Academic Staff

Leanne Baker

Leanne is an Associate Lecturer/Internship Coordinator for Southern Cross University’s School of Tourism & Hospitality Management. She has a B.Bus Tourism (Honours) and is currently studying for her PhD. Leanne's career to date has included time in Japan working for JTB, six years at the Ayers Rock Resort Company, in various roles including Manager, Guide and Guest Relations and Japanese Marketing Manager. 

Leanne was also employed in conferences and events and as Marketing Manager in the club sector. Leanne's research interests include workplace learning, career development, strategic management and tourism marketing. Leanne is also Third Year Coordinator for the Bachelor of Business in Tourism Management and has taught across a broad range of tourism and hospitality management units for Southern Cross University over the past 10 years.

leanne.baker@scu.edu.au

Helen Breen

Helen Breen is Academic Coordinator for the Centre for Professional Development in Club and Gaming Management and lectures in Tourism and Hospitality Management, Gaming and Club Management and Contemporary Gaming Operations at Southern Cross University. She is a Senior Researcher with the University’s Centre for Gambling Education and Research and has co-authored the first Australian textbook on club and gaming management. Holding an BA (Deakin) BBusTourism (Hons) NRCAE, MBus(Tourism) SCU, Helen is currently enrolled in a PhD.

helen.breen@scu.edu.au

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Grant Cairncross

Grant is a Lecturer at the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management's Coffs Harbour campus. His areas of research interest include:

• Employee Relations in tourism and hospitality
• HRM and it’s importance to Service Quality
• The value of employees annual leave to the Australian T&H industries
• The pressure of work – its connection to downshifters & seachangers & what this new emerging demographic means for tourism and hospitality industries in Australia.

 Recent projects undertaken include:

• Seachangers & what they mean for the tourism and hospitality industry.
• Industrial relations legislative changes – effects on employment relations in tourism and hospitality.
• The cost of not taking annual leave.
• Leave taking and leave taking advice – a look at a group of regional GP’s.
• A comparative study of small business employee relations – tourism and hospitality, construction and textiles.

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Michele Day

Coming soon

Johan Edelheim

Johan joined SCU at the Coffs Harbour campus in 2004 and lectures a range of hotel and resort management units, as well as coordinating MNG00135 Managing Rooms Division and MNG01222 Facilities and Risk Management. Before his current career in academia, Johan worked in the hotel industry in his home country Finland, as well as for extended times in Sweden, Germany, Spain and the USA.

Johan enjoys studying, which can be confirmed by the fact that he holds a Bachelor degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management from Vaasan Hotelli ja Ravintola Instituutti (1992), and a Bachelor degree in Vocational Education from Abo Akademi (1999), both in Finland. After moving to Australia in 2000 Johan has also received a PG Cert in Higher Education from Macquarie University (2003) as well a PG Dip in Tourism Management (2001) and a MBA (2003) both from Macquarie Graduate School of Management.

Johan is currently undertaking a PhD study at Macquarie University’s department of Critical and Cultural Studies, with the title ‘Tourist Attractions Forging National Identity’. Johan’s research interests are divided between two separate areas, Hotel and Resort Management Practice and Post Structural Studies of Tourism. While the first mentioned is highly practical and involves concrete management actions in the hotel industry, the other is more abstract and aims at critically evaluating tourism research and practice from a non-positivist perspective.

johan.edelheim@scu.edu.au

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A/Prof Don Fuller BEc(Hons)(Adelaide), MEc(Flinders), PhD(Adelaide)

Don is currently Director of Studies (Commerce and Tourism) at the Coffs Harbour Campus of Southern Cross University, and Director of the Centre for Enterprise Development and Research (CEDAR).
Following an extensive career within the Northern Territory Government and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Don has lectured a number of business-related units at other university institutions, subsequent to his appointment at Coffs Harbour. Don has also supervised students at both Honours, Masters and PhD level.

Don's main areas of interest are:
1. Regional Economic Development
2. Regional Tourism Industry Development
3. Indigenous Economic and Human Development
4. Small to Medium Sized Enterprise Developmet

don.fuller@scu.edu.au

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Prof Nerilee Hing BBus(NE), MAppSc(NE), PhD(UWS)

Dr Nerilee Hing is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management and also Head of the Centre for Gambling Education and Research. She has a Bachelor of Business in Tourism (UNE), a research Masters degree in Applied Science (UNE) involving a study of restaurant franchising, and a PhD (Gambling Studies) from UWS. Nerilee has had 14 years experience in the hospitality industry, primarily in the restaurant, hotel and club sectors. She has had extensive experience in course design and delivery, including Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Hospitality, Gaming and Club Management, and Food and Beverage Management for the Bachelor of Business in Tourism degree.

Nerilee has also developed units for the School's Graduate Certificate in Gaming Management, MBA - Hotel and Tourism Management, Bachelor of Business in Club and Gaming Management, Ansett Diploma of Business Management, and Diploma of Food Services Management. Nerilee currently lectures in Food and Beverage Management, Strategic Management for Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises and Entrepreneurship in Tourism and Hospitality. She is on the Editorial Boards of the International Gambling Studies Journal and the Gaming Reseaerch and Review Journal. She has published widely in various tourism and hospitality journals and has conducted numerous consulting and research projects for industry.

