Fiona McGaughey is Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Advancement & Diversity in the Office of the Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Western Australia. Previously, she served as Associate Professor at the UWA Law School, holding leadership roles including Deputy Head of School (Learning & Teaching), Director of Higher Degrees by Coursework, and Director of the Law and Society Major. She established UWA's interdisciplinary Modern Slavery Research Cluster in 2017. McGaughey graduated from Queen's University of Belfast with a Bachelor of Laws with French (honours), earned a Master of Human Rights from Curtin University, and obtained her PhD from the University of Western Australia in 2017 on the role of non-governmental organisations in monitoring international human rights law. Earlier in her career, she worked as a management consultant and project manager with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in Western Australia and Accenture in Ireland. She held diversity, equity, and inclusion policy positions in Ireland and Australia, including Research & Policy Officer at the National Consultative Committee on Racism & Interculturalism, Director of Equal Measures consultancy, Senior Policy Officer at National Disability Services WA, Project Officer at the Equal Opportunity Commission WA, and Irish National Focal Point for the European Racism & Xenophobia Network and European Fundamental Rights Agency (2005-2008). She also served as sessional lecturer at Curtin University's Centre for Human Rights Education. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Senior Fellow of the UWA Public Policy Institute, she is a member of UWA's Academic Board and Academic Council.

McGaughey's research specializations include international human rights law, business and human rights with a focus on modern slavery, United Nations human rights mechanisms, the role of NGOs in human rights monitoring, higher education pedagogy, race and ethnic relations, anti-discrimination, and disability rights. Key publications include her monograph Non-Governmental Organisations and the United Nations Human Rights System (Routledge, 2021); co-authored book The International Law of Human Rights (3rd ed., Federation Press, 2025); ‘Corporate Responses to Tackling Modern Slavery: A Comparative Analysis of Australia, France and the United Kingdom’ (Business and Human Rights Journal, 2021, 61 citations); ‘Humanizing Supply Chains: Turning the Spotlight Towards Remediation in Modern Slavery Scholarship’ (Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 2025); and ‘Modern Slavery Research: A Commentary on Methods and Themes’ (Adelaide Law Review, 2025). Her scholarship has been cited over 800 times, influencing Australian parliamentary inquiries, court decisions, and policy reports. Awards include the Fay Gale Fellowship (2022-2023), UWA Teaching Excellence (2020), and Excellence & Innovation in Teaching (2014). She contributes to the Law Council of Australia's Business and Human Rights Committee and various government advisory groups.

Professional Email: fiona.mcgaughey@uwa.edu.au