Sharon Pickering is a highly-regarded leader in Australia’s education sector. She is Dean of Arts at Monash University, building humanities and social sciences to create the next generation of leaders. She is also Professor of Criminology and a leading expert on Australian criminal justice and criminology and refugee law. She is regarded as a global expert on border crossings, migration and trafficking and is the founder of the Border Crossing Observatory, working with NGOs, government agencies and law enforcement. Previously she worked across South East Asia and Northern Ireland on counter-terrorism policing, human rights and women. She was the editor of Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology. She is an award-winning author, writing 16 books and over 60 articles and chapters and in 2012 won the Australian Human Rights Award for print and online media on human rights and asylum. She is a sought after speaker, regularly quoted in the media and in her downtime, can be found at the football supporting Geelong Cats.