Jo Lampert is Professor of Teacher Education for Social Transformation in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. Jo has worked in teacher education for the past 25 years to research how teachers can be prepared to address educational inequalities in the hardest-to-staff schools in metropolitan, regional, rural and remote Australia. Originally from Canada, she is recognised as a leading international researcher in the area of social justice and teacher education with particular expertise in the 'real-life' constraints and affordances faced by school systems servicing students from marginalised and historically disadvantaged communities. Jo works closely with First Nations colleagues and community organisations, government and schools to ensure the best possible outcomes for the young people who need them most. She co-leads the Faculty’s Education for the Future Impact Lab, and leads its Transforming Teacher Education for Social Impact Research and Scholarship group. Jo is currently Chief Investigator on two Australian Research Council grants: one on co-design with Indigenous communities and the other as Lead Investigator researching  the lived experiences of those teachers who remain in very hard to staff schools experiencing extreme teaching shortages.

Jo may be best known for leading two significant Australian high-impact social justice teacher education programs. She developed and co-lead the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools program (2010 – 2018) and the Victorian Nexus program from 2019-2023. These award-winning programs are examples of Jo’s orientation towards praxis, with research making ‘real life’ impactful difference on the education sector.

Jo has carried out funded research on teacher education, educational disadvantage and Indigenous education for the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SHHRC), the More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teacher Initiative (MATSITI) the Commonwealth Department of Education and the Victorian Department of Education, The Origin Foundation, The Vincent Fairfax Foundation, the Human Rights Commission and has led other industry research over the length of her career.

Jo has been an Executive Member on the board of the Australian Association for Research in Education, has been a keynote speaker at international conferences, and has worked with a range of international organisations including the World Educational Association for Research (WERA). Jo is regularly invited to comment in the media, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives in Education.

Jo is a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts.