Marnie would like to be known as a ‘pracademic’; a working practitioner whose curiosity and appetite for learning drives academic research in her field of human resources. Originally completing a Bachelor of English at Curtin University and training in both musical theatre at the WA Academy of Performing Arts and Acting at the Victorian College of the Arts, Marnie balanced her passion for the arts and performance with a blossoming career in human resources. As her HR career developed, she has worked in HR leadership roles in multi-national retail and FMCG companies, government, financial services, mining and professional services in Australia and across APAC with expertise in Asian markets. Marnie has predominantly worked in generalist roles partnering businesses in all people matters from ER, IR, performance, talent, learning and OD and later completed her Masters in HRM. Her experience working across Asia with remote workers prompted the progression of doctoral research and in 2021 she graduated from USQ with her thesis titled, ‘Employee engagement antecedents and outcomes: perceptions of what engagement looks like for remote workers’. This study focused on leading and engaging remote employees which became incredibly relevant with the onset of Covid in 2020. Marnie is looking forward to taking these insights on engagement and the future of work into more organisations in her next role to enable a better work experience for employees. She loves her role lecturing at USQ to share her practical experience with the HR professionals of the future.