Professor Janice Orrell was appointed as a Life Member of HERDSA for her long-standing commitment and service to HERDSA, to the profession and practice of academic development, and to Australian higher education.

Jan has been an educator for over 40 years with ample evidence of her work to empower people through developing their learning. She has led transformation across Australian higher education including assisting academics to develop their careers and prepare them for their role as teachers in higher education, enabling innovation in higher education, assessment as learning, enhancing the practice of WIL in all disciplines, and doctoral education.

She was a co-founder of the Foundations Colloquium that that provided support and networking that enabled cross-institutional sharing of practice and collaborations and which has subsequently lead to the development of an extensive range of resources to support early career teachers.

Jan was also a Foundation Director of the Carrick Institute and in this role she truly championed higher education. Many of the current practices we take for granted were once innovative practices that she identified and supported through providing investigative grant funding, discussion fora, networking events and supporting champions in the field to disseminate and transfer ideas and practices.

Jan has a long history of service to HERDSA and has been actively involved in Branch activities in the South Australian branch of HERDSA for well over 2 decades and convened the HERDSA conference in 1997.