Rate My Professor Valerie Braithwaite

Valerie Braithwaite is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University. Holding a BA with First Class Honours and a PhD from the University of Queensland, she is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a disciplinary background in psychology. She has taught social and clinical psychology programs at undergraduate and graduate levels and held research appointments at the University of California, Irvine, Northwestern University, and the Australian National University in units including the NH&MRC Social Psychiatry Research Unit, John Curtin Medical School, and the Administration, Compliance and Governability Project in the Research School of Social Sciences. Key career roles include Associate Director of the Research School of Social Sciences (1988-1989), Director of the Centre for Tax System Integrity (1989-2005), and Head of the Regulatory Institutions Network in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (2006-2008). Her research focuses on the intersection between people and regulatory institutions, developing and testing theory relating to defiance, compliance, emotional regulation, social and human capital development. Notable publications include Defiance in Taxation and Governance: Resisting and Dismissing Authority in a Democracy (2009), Regulating Aged Care: Ritualism and the New Pyramid (2007, with John Braithwaite and Toni Makkai), Shame Management Through Reintegration (2001, with Eliza Ahmed, Nathan Harris, and John Braithwaite), Anomie and Violence: Non-truth and Reconciliation in Indonesian Peacebuilding (2010, with John Braithwaite, Michael Cookson, and Leah Dunn), and Policing Child Protection: Motivational Postures of Contesting Third Parties (2022, with Mary Ivec).

Braithwaite's influence extends to policy advisory roles as a member of the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Advisory Council and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Advisory Council, and on expert advisory panels for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency and the Department of Health and Aged Care. She conducted reviews of regulation in higher education (2013, with Kwong Lee Dow) and the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 (All Eyes on Quality Report, 2018). She contributes to child protection reform and the La Trobe University project Creating Safer Futures: Raising Public Awareness of Child Sexual Abuse Among Young Adults through Digital Storytelling. Her outstanding work performance was recognized with the ANU Vice-Chancellor's Award.