Introduction to Public Policy

Dr. Altaf Virani is a Lecturer in Government at Flinders University’s College of Business, Government and Law. He specializes in public policy, governance, and public administration with a focus on health policy and health systems, public systems, social policy, and development. His research is centred around public sector reform and the governance challenges of public service delivery in resource-poor settings, transitional economies, and non-Western contexts, particularly in South and Southeast Asia. His research seeks to bridge theory and practice, and touches on policy design, public sector performance management, market-based governance, public-private partnership, collaborative governance, data-driven decision-making, knowledge-translation, and the equity implications of policy interventions.

Before joining Flinders, Dr. Virani served as Associate Professor of Public Policy at Monash University, Indonesia, where he led the development and strategic expansion of Monash’s public policy program in Jakarta. He has a strong applied focus, having worked with governments, international agencies (including the World Bank, ILO, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), and civil society organizations to design, implement, and evaluate field-based policy research.

Dr. Virani holds a PhD in Public Policy from the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and was a Fox International Fellow (2017–18) at Yale University’s MacMillan Centre for International and Area Studies. An active contributor to the academic community, he serves as Associate Editor for Policy Design and Practice and on the editorial board of the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice and the Steering Committee of the India Public Policy Network. His work has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Public Administration, Policy and Society, Policy Design and Practice, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, Globalization and Health, Global Health Research and Policy, Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, as well as by academic presses like Oxford University Press and Edward Elgar.

Dr. Jessica Genauer is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Flinders University. Jessica is an expert in international conflict, political leadership and institution-building, and is a frequent commentator for national and international outlets on Russia/Ukraine, the Middle East and the US. Jessica currently leads training in leadership and stakeholder engagement for both State and Federal government.