Our award-winning teachers

Associate Professor Suzanna Fay

School of Social Science

Society and Culture

Associate Professor Suzanna Fay teaches subjects students fear most—yet they consistently rate her courses among their favourites. Through Trauma-Informed Teaching practices, she transforms dreaded statistics and theory into engaging experiences with exceptional teacher ratings (SECaTs 4.33-5.00) and strong enrolment numbers. Her approach integrates trauma-informed principles that recognize diverse learning histories and create psychological safety in the classroom. This foundation supports students to take intellectual risks with challenging material. She has developed specialized support for students with dyscalculia and intentionally "glorifies" failure as a learning opportunity rather than a source of shame. Suzanna's famous "Denzel Washington Lecture" brings probability theory to life through humour and film references. Continuing her passion for tackling hard things, Suzanna has pioneered resources helping UQ students and staff navigate Gen AI challenges in the classroom. Her AI Ethics collaborative exercises are popular amongst teaching staff as a way forward when uncertainty about AI threatened to paralyse social science teaching. Through storytelling methods inspired by Indigenous pedagogies, innovative assessment design, creative engagement strategies, and a dog, she has transformed CRIM1000 into a high-enrolment, high-satisfaction gateway course. Her leadership has been recognized through innovation grants and invitations to share her approaches with the broader teaching community.

Dr Paul Vrbik

School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Engineering, Information Technology, Architecture and Building

Paul Vrbik is a teaching-focused Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science who joined the University of Queensland (UQ) in 2020. He previously taught mathematics and computer science at the University of Toronto Mississauga, the University of Newcastle, and Western University in Canada.  Paul’s background is in Computer Algebra—a niche field focused on teaching computers to manipulate symbols rather than numbers. His expertise lies in solving systems of equations exactly. This mathematical lens informs his teaching approach, which is bottom-up and constructive rather than top-down and transmissive. He coordinates CSSE1001, UQ’s largest computing course and the entry point for most software-related degrees, and COMP3400, an advanced elective in Functional Programming that he rebuilt from scratch. Since its reintroduction, COMP3400 has quadrupled in enrolments and consistently earned near-perfect student feedback.

Paul’s classroom practice centres on live coding—solving problems in real time while narrating his thinking. This method helps demystify expert behaviour and is consistently cited by students as engaging and effective. Beyond the classroom, he founded the Information Technology Learning Centre, enriched the SCIE1000 Python module, restored the Maths/Physics LaTeX infrastructure, and conducts SoTL research on academic integrity and student perceptions of misconduct.

Dr Caroline Wilson-Barnao

School of Communication and Arts

Society and Culture

Dr Caroline Wilson-Barnao is lecturer in Strategic Communications in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Over the last decade she has played a critical role in embedding Work Integrated Learning (WIL) into the communications curriculum. Caroline’s teaching innovatively draws on pedagogical processes that support employability development, through industry co-design coursework and assessment. In 2020 she became a HEA fellow and in 2024 won the HASS Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. In Caroline’s classes students develop employability skills, understandings and attributes through simulated experiences, internships and other forms of unstructured learning like bootcamps. Her courses and teaching are well received by students, because they are anchored to current practice. Students participate in authentic assessments, test out their knowledge and skills using different online environments and tools, read scholarly literature and reflect upon their learnings using a structured process of self-reflection. She has created over 20 video interviews with industry professionals, instigated the Communications and Public Relations Australia (CPRA) mentoring program, initiated a student podcast, and embedded SEAL Reflection into the undergraduate curriculum and collaborated with 24 student partners. She currently leads the Bachelor of Communications Artificial Intelligence taskforce.

The Languages Employability Team

Professor Greg Hainge, Associate Professor Amy Hubbell,
Dr Adriana Diaz, and Dr Angie Knaggs

School of Languages and Culture

Work Integrated Learning (WIL) programs that value and enhance student employability

“Why learn a language now that we have AI?” While a common public (mis)perception is that English is enough, research in language acquisition shows that language learning develops essential workforce skills: resilience, adaptability, and intercultural competence. Language learning involves difficult to acquire abilities: sitting with discomfort, navigating ambiguity, learning from mistakes, and decoding complex information. Despite declining enrolments nationally, language learning has the potential to produce adaptable, curious, and courageous graduates, ready to thrive in AI-transformed careers and contribute to a more just, interconnected, and sustainable world. The Languages Employability Project confronts this challenge head-on. Since 2021, it has reimagined language-related employability as a transformative, socially embedded, interdisciplinary practice. It co-created a School Employability Statement, mapped employability across curricula, embedded it in teaching, enhanced WIL courses, introduced career development programs, and expanded cross-disciplinary access through new Diploma in Languages pathways. The project also strengthened alumni and industry engagement through workshops, podcasts, and networking, nurturing future-ready graduates with purpose and impact. Positioning UQ as a national leader, the project challenges deficit narratives and repositions language learning and its cognate fields: (Applied) Linguistics and Translating & Interpreting, as strategic disciplines that equip students to navigate complexity with humility, critical insight, and purpose.

The Private Practice and NDIS Learning Team

Associate Professor Roma Forbes, Dr Melanie Hoyle, Associate Professor Anthony Angwin, Dr Katelyn Melvin and Rachel Scott

School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences

Collaborative educational partnerships in learning and teaching

For years, allied health programs across Australia have heard the same call from industry and graduates: “We need better preparation for the private sector, especially within the NDIS.”

In the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS), we took action. The Private Practice and National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Program Team led the charge, pioneering one of Australia’s first targeted solutions to bridge this gap. In collaboration with industry leaders and consumers, they designed, implemented, and evaluated scaffolded online modules to equip graduates with the skills, confidence, and insights to thrive in private practice and NDIS settings.

Grounded in Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the modules prioritise flexibility and inclusivity, ensuring all learners, regardless of background, engage meaningfully. They incorporate multiple means of representation, engagement, and action, featuring co-designed, industry-informed resources that prepare students for the workforce.

The impact? The modules are embedded across all years of SHRS programs and adopted faculty-wide. Rigorous evaluation shows high engagement and greater confidence stepping into private practice and the NDIS. Beyond UQ, the innovations have been shared nationally and internationally, driving sector-wide change. The Private Practice and NDIS Program Team have redefined how workforce preparation should be done; through inclusive, evidence-based, industry-driven education.