Nerilee is an active researcher into gambling-related issues, principally focusing on responsible provision of gambling and the management of problem gambling. She has conducted research and consulting activities with Clubs NSW, the Club Managers' Association Australia, the Casino Community Benefit Fund, Queensland Treasury, the Australian Institute for Gambling Research and the Australian Gaming Council. Please access http://cger.scu.edu.au for information on the Centre for Gambling Education and Research.

nerilee.hing@scu.edu.au

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Dr Stephen Kelly

Stephen is a Senior Lecturer at Southern Cross University; Director of the ICT Enterprise Development and Research Institute; Director of the Centre for Enterprise Development and Research and a Board Member on the Northern Rivers Business Advisory Service. He is also a professional member of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management and a member of the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy and the Academy of Marketing Science.

He has published in a range of areas broadly incorporating small firm strategy, planning and performance; business-to-business strategy; service quality and delivery; venture capital; business internationalization; and destination marketing. In total he has published over 40 refereed articles in management, marketing, small business and tourism journals and conferences. Prior to joining academia he worked in the Australian building materials and construction industry in various staff and line positions predominantly within the context of marketing and sales.

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Dr Carmen Tideswell PhD; BIntBus (Hons): GCert Higher Ed.
Southern Cross University, Tweed Gold Coast Campus

Carmen currently works in the Graduate College of Management as Senior Lecturer in Marketing. She has industry experience in the hospitality sector where she has worked as Marketing Manager for a 5-star integrated resort. Carmen’s current research interests focus on marketing and consumer behaviour issues primarily in the fields of tourism and hospitality. A key area of recent research interest has been on consumer loyalty and repeat purchase in the hospitality industry and in online purchase behaviour of consumers.

Carmen has also previously worked on various tourism research projects through her employment in the Centre for Tourism and Hotel Management Research (Griffith University). During this time she was involved in research projects including: Profiling and forecasting of visitor arrivals and the economic impact of tourism in South Australia (South Australian Tourism Commission); Sydney 2000 Tourism Olympic Forecasting Study (Tourism Forecasting Council & KPMG Management Consulting); Canada’s Tourism Performance (Canadian Tourism Commission); Sustainable Tourism Development in Thailand (Tourism Authority of Thailand); Gold Coast Monitor of Tourism Activity (Gold Coast Tourism Bureau) and a study of the Gold Coast Day Trip Market (Gold Coast City Council). Her PhD thesis investigated the ways in which international visitors to Australia planned and structured their travel itineraries, and therefore covered marketing issues related to tourist information search, destination decision making processes and cooperative marketing.

Maree Walo BBus(NE), MBus(SCU)

Maree has been on the academic staff of the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Southern Cross University since 1994. She has experience in several sectors of service industries including educational and aged care services. Her 15 years management experience in tourism and hospitality and industries includes the areas of food service/catering, conference, events and resort management.

Maree holds a Masters by Research from Southern Cross University. This research investigated the relationship between internship and student's management competency development. Maree has several diverse research interests including events management, sport tourism, cuisine tourism, tourism education, retirement lifestyle management and aged care, graduate career development and co-operative education issues.

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Dr Erica Wilson

Erica Wilson is a Lecturer with the School of Tourism and Hospitality Management.  Erica has a PhD through Griffith University, which focused on Australian women's experiences of solo travel abroad. She also holds a bachelor's degree in tourism administration from James Cook University, and a Graduate Diploma in Environmental Studies from the University of Adelaide.

She currently teaches in the areas of special interest tourism and sustainable tourism. Her research interests include socio-psychological aspects of the tourist experience, gender issues and tourism, environmental tourism and qualitative research methodologies in tourism, and she is currently working on a ARTRC/CRC project with NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service to better understand the relationships between NPWS and their on-site private visitor service operators.  Erica is also a member of the Richmond Valley Tourism Advisory Group.

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Mieke Witsel Drs(Amsterdam), MA(Amsterdam)

Mieke has been lecturing and tutoring in the university sector for more than nineteen years, as well as being a partner in a training and consultancy firm. She has taught and lectured in business communication, intercultural communication and English as a foreign language in Europe for many years at various levels of education, ranging from undergraduate, postgraduate and corporate levels. Her previous appointment involved six years as communications lecturer and course coordinator with Holland University's Amsterdam Management School for Tourism and Leisure, where she designed and taught courses that highlighted the importance of effective communication in the successful management of tourism and hospitality organisations.
Mieke's research focuses on intercultural communication and international management issues. As her masters' degree explored intercultural problems and solutions in higher education, Mieke was granted membership to the Australian College of Educators.
Main interest areas:

• intercultural communication;
• management;
• higher education, teaching and learning strategies;
• sustainablity in tourism

Simon Wilde

Simon is currently undertaking his PhD, researching tourism destination competitiveness in a regional Australian context. This research is being made possible through funding from the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre, and Southern Cross University.

Simon is also involved in research through the Centre for Enterprise Development and Research (CEDAR), at Southern Cross University.