Gabrielle O'Brien Program Manager, Young Accelerators Program

Gabrielle has over 22 years experience in Higher Education across various areas. Her expertise includes delivering whole-of-institution programs that improve access, participation, retention and success across the whole student lifecycle in higher education. This includes students from diverse backgrounds and discipline interests such as STEM. Gabrielle is currently employed as the Manager for the Young Accelerators Program at QUT. QUT’s Young Accelerators Program (formerly STEM for Schools) has been running since 2013 and is committed to inspiring the next generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) leaders. We provide meaningful STEM experiences for Year 7 to 12 students regardless of background, gender, academic level or location. The Young Accelerators program is part of QUT’s STEM School Engagement program which was named international Gold Award winner of the K-12 category (kindergarten to Year 12) at the prestigious Reimagine Education Awards, which are billed as the ‘Oscars’ of Education. Read more about this prestigious win.

Gabrielle’s expertise includes leadership, project management, marketing and recruitment, widening participation, equity and social justice, gender equity, and policy development. She was the President of the Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia (www.ephea.org) from 2014 to 2019 leading the strategic direction of this Association which has over 900 members. She is a member of the Department of Education Equity Research and Innovation Panel and periodically undertakes advisory positions on research projects which support the nexus between practice and research to improve outcomes for under-represented groups in Higher Education.