It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child. Dr. Claire Brown believes that it takes a global village to raise global citizens who care for each other’s children, wherever they live. She firmly believes that AVID is a catalyst that can raise the quality of teaching and learning anywhere for all students.

As a third-generation teacher, Dr. Brown has nurtured a lifelong passion for education, with her son now serving as a fourth-generation teacher in the family. Dr. Brown has worked in primary, secondary, and tertiary education—where she has gained national and international experience in learning and researching the art and science of teaching—as a teacher, administrator, public servant, and researcher. She has taught, researched, and implemented teaching and learning initiatives, methodologies, policies, and practices. Her career has largely focused on advancing the quality and status of teaching in schools and postsecondary institutions so that every student, regardless of their ZIP code or circumstances, receives the very best teaching and learning experience, to which they are all entitled.

Dr. Brown’s respect and commitment to AVID began in 2011 when she won a $1.5 million Australian federal government grant to see if AVID could improve teaching and learning quality in Australia, as it had already demonstrated in the US. She was honored to serve as the National Director of AVID Australia at Victoria University during this period. Nearly 15 years later, AVID schools in Australia remain committed and convinced that AVID changes the lives of students and teachers alike. Dr. Brown has won many research and philanthropic grants focused on improving the quality and status of teaching and learning, particularly focused on advancing outcomes for students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds. Over 1 million readers across the world have read her education articles published online in The Conversation and journals.

Both AVID Center and AVID Australia were short-listed for the 2020 Wharton International Reimagine Education Award, placing in the top 19% of international K–12 education innovations. Dr. Brown has won numerous academic and professional awards, including being nominated for the 2019 Victorian Honour Roll of Women and receiving the 2014 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Engagement at Victoria University.

In her most recent appointment, Dr. Brown served as the inaugural Director of the Teaching Excellence Division at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership, a state government initiative to raise the quality and status of teaching in Victorian schools. She codeveloped and led the statewide, cross-sectoral Teaching Excellence Program, which included fellowships and an alumni network for primary and secondary teachers. Her research interests are teacher professional learning, improving the status and quality of teaching and learning, pedagogy, education policy, literacy, and initial teacher education.

Claire Brown

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
AVID AUSTRALIA