Jennifer Star OAM - Director (International)
Jennifer has over a decade of experience working in Education in the South Asian region as a teacher, professional learning coordinator and education consultant. At the age of 21, Jennifer founded an Education NGO, Tara.Ed that aims to promote sustainable quality education in rural and remote areas of India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan by training, supporting and empowering teachers. Since its inception in 2008, Tara.Ed has provided education to over 20 828 underprivileged children across Asia.
Prior to joining Asia Education Foundation, Jennifer was the Manager, Professional Learning (India and South Asia) at the Australian Council for Educational Research, where she led the professional learning team to design and deliver large scale, high quality professional learning programs across South Asia for clients such as the Australian Government (DFAT), the World Bank, UNESCO, The British Council, USAID and state and central Governments.
Dedicated to building Australia’s engagement with Asia and growing Asia literacy in the next generation of young Australians, Jennifer works alongside Australian schools, school leaders and teachers to embed meaningful intercultural learning into education and has led over 18 delegations of Australian teachers and pre-service teachers to India providing avenues for a cross-cultural skills exchange and professional collaboration with their Indian counterparts.
An Australian qualified Teacher, and proud product of a public school, Jennifer worked as a HSIE teacher in regional NSW in 2009-10. She holds a Master of Education (International and Comparative) from Oxford University and is currently pursuing a PhD at Deakin University.
As a result of her contributions to international education, Jennifer was awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 2019, was recognised as one of Australia’s Prominent Women Leaders with the receipt of the Australian Women’s Agenda Leadership Award (Not-for -Profit) in 2017 and as one of Australia’s 100 most Influential Women in 2014. She was also named the Young Australian of the Year (NSW) in 2012.