Shirley Leader
Chair, Resource Committee
Shirley is an experienced educator, facilitator and consultant with a strong interest in Holocaust education, cross-cultural communication and language teaching.
She has been a volunteer guide at the Sydney Jewish Museum since 2017. Prior to this, she was a language teacher at UNSW Global and held the positions of sessional lecturer and postgraduate course convenor in the Department of Languages and Linguistics at UNSW. In these roles she taught academic English to international students preparing to enter postgraduate study in Australia and lectured to students training to become English language teachers. She has particular expertise in curriculum design and the development of advanced literacy and communication skills in second language learners.
Earlier in her career, she worked as a management consultant for both public and private sector organisations. Applying both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, she contributed to several major research projects focussed on public sector reform. These included a review of the culture of the Australian Public Service and a qualitative audit of the NSW Police reform process following the Wood Royal Commission.
In recent years, she completed a professional development certificate in Teaching about Contemporary Antisemitism, offered by Echoes and Reflections in partnership with the ADL, USC Shoah Foundation and Yad Vashem. She holds a Master’s in TESOL from UNSW and a Master’s in English literature from UNSW. Her research focus was on postcolonial and diaspora writing, including the Jewish diaspora in Australia. A separate project examined the Helen Demidenko controversy, Holocaust denial, and historical revisionism in Australian literary and political discourse.
She holds a Higher Diploma from the Business School at the University of the Witwatersrand, a Licentiate in Speech and Drama Teaching from the University of South Africa, and a Bachelor of Arts in English and French from the University of the Witwatersrand.