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Heather Nancarrow, Ph.D.

CEO at Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)

Heather’s primary research interests are justice responses to violence against women, particularly as they relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Her book Unintended Consequences of Domestic Violence Law: Gendered Aspirations and Racialised Realities will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in November, 2019.

In 2015-2016, Heather was Co-Deputy Chair (with Rosie Batty, 2015 Australian of the Year), of the Council of Australian Governments’ (COAG) Advisory Panel on Violence against Women. In 2008-2009, Heather was Deputy Chair of the National Council to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, which produced Time for Action, the blue-print for the Council of Australian Governments’ National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010-2022.

Heather was the foundation Director of the Queensland Centre for Domestic and Family Violence Research, a position she held from 2003 until her move to ANROWS. During the 1980s Heather worked in various roles in women’s shelters and then as Co-ordinator of Community Education at the Queensland-wide Domestic Violence Resource Centre, During this time she was a member of a group of activists that successfully lobbied for the establishment of Chisholm Women’s Shelter (1984), the Migrant Women’s Emergency Support Service (1986), the Domestic Violence Resource Centre (1987) and the establishment of the Queensland Domestic Violence Taskforce (1987).

Dr. Nancarrow's recent publications include:

  • Nancarrow, H. (2019). Unintended Consequences of Domestic Violence Law: Gendered Aspirations and Racialised Realities. Springer.