Rachael Hains-Wesson

Rachael Hains-Wesson

Associate Professor of Work-Integrated Learning
The University of Sydney Business School

Dr Rachael Hains-Wesson (PhD) is an Associate Professor of Work-Integrated Learning and the Director for the University of Sydney Business School Work-Integrated Learning Hub. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne (which ranked the top Masters in the world at the time) and a PhD from the University of Western Australia. She was awarded the prestigious Convocation award (UWA) as a visiting scholar for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Rachael is also submitting her second PhD in Education from Deakin University, Melbourne, which will be her 7th degree qualification.

Rachael has extensive practical experience as an Entrepreneur, Creative Industries expert and is a renowned leader in Higher Education pedagogy and practice for Work-Integrated Learning. She has extensive experience managing and working for leading international and Australian not-for-profit organisations, the military and start-up enterprises for a number of local, national and global initiatives.

Rachael has received and has been nominated for top teaching awards, including Vice Chancellor awards for Outstanding Teaching from students, and she was the 2000 Queen’s Trust Foundation Awardee for her acclaimed work in Theatre-in-Education programs that focused on anti-bullying in primary and secondary educational institutions around Australia. She was the original writer for Theatre-in-Education programs that focused on anti-bullying for Australian primary schools throughout the early 2000s. Rachael is well-known for her work in the Creative Industries, Work-Integrated Learning and for leading large-scale curriculum transformation projects for improving policy, systems and learning outcomes for enhancing the student experience, having published widely in these areas. Rachael’s media and journal articles, book chapters, as well as her plays and books (over 100 publications) have been published in a number of reputable outlets, nationally and internationally.

From this author

Inclusive and workplace acceptance of refugees
Partnering for refugee employment

When considering their talent pipelines, few companies think outside-of-the-box. Most refugees flourish in the workplace, and so do the businesses that hire them.

SDG 16
Institutional investors demand a more sustainable capitalism

Honey gathering is a solitary job in Indigenous communities. The collector then shares the honey with their community but refrains from joining in the honey feast themself. The idea is that the gathering is not about their gratification, it’s about their contribution to the collective.  

SDG15 Bushfires
Optimisation model as a guide to burning forests to save forests

Setting fire to parts of a forest to save it might seem counterintuitive to urban communities. There is no equivalent of torching a few streets to protect a suburb. However, amongst First Nations people in Australia, hazard reduction burning is a well-established practice.

SDG13 - coal mining
Net zero now – it’s the economy AND the planet

In Australia, as elsewhere, the climate wars have focused on the climate versus jobs dichotomy. Yet while Australia remains highly dependent on fossil fuel extraction for its national economic prosperity it has also become increasingly unequal in its distribution of that wealth.