Dr Melissa Jardine was a Victoria Police officer for 10 years (2001-2011) working at the frontline and in criminal investigations.

She was a founding Director of the Global Law Enforcement and Public Health Association and now serves as a Fellow. She is a current member of the Strategic Planning Committee for the International Association of Women Police (IAWP) and the inaugural Editor for the IAWP eJournal and Research Paper Series.

She has a PhD from the UNSW Law School (Australia) in police organisational culture and works on this for UN Women, UNODC, INTERPOL and more. She has published both qualitative and quantitative research and is especially skilled at conducting research and needs assessments and providing policy advice that is both gender-sensitive and human rights-based.  

Dr Jardine is currently a Partner Investigator on a four-year Australian Research Council Discovery Project at the University of the Sunshine Coast, to investigate gender-responsive policing and gender-based violence in the Pacific. 

She has worked in Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, Djibouti, Fiji, Indonesia, Kenya, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Rwanda, Scotland, the Seychelles Islands, Singapore, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, the UAE, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. Additionally, she has undertaken substantial desk research in relation to Brunei, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, New Zealand and Turkmenistan. 

In 2017, Dr Jardine was selected as an Asia 21 Young Leader by the Asia Society through a competitive process which identifies ‘dynamic individuals who will impact global affairs over the coming decades’.