC-funded research examining women's participation and success in STEM.

Dr Akshay Shanker is a quantitative economist and project lead at Econ-ARK, Johns Hopkins University that aims to advance structural economic modelling for policy analysis and applied research. His research spans heterogeneous-agent macroeconomics, economic growth and optimisation, with applied work in labour and energy. Within STEP UP, he develops structural models to understand the mechanisms underlying learning and educational decision-making.

Dr Tommaso Sartori is a Research Fellow in the Department of Economics at Monash University, where he conducts research in economics of education. His research examines the economics of education, with a focus on how cognitive and non-cognitive skills, peer effects and curriculum design shape human capital formation, educational achievement and long-term outcomes.