Crawford School of Public Policy

Crawford School introduces our fantastic staff, so you can meet the people of Asia and the Pacific’s leading graduate policy school.

Centre Manager at the Development Policy Centre Ashlee Betteridge tells us why she hopes the COVID-19 crisis will give people a better understanding of how they are connected in a globalised world, and how laughing about some of the unusual challenges of working at home has helped her stay positive.

What is your role at Crawford and what do you enjoy most about it?

I’m the Centre Manager at the Development Policy Centre. I’ve been working for the centre on and off since I did the Master of Public Policy at Crawford in 2011, starting mostly on communications, blogging and events, then moving more into project management. As the centre has been growing over this time, I have had a lot of opportunities to jump on to new projects and develop new skills, which has kept me interested. I also love getting to meet and hear from the incredibly interesting people who come to visit our centre and the School.

Describe your home office for us.

My apartment is quite small, and I live with my younger sister who has also been working from home, so it was a challenge to find our rhythm and define our own workspaces at first! But things are now going well. My dining table was already half taken over by my sewing hobby, so the other half is now my office. Being surrounded by my houseplants and colourful fabric for sewing and books gives it a creative energy that I really enjoy, despite it looking a little chaotic. And my houseplants are really liking the higher level of attention and lowered fatality rates that have come from being in my Zoom background! My puppy Asterix was only six months old when we started to work from home so it has also been a bonus to spend more time with him.

All of our jobs have undergone major changes during the COVID-19 crisis. How has your role changed and how might we go about addressing some of the challenges that come with this change going forward?

My role has always been very diverse, and because we have had teams located overseas for some time, we already had a lot of remote working structures in place. But one major change has been needing to cancel the large annual events and conferences that, along with other deadlines, usually provide a shape and flow to my work year.

There has been no shortage of other work though! All our projects needed to respond and react to COVID-19, and our plans for the year shifted rapidly. For example, most of our team based at the University of Papua New Guinea had to return to Australia, and they innovated to get remote lecturing up and running so that students could still continue their courses. Our team working on Pacific Labour Mobility responded really quickly to analyse the impact of border closures on Pacific workers already in-country, and the broader implications on Australian horticulture. Those working on Pacific economic development have been looking at the economic impacts and responses to COVID-19, as well as the potential consequences for poverty levels. The Devpolicy Blog is covering COVID-19 in the region, and we had a boom in both contributions and visitors from March onward.

Working on development policy issues during a global crisis, with everyone affected at the same time but in different ways, has only highlighted the importance of international cooperation — something that has been eroded somewhat in recent years. I hope as societies we come out of this crisis with a better understanding of our vulnerabilities and interconnectedness, and channel that towards action on climate change, reducing inequalities and creating a fairer world.

Tell us something about yourself that people might not know, or would find surprising.

I am a social media oversharer so I am not sure if I have much mystique! But I do know a couple of coding languages and dabble in web design. I am mostly self-taught, but am working on some online courses now to learn more and stay up to date. I love playing with colour and patterns.

Can you give us your top three tips about how to stay positive during the COVID-19 outbreak?

One way I have kept entertained has been cooking new recipes from lots of different countries, in particular countries I have lived in, like Indonesia. It’s not the same as an overseas holiday but it helps.

A reality TV habit also helps the time fly — it’s OK to be a smart person who enjoys very stupid television!

And my other tip is to try to laugh at some of the absurdities of the situation. Like when your puppy starts up your robot vacuum cleaner in the middle of a Zoom call.