Erin Watson-Lynn

Erin Watson-Lynn, head of programs at Perth USAsia Centre, oversees the Centre's Indo-Pacific Regional Program, Australia Indo-Pacific and US Relations Program, and Education & Outreach. Prior to joining Perth USAsia Centre in February 2019, Ms Watson-Lynn was director of Asialink Diplomacy at the University of Melbourne and has also held appointments at Monash University, United Nations ESCAP, and Swinburne University of Technology. She is chair of the advisory board at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education at Curtin University. Ms Watson-Lynn represented Australia at Track II initiatives around the world including the G20 in Turkey, China, Argentina and Japan. She co-founded the Latam-Australia Emerging Leaders Dialogue in late 2018, is a State Department IVLP alumna, and visited Syrian refugee camps with Save the Children in Jordan and Lebanon in 2019. Ms Watson-Lynn was awarded an Australian Postgraduate Award (Industry) and Monash Graduate School Faculty Scholarship, a finalist in the not-for-profit category of the Women’s Agenda Emerging Leaders Awards, winner of the Australian Government’s Policy Hack, a Global Voices Scholar, and was a visiting library scholar at NYU Abu Dhabi. She has been invited to speak at roundtables, dialogues, and as a keynote speaker around South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East; provides commentary on TV and radio; and has published in China, India, and Australia. Ms Watson-Lynn holds a Bachelor of Social Science, Diploma in Management, Diploma in Business Management (HR), and is pursuing a PhD in South Asia Studies at Monash University.