Dr Natalie Gately from Edith Cowan University, Dr Jocelyn Jones from Curtin University and Associate Professor Joe Clare from the University of WA (UWA) were chosen for three vacant positions on the board.
Established in 2020, WACSAR helps inform criminal justice decision-making and policy development using a cross-agency, evidence-based approach.
Its non-statutory board was formed to provide advice and recommendations to the WACSAR Director.
The board’s Executive Committee includes the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of WA, the WA Police Commissioner, the Department of Justice’s Director General (Chair) and the Deputy Director of the Australian Institute of Criminology.
The Executive Committee selected the three successful candidates from the WA university sector to join the board as inaugural academic members following an expressions of interest process.
Department of Justice Director General Dr Adam Tomison said the appointments would enhance the board’s research expertise and keep WACSAR in touch with academic developments.
“The board members will assist WACSAR in developing and implementing best-practice research and evaluation strategies,” Dr Tomison said.
“I thank these three academics for contributing their time and knowledge towards excellence and innovation in criminal justice-related research.”
Dr Gately, an award-winning lecturer and published researcher with more than 20 years’ experience, is a Senior Lecturer and Researcher in Criminology and Psychology at Edith Cowan.
A principal investigator on several projects including young offenders and youth justice and the crime-drug nexus, she also researches people who have a family member in prison and parents of young offenders.
Dr Jones, a Noongar woman and an epidemiologist from WA, is the research lead of Aboriginal research at Curtin’s National Drug Research Institute.
She has 20 years’ experience in Aboriginal primary health care and Aboriginal health research and is also recognised as a leading Australian authority on health and wellbeing issues associated with Aboriginal incarceration.
Associate Professor Clare, a Deputy Head within the UWA’s Law School and an experienced criminologist, holds a Master of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
He recently won awards from the Australian and NZ Society of Criminology and the American Society of Criminology.
