Jorania Ferreira Alves

Jora is currently studying a Master of Public Policy (Economic Policy) at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, supported by an Australia Awards Scholarship. 

She was born in Timor-Leste and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Data Science from Luther College, Iowa, USA.

Jora's research interests lie in labour mobility and economic diversification, in particular understanding how policies can support workforce development, expand economic opportunities, and contribute to more resilient and inclusive economies.

She is working on the Centre’s Pacific Engagement Visa research project, looking at the experiences of Timorese citizens who have won the PEV ballot.

Jezreel Kassam

Jezreel is studying a Master of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University supported by the ANU-UPNG partnership.

His research focused on the performance of the two major superannuation funds in Papua New Guinea.

Anna Kapil 

Anna graduated in 2025 with a Master of International & Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University supported by the ANU-UPNG partnership.

Anna undertook research into changes in PNG income taxation. Read her discussion paper co-authored with Stephen Howes.

David Poka

David graduated in 2025 with a Master of International & Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University supported by the ANU-UPNG partnership.

David researched local water governance in PNG under a project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agriculture Research.

Moses David

Moses graduated in 2024 with a Master of International & Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University.

Moses’ research interests are in the area of PNG’s financial sector development. Prior to commencing his postgraduate studies, Moses was Senior Economist for Kina Bank and had over 14 years of experience across government, economic development, and the private sector.

Under the scholarship, Moses continued his research on PNG’s superannuation industry before returning to work to work in the finance sector.

Kingtau Mambon

Kingtau Mambon graduated in 2024 with a Master of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.

He completed his bachelor’s degree in economics at UPNG in 2019. From 2019–2021, he was a tutor in the Economics Division of School Business and Public Policy, UPNG. He contributed to the compilation of the PNG Economic Database, which helped in the publication of the book titled, Papua New Guinea: Government, Economy, and Society.

Kingtau’s research focus at ANU was on economic development in PNG and Pacific Island countries with particular interest in macroeconomics policy. He conducted research on major PNG political parties and their economic policies, updating the PNG Budget Database and PNG MP Database.

Kingtau regularly publishes on Devpolicy Blog and his own platform, Lanesia Knots.

Bobby Kunda

Bobby graduated at the end of 2021 from the Master of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. He completed his Bachelor of Economics in 2018 from UPNG and was awarded a scholarship under the ANU-UPNG partnership to study at the ANU. Prior to joining MIDEC, he worked for a year as a tutor in the Economics department at UPNG.

Bobby is currently a lecturer in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Rubayat Chowdhury

Rubayat Chowdhury has been awarded his PhD in Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. He is a recipient of Australia Awards Leadership Program (2013) and ODI Fellowship Scheme (2017).

Rubayat was awarded the Helen Hughes prize by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific for being the top student in the graduating classes of 2013 and 2014 in his graduate diploma and master’s, respectively. He has previously worked at the central bank of Papua New Guinea as Economist (ODI Fellow) and the central bank of Bangladesh as Joint Director (Research).

Rubayat’s research is focused on open economy macroeconomics, monetary policy, and foreign exchange market in Asia and the Pacific. Rubayat has contributed to a PNG economic time series project to document the economic history of PNG.

He currently works as a research officer at the Development Policy Centre.

Ephraim Feto

Ephraim Feto completed his Masters in Environment and Resources Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. His research was focused on PNG’s resource sector.

With the support of the Scholarship, Ephraim contributed to the documentation of the economic history of PNG.

Ephraim works in the PNG Treasury.

Jollanda Mathew

Jollanda Mathew completed her Master of International and Development Economics at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU. With the ongoing partnership program between ANU and UPNG, she was awarded a scholarship to pursue her Masters degree at ANU. Jollanda completed her Bachelor of Economics at UPNG and worked for a year as a tutor in the Economics department at UPNG.

Jollanda is passionate about research that focuses on agricultural economics and development economics, mainly on the development progress of Papua New Guinea.

Jollanda is currently a lecturer in economics at UPNG.

Kelly Samof

Kelly Samof completed a Master of International and Development Economics at the ANU. Under the current ANU-UPNG partnership program Kelly was awarded a scholarship to pursue his Master’s degree at the ANU. Before this, he completed a Bachelor in Economics from the UPNG and worked for a year as a tutor in the economics department at UPNG.

His research interests are in development economics and international trade, with a focus on the natural resources sector and its impacts on developmental outcomes. He contributed to the 2025 economic history, Struggle, Reform, Boom and Bust.

Kelly is currently working as an economist at the Asian Development Bank.

Maholopa Laveil

Maholopa (Maho) Laveil holds a Masters of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy. He was the first recipient of the ANU scholarship which funds a Masters scholarship at ANU for academics in economics at the University of Papua New Guinea.

Maho’s research focuses on trade policy in Papua New Guinea and the application of trade protections. He contributed to the 2025 economic history, Struggle, Reform, Boom and Bust.

Maho is currently undertaking PhD studies at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.

Neelesh Gounder

Neelesh Gounder is Senior Lecturer in economics and Deputy Head of School (Research and International) at the University of the South Pacific, Suva. He has PhD in economics from Griffith University.

Neelesh’s research areas include tourism, trade and growth in Pacific Island countries, poverty and economic performance of Pacific Island countries and banking sector and financial development in Pacific Island countries.

Neelesh is a recipient of Australian Leadership Awards (2009) and Australian Prime Ministers Pacific Australia Award (2012).

Serena Sasingian

Serena Sasingian completed the Master of Business from the Queensland University of Technology. She is a lawyer by profession and practiced with Gadens Lawyers before co-founding The Voice Inc., a dynamic youth development organisation.

She was previously on the Management Committee for Femili PNG. Serena reviewed the current legislation in PNG that relates to family and sexual violence and assisted with research on the current case management model.

She served as the CEO of PNG’s Digicel Foundation from 2019-2025. She is the 2026 FDC Pacific Research Fellow at the Lowy Institute.

Logea Nao

Logea completed the Masters of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.

Logea’s research focused on the important problem of domestic, family and sexual violence in Papua New Guinea. Logea used the recent PNG Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) to understand its prevalence in PNG and identify how the problem relates to family and community characteristics, and how victims of violence respond to the problem.

Logea is a Research Fellow in the Sustainable Land Development Program at PNG National Research Institute.

Futua Singirok

Futua completed the Master of International and Development Economics at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU.

Futua analysed the HIES to understand the characteristics of internal migrant households in PNG, such as their prevalence, ethnicity, relative education and income, and contribution to meeting costs of living of extended family members through remittances.

Futua now works at Bank South Pacific in PNG.

Thomas Wangi

As the 2013 recipient of The Greg Taylor scholarship, Thomas researched public-sector pay in PNG, producing this discussion paper and blog. He holds a Master of Economics from James Cook University, and was a lecturer in the economics division at The University of Papua New Guinea.

Thomas has since completed a PhD at Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, and is working at PNG’s National Research Institute.