Jamie commenced his doctoral studies within the National Security College in March 2016. Jamie is a natural scientist by training, holding a Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the James Cook University in 1992. More recently he completed a Master of Studies (Advanced) within the Australian National University incorporating studies across the fields of organisational behaviour and crisis management.

Jamie is a crisis and disaster manager, who has worked in both Australia and the United Kingdom. For the past 10 years he has worked for the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) as the Manager for Crisis Preparedness & Response. In this position, Jamie is responsible for national preparedness for oil and hazardous material incidents and manages the AMSA Response School which provides national training programs for emergency management, oil and hazardous material response and search and rescue. Jamie has responded to numerous significant emergencies, notably establishing and managing the operations of the Joint Agencies Coordination Centre as part of the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and led the response to the Montara oil spill in the Timor Sea (2000).