Bond University has appointed Professor Geraldine Mackenzie as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of Law, effective January 5, 2009.
Professor Mackenzie will join Bond from the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), where she is presently Professor and Foundation Head of the School of Law.
The appointment follows the departure of Bond’s previous Dean of Law, Professor Duncan Bentley, to Curtin University of Technology earlier this year.
Professor Mackenzie said she was “very much looking forward to working with some of Australia’s most eminent law professors at Bond University”.
“I feel very privileged to be appointed Dean of one of the nation’s leading Faculties of Law,” she said.
“I have had a 20-year career in academia, and therefore it seems fitting that I join Bond in their 20th Anniversary year.
“I have particularly enjoyed my time as Head of School at USQ and it will be very hard to leave my wonderful colleagues there, but the opportunity to lead such an exceptional Faculty of Law as Bond’s is one that I just couldn’t pass up,” Professor Mackenzie said.
Chancellor of Bond University, Mr Trevor C Rowe AM, said the University looks forward to welcoming Professor Mackenzie in the New Year.
“Professor Mackenzie has a strong track record as a research leader, a strong commitment to high quality teaching and learning and strong links to the profession –all of which will be needed as we move towards realising our ambition of becoming the best law faculty in Australia,” he said.
As Dean, Professor Mackenzie said she will look to build on Bond’s many existing strengths in teaching and research, with the objective of maintaining the Faculty of Law’s position at the cutting edge of the discipline.
“I will also look to continue to expand the strong ties that Bond Law enjoys with the legal profession,” she said.
“Bond University is able to offer students a unique and very special learning experience of the highest possible quality, and I look forward to continuing this into the future,” Professor Mackenzie said.
A specialist in criminal law, Professor Mackenzie's research encompasses both the practical aspects of criminal law and the courts, and also theoretical and policy aspects, particularly in relation to sentencing.
Since 1995 she has been author, and now consulting author of the looseleaf service for practitioners, Summary Offences Law and Practice Queensland, LawBook Co, She is the author or co-author of four books in relation to criminal law and sentencing and has published numerous journal articles and conference papers.
Professor Mackenzie is a Professional Member of the Council of Australian Law Deans, Queensland Bar Association (Barrister at Law), Australian Institute of Management, Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology, Australasian Law Teachers Association, Criminal Law Specialist Accreditation Committee, (Queensland Law Society) and the Downs and South West Queensland Law Association.
