Remote education systems

Equity in education

Indigenous education

Boarding schools

Literacy, bi-lingual education and bi-literacy

Education policy

Indigenous public policy

Marnie is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the Australian National University and an Honorary Fellow at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. Marnie has a particular interest in the education opportunities and outcomes for First Nations young people from remote Australia. She has worked extensively in education, both as a teacher and as coordinator of the Victorian Indigenous Education Network. Marnie commenced her professional career working as a commercial lawyer in Melbourne and then in the legal publishing fraternity in London. She serves as Chair of the Board of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

Marnie has conducted extensive research in Indigenous education, with a particular interest in the experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Boarding schools. Her book entitled Boarding and Australia's First Nations: Understanding how residential schooling shapes lives will be released by Springer in November 2021

She is currently working as part of the CAEPR research team evaluating Local Decision Making in NSW. 

She continues to work with the Daly River community seeking to expand secondary education opportunity for youth in that region.

In addition to her research portfolio, Marnie is the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, a major not-for-profit organsationwith strong links to the book industry. Over the course of its 11 year history, the ILF has distributed more than 500,000 new, culturally appropriate books to children across 400 remote communities. The ILF operates reading programs in 63 playgroups in remote Australia and has published over 100 books in local languages. It has an extensive book translation program.