Emma Dawson is Executive Director of public policy think tank Per Capita. She has worked as a researcher at Monash University and the University of Melbourne; in policy and public affairs for SBS and Telstra; and as a senior policy adviser in the Rudd and Gillard Governments.

Emma has published reports, articles and opinion pieces on a wide range of public policy issues. She is a regular contributor to The Age and SMH and Guardian Australia, is a frequent guest on various ABC radio programs nationally, and an occasional panelist on The Drum on ABC TV. She appears regularly as an expert witness before parliamentary inquiries and often speaks at public events and conferences in Australia and internationally.

Emma is the co-editor, with Professor Janet McCalman, of the collection of essays What happens next? Reconstructing Australia after COVID-19, published by Melbourne University Press in September 2020, and author of several papers and book chapters on social policy in Australia. She is a Fellow of the Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia and an Adjunct Professor at the UTS Business School.