Social work education leader and filicide expert recognised in King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List
Monash Social Work congratulates Emerita Professor Thea Brown AM on her appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the King’s Birthday 2024 Honours List. Professor Brown was recognised for significant service to social welfare, particularly through family violence and child protection research.
A Professor Emerita of Monash Social Work at Monash since 2013, Professor Brown has long championed research excellence in child and family welfare, including family violence, partnership breakdown and filicide. Her work on family violence in the context of partnership breakdown led to new Family Court programs and changes to the Family Law Legislation Amendment (Family Violence and Other Measures) in 2011. She also carried out studies evaluating Men’s Behaviour Change Programs in the short and long term.
Professor Brown is an internationally recognised expert on filicide, and is co-convenor of the Monash Deakin Filicide Research Hub which carried out three published filicide research studies between 2013-2019, and produced the book When Parents Kill Children, co-edited with Danielle Tyson and Paula Fernandez Arias in 2018. The hub also sponsored the Addressing Filicide International Conference series held between 2013-2019. She has been a member of state and Commonwealth policy committees on family violence, partnership breakdown, filicide and social work education and conducted many studies for non-government organisations across all these areas.
Professor Brown is a social work education leader, recognised and respected for her roles as professor and head of the department from 1987-2013. She was also the Director of International Programs from 2004-2007, the Deputy Head of Department from 1985-1986 and the Chair of Residential Services from 1995-2004. Professor Brown pioneered the introduction of social work through distance education, to increase access and equity for a more diverse student cohort eager to undertake social work training. This was met with strong resistance from the wider social work academy at the time, but Professor Brown persisted, leading to the establishment of the now finely-developed online social work course offered at Monash.
Head of Monash Social Work Associate Professor Catherine Flynn congratulated Professor Brown on her appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia. “It is wonderful to see Thea acknowledged for the contribution she’s made over a sustained period to child and family welfare issues that many have shied away from, particularly shining a light on the distressing and complex phenomenon of filicide, as well as family violence and men’s behaviour change,” she said. “ We are lucky to have benefited from Thea’s exceptional leadership and mentorship at Monash Social Work for many years, and we congratulate her on this richly deserved achievement.”
Learn more about Emerita Professor Brown’s research on Monash Lens.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university, with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
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