Dr Sharni Chan

Sharni commenced with the Australian Centre for Child Protection as Research Fellow in March 2020, following senior research roles in government and NGOs. Sharni is a sociologist and qualitative researcher with over a decade of experience in leading university research centres. This includes the Social Policy Research Centre (UNSW) and the Workplace Research Centre (USYD). 

During her PhD, Sharni provided expert advice to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. In this role she steered over $800,000 worth of research to provide a rigorous and reliable evidence base for policy recommendations. She successfully managed complex stakeholder relationships in a multidisciplinary environment, including with survivor and practitioner groups. Sharni is particularly proud of her contribution to establishing external cultural governance mechanisms for the research program as well as earning the trust of the internal Aboriginal Knowledge Circle to work as liaison between them and the Research team. Her co-authored publication ‘Aboriginal children and child sexual abuse in institutional contexts’ (Anderson et al, 2017) changed the narrative within the Royal Commission from culture as risk factor to strong Aboriginal cultures as protective against abuse.

In her role as Senior Research Officer at the Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) she successfully led the establishment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Stream. Her role also entailed supervising three Research Officers managing a diverse range of projects from action research to reduce violence against women in culturally and linguistically diverse communities, perpetrator interventions and the role of Law and Culture in preventing family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.

After 18 months maternity leave, Sharni was appointed Assistant Director, Research at the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability. In two months in this position, Sharni rapidly set up the Royal Commission’s external research stream, including design and implementation of research quality framework, and successfully commissioned $500,000 worth of research from Request for Tender to project management.

Sharni returned to academia at the ACCP. She works on the Pursuit of Excellence in Response to Child Sexual Abuse, Western Australia (WA) and is a co-investigator for the co-design of an evidence-informed bi-cultural therapeutic approach to supporting children with abuse and neglect related trauma in WA. She provides secretariat for the Aboriginal Cultural Oversight Group, the Complex Trauma Working Group, and the Pursuit of Excellence Research Team. 

Sharni is passionate about the potential for trauma-informed research, self-determination, cultural governance and strengths-based research to reduce stigma and decolonise dominant perspectives of marginalised populations. She is committed to providing high quality evidence to shift policy making in this direction.  She is excited about contributing her research expertise, experience working with government, practitioners, and victim/survivors of abuse to an organisation that has demonstrated commitment and efficacy in systems reform to improve the lives of children, families and communities.

Sharni is based in the Blue Mountains, NSW on the lands of the Darug and Gundungurra Peoples. 

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy Macquarie University

Work history

Assistant Director, Research - Disability Royal Commission

Senior Research Officer - Australia's National Organisation for Women's Safety (ANROWS)

Senior Research Officer - Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

Research Officer - Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW

Research Analyst - Workplace Research Centre, USyd

Research and membership officer - AIDWATCH