Prof Julie Mills
Professor Julie Mills
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Emeritus Professor Julie Mills is a Structural Engineer who was the inaugural Executive Dean of UniSA STEM at the University of South Australia from 2020 to 2023. She then accepted a role as Interim Director of the Forestry Centre of Excellence until early 2025 when she retired and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor. Prior to becoming Executive Dean in 2020 she held multiple leadership roles over the previous ten years including Pro Vice Chancellor and Head of School in the IT and Engineering areas.
Julie has a keen interest in the mentoring and development of current and future academic leaders, as well as working with teams and organisations to improve their equity and diversity, inclusive education and leadership policies and practices.
Julie is an academic “all rounder” who has an excellent track record in leadership, research and teaching. Her diverse research interests include engineering education, gender studies and structural engineering. Julie has published two books and over 200 peer reviewed book chapters, journal articles and conference papers across all of these areas, and her work has been cited over 9000 times to-date. She has received multiple national competitive grants, including ARC Linkage and Discovery and Office for Learning and Teaching (previously ALTC) Cat 1 grants.
Julie’s gender inclusive and project-based learning teaching and research practices have been nationally and internationally recognised, and she has been the recipient of multiple awards including the Australasian Association for Engineering Education National Teaching Excellence Award and the Carrick Australian University Teaching Citation.
Julie completed her B Eng (Hons) in Civil Engineering at Adelaide University in 1981 and then worked as a Structural Engineer and Project Manager for 14 years on industrial, commercial and residential projects. She joined UniSA in 1996 as a Lecturer, and was promoted to Professor in 2011. Julie was appointed as a Member of the inaugural Women’s Advisory Council to the SA government in 1994, became a Fellow of the Governor’s Leadership Foundation in 2005 and was elected as a Fellow of Engineers Australia in 2007.
Throughout her career Julie has been a passionate advocate for women in engineering, co-founding the South Australian Women in Engineering group in 1984, and serving on the National Committee of Women in Engineering for Engineers Australia for many years, including as Chair from 2004-2006. She was also a member of the Engineers Australia Structural College Board for several years and regularly Chairs university accreditation panels.