Pam Ryan is a school sector education specialist who has been a teacher, secondary school principal and director of schools, and is undertaking a PhD at the University of Sydney. Pam’s experience has been in both the public and private sectors, internationally and in Australia. From 2010 to 2014, Pam was Director of Education for a Hong Kong–based network of schools, prior to which she spent seven years as a school education director in NSW; was the NSW senior project manager for the implementation of legislation for raising the school leaving age, and spent 10 years as a school principal. Pam co-designed two collaborative ‘virtual school’ innovations: a shared senior school curriculum across a network of schools and a regional selective school provision.

Pam is the author of two books on leadership: Leadership in Education: Learning from Experience (Halstead Press, 2015) and Wise Heads Wise Hearts (ACER Press, 2016). In community life, Pam has served as a councillor and deputy mayor in local government.