Professor Pendergast is Director of Engagement in the Arts, Education and Law Group at Griffith University. She is an expert in the field of adolescent learners, including engagement, learning and wellbeing, middle years practices, and school and sector policy reform and transformation. She brings to this project extensive experience as research leader in large-scale projects featuring transformation, working extensively with organizations such as the Department of Education (Queensland), shifting Year 7 into secondary schools; the Education Directorate (ACT), co-creating a model for adolescent student engagement; the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, reforming the early years across the sector; Catholic Education South Australia, transforming middle years student engagement and school structures; and ORBIS South Australia, shifting Year 7 into secondary schools and developing capability in teachers. She has supervised more than 35 doctoral completions and mentored many academic and research staff during her 14-year term as Head and Dean of the School of Education and Professional Studies. She has national standing as an educational leader, and serves on boards including the Board of AITSL: the National Council of Be You, the national mental health initiative delivered by Beyond Blue in schools; and the Anxiety Prevention Advisory Group in the NSW Department of Education.