CAPA

The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA) has conducted its annual elections, with a talented and diverse new team elected to lead the organisation in 2020.

We are pleased to announce that Romana Rea Begicevic will take on the Presidency of CAPA from January 1st 2020. Romana-Rea is a PhD student at Curtin University, researching pancreatic cancer. She is an experienced postgraduate representative, having served as the president of the Postgraduate Student Committee at Curtin and as CAPA Women’s Officer in 2019.

The full National Representative Committee is:
President: Romana-Rea Begicevic (Postgraduate Student Committee – PSC, Curtin Student Guild)
Vice President: Bojana Klepač Pogrmilovic (VUPA – Victoria University Postgraduate Association)
Policy and Research Advisor: Errol Phuah (Swinburne Student Union)
Media and Communications Officer: Anushka Kapoor (Western Sydney University SRC)
Queer Officer: Shae Brown (Southern Cross Postgraduate Association)
Women’s Officer: Aishwarya Singh (Griffith Uni Postgraduate Students Association)
Disabilities Officer: Ashik Chacko Mathulla (Griffith Uni Postgraduate Students Association)
International Officer: Devendra Singh (Monash Graduate Association – MGA)
NATSIPA Appointee: Stacey Coates (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association)

“I am looking forward to leading the vibrant CAPA team of the national representative committee, board of directors and NATSIPA appointees in 2020 to advocate to stakeholders about the importance of academic and non-academic issues that will enable postgraduate students to flourish. This includes quality education, support services, including funding and respectful relationships at Australian university campuses,” says Romana-Rea.

In addition, we elected our new board. The 2020 board members are:
Saira B. Khan (Griffith Uni Postgraduate Students Association)
Peter Watson (UWA Postgraduate Students’ Association – PSA)
Maimuna Majimbi (Postgraduate Student Committee – PSC, Curtin Student Guild)
Nithin Ponnaluru (RUSU – RMIT University Student Union)
Aidan Cornelius-Bell (FUSA Flinders University Student Association)
Adam Red Scorgie (The University of Adelaide SRC)
Dr Sharlene Leroy-Dyer (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Postgraduate Association)

We thank the outgoing National Representative Committee and board for their outstanding work in 2019.