Jessa Rogers


Jessa Rogers is an Aboriginal education leader and Fulbright Scholar currently based in Canberra, Australia.

Early life and education

Rogers is a member of the Wiradjuri people and was born in Canberra, Australia. Her family moved to Sunshine Coast, Queensland, where Rogers attended local schools before going on to complete degrees at Queensland University of Technology, University of Southern Queensland, and Australian National University.

Career

Rogers is an Indigenous scholar and teacher who is recognised as an advocate for education reform in Australia. Rogers argues the need for schools to be more inclusive of Indigenous cultures in their curriculum, and the need for more Indigenous teachers in Australian schools.
In 2015, Rogers was appointed the inaugural Principal of the Cape York Girl Academy, Australia's first boarding school for young mothers and their babies. Rogers' passion for supporting the education of teenage mothers is based on her own experience as a Year 12 student who fell pregnant and gave birth to a son ten days before graduating from secondary school. Rogers is also a member of the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee, the Australian College of Educators Policy Committee, and was an ANU Reconciliation PhD Scholar.
Rogers is currently assistant professor in education at the University of Canberra and an Adjunct Principal Research Fellow at James Cook University and has held positions at Macquarie University, the University of the Sunshine Coast, and the Australian National University. She is a member of the More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers Initiative, and the Forum for Indigenous Research Excellence.

Awards

Rogers was the NAIDOC Young Person of the Year in 2010, and won the Reconciliation Award at the Australian National University in 2014, and the Minoru Hokari Scholarship in 2015. She is a nominee for ACT Young Woman of the Year in 2016, and won the 2016 Queensland University of Technology Young Alumus of the Year Award.. In 2017, Rogers was as a Fulbright Scholar based in the Native American Program at Harvard University and in 2018 was appointed a Churchill Fellow.