Our Academic Team

Debbie Plath is a social work educator, researcher, and consultant who led social work education programs in the university sector prior to joining Ikon in 2023. Professor Plath has a record of publications on social work practice and research in high quality international journals and has published two books on evidence-informed social work practice. She has supervised PhD students, completed national research projects on social worker’s use of research in practice, and undertaken consultancy projects for government departments, non-government organisations and UNICEF in the Maldives. Debbie is committed to experiential, student-centred approaches to education and the use of authentic assessment tasks that model real practices undertaken by professionals in the workplace. Debbie is Chair of the Editorial Board for the Australian Social Work journal and a Chair of the Australian Social Work Education Accreditation Standards panel.

Julie Michlmayr has more than 25 years’ experience in education provision across a wide variety of educational contexts, including 15 years in Early Childhood and Primary Education, 5 years in Vocational Education and 10 years in Higher Education. Before joining Ikon, Julie worked as an Academic and Course Coordinator on TAFE NSW’s Bachelor of Early Childhood Education and Care (Birth-5).

Over her career, Julie has continued her own life-long teaching and learning journey starting with a Bachelor of Teaching (Early Childhood Birth-8 years) from the University of Wollongong, a Master of Education (Early Childhood) with a specialisation in Leadership and Management from Torrens University, and a TAE40110 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment from TAFE NSW.