Stephen started his PhD candidacy with DPA at in April 2014. Stephen graduated from Flinders University in 1999 with a Bachelor of International Studies majoring in Asian Studies, Politics/ International Relations and Vietnamese language, and a Diploma of Languages in French. Stephen completed a Masters of Public Policy (International) at ANU in 2007, and a Post Graduate Certificate in Assessment and Evaluation from the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education in 2011. Stephen was a public servant in the Northern Territory Government in 2000. From 2001 to 2008 Stephen worked in the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) in a range of Country Program roles working on the Pacific Islands, Mekong region and Timor-Leste and in the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh. Stephen has been working as a Human Development Specialist in the World Bank’s Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Islands country office in Sydney since June 2008, focusing mostly on Education & Skills work in Timor-Leste, PNG and Solomon Islands but also in the health and social protection sectors and working in Indonesia and Vietnam.