Personal information
Biography
Karen Thorpe is a developmental scientist whose research examines the impact of early childhood experience on lifelong trajectories of learning, behaviour, social inclusion and health. Her particular focus is early childhood education and care (ECEC) and includes the factors affecting the quality of the ECEC environment including the qualification, skills and wellbeing of the ECEC workforce. Her work in Education, Social and Health public policy fields has twice been recognised by the Australian Financial Review “100 Women Of Influence” award.
Karen has 30 years experience utilising a range of research designs that include large-scale longitudinal, educational effectiveness, natural experiment and twin designs. She has experience in wide range of measurement methodologies (self-report measures, standard psychological assessment, observation, biological, physiological and genetic markers) and analysis including qualitative and quantitative methods . She has worked with and led international research teams and across disciplinary fields: Education, Paediatrics, Epidemiology and Psychology. She has >250 publications including a diverse range of top tier journals across Medicine, Health, Education and Psychology reports for Government and non-Government agencies and professional development materials. She has national and and international (UK/USA/NZ) competitive funding success research totalling >$130 million including $22 million in individual research funding and funding of three ARC centres of Excellence. In 2022 Karen was awarded an Australian Laureate fellowship to examine the barriers to provision of high quality ECEC in Australia’s most disadvantaged communities.
Karen Is a chief investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for children and Families across the Life Course ( Life Course Centre)