Vale Gemma Carey: Warrior, scholar, friend

Abstract

We write this editorial in commemoration of the life and scholarship of our colleague and friend Professor Gemma Carey who died on 17 November 2024. Gemma was a well-known and respected scholar in the field of public administration in Australia and internationally. She made significant contributions to research into disability policies and programmes, collaboration within and beyond government, and the implementation of a range of policies relating to social inequity. Drawing on her lived experience, she was a tireless advocate for people living with adversity such as chronic illness, gender-based violence, and COVID-19 vulnerability. She will be remembered for her significant scholarship in public administration, disability studies, and public health. But more than this, Gemma will be remembered for her generosity with colleagues, particularly early career researchers and PhD students, and her relentless fight against social inequities.

Gemma was awarded her PhD in social policy and population health from the University of Melbourne and worked in research roles at RegNet, ANU, and the Public Service Research Group, UNSW Canberra before becoming an associate professor within the Centre for Social Impact (CSI), UNSW Sydney. At CSI, Gemma assumed leadership roles as Research Director and then National Research Director. At the age of 37, Gemma was made a full professor in recognition of her research and policy impact. She was a prolific writer, and in her too-short academic career published more than 100 journal articles, four books, and countless other papers and reports. The volume and nature of these contributions are even more significant given that Gemma experienced chronic illness resulting from an auto-immune condition, and from 2021 to 2024 was forced to take extended leave as a result of a vaccine injury.

In no journal did Gemma's work have more impact than the Australian Journal of Public Administration. She served on its editorial board, where she made significant contributions to advancing the journal, and appeared in its pages 19 times—most recently in November 2024. Gemma edited special issues for AJPA on the impact of administrative burdens in welfare systems (Carey, Moynihan, et al., 2021) and on using a feminist lens to analyse policy and public administration (Carey, Dickinson, et al., 2018). Both of these collections sought to galvanise new conversations around important issues relating to social inequities, which was a central theme through her research. Another strong theme was the importance of cross-boundary work between government agencies and non-government organisations, particularly in terms of dealing with complex policy issues. Gemma wrote extensively about boundary spanning (Carey et al., 2017; Carey, Landvogt, et al., 2018) and the governance and management practices that enable more effective joined up government (Buick et al., 2018; Carey & Harris et al., 2016; Carey et al., 2015; Salignac et al., 2019).

Gemma's research also explored the norms and values of the Productivity Commission (Corr & Carey et al., 2017; Green et al., 2022) and the use of technology in translation support for refugees and migrants in Australia (O'Mara & Carey et al., 2019). While retaining interests in a range of social inequity issues, over the last 6 years Gemma's research mostly focused on the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), particularly exploring its potential to create inequities for different participant groups (Carey, Malbon, et al., 2021; Malbon et al., 2018; Nevile et al., 2019). In addition to researching and writing extensively about the NDIS, Gemma was part of teams who made several submissions to government about the scheme and its operations, gave evidence to the Joint Standing Committee on the NDIS, and advocated for more protections for people with disability in the emergency stage of the COVID pandemic.

In fact, Gemma was so prolific and successful in her output within the AJPA that the previous editorial team at one time instituted a temporary embargo on further submissions, because the backlog of her accepted papers meant that each issue was carrying multiple articles written by her and colleagues. She accepted this request with humour and grace (and perhaps a hint of pride).

Gemma sought not only to write for an academic audience but also to translate her research for mainstream audiences, and to be engaged in public discussion of social justice issues. In 2011, Gemma co-founded Power to Persuade, an independent platform that provides a space for different groups – including those most affected by policy – to contribute to knowledge and debate about social policy nationally and internationally. Mirroring themes in Gemma's academic work, Power to Persuade bridges policy, practice, research, and advocacy. She also understood the power of lived experience and used it to advocate for change, writing for publications such as The Guardian, The Canberra Times, and Meanjin. In 2020, she published a memoir, No Matter Our Wreckage, that dealt with themes of intergenerational trauma, grooming, and consent.

While Gemma's contributions to the field of public administration will be remembered by many, what her colleagues valued more was the way she went about this work. Gemma aimed to integrate her personal values and her politics at every level of her professional life. She drew on extensive networks to enrich her research, keep it grounded in real-world concerns and experiences, and enhance its impact. She connected widely and used her public platform to amplify the voices of those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to be heard. And crucially, she was incredibly generous – particularly to early career researchers and PhD students. The breadth of Gemma's collaborations speaks to her willingness to listen to others and to see the value that they could provide in solving issues that she was passionate about. Three of us are some of the many early career researchers who benefited from collaborating with her as we built our academic careers. We valued the opportunity she extended to us (and many others) to conduct research that was theoretically rich and had the potential to impact policy and practice.

Theodore Roosevelt often used to say that public service is “the chance to work hard at work worth doing”; few have worked as hard or contributed as much as Gemma has to the important work of ensuring that public services are accessible and provide the support for those who most need it.

Gemma will be deeply missed by the academic community, whether by those who knew her personally or those who knew her work and draw on her thinking. She can be remembered through her academic works and the values of equality that were present in all parts of her life. For those who collaborated with Gemma, her spirit may be remembered in those moments familiar to many academics; the joyful moments of ideas sparking together and the lively debates that shape our thinking and in the shared pursuit of knowledge that is part of making a life worth living.