Natasha Cortis

Dr. Natasha Cortis is an Associate Professor at the Social Policy Research Centre (SPRC) within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Her research focuses on human services, nonprofit sector sustainability, workforce issues, and gender equity in employment. She holds a BEc(SocSci) Hons and PhD from Sydney University.

Her expertise spans policy evaluation, particularly in community services, legal aid, and aged care. Notable projects include studies on flight attendants' working conditions, legal aid practitioners, and gender-based occupational segregation. Cortis has supervised numerous PhD candidates, including Karen Wilcox and Molly Saunders, and has contributed to high-impact reports like the National Survey of Domestic and Family Violence Workforces.

Her awards include the 2021 Norm Smith Award for her work on staff retention in domestic violence sectors and the 2018 Mary Parker Follett Award for theory-informed research on working time in nonprofits. Cortis actively engages with policy debates, such as those surrounding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) pricing and workplace gender equality.

Her research often addresses systemic challenges in human services, emphasizing equitable funding, workforce sustainability, and the intersection of gender and labor markets. Cortis collaborates with organizations like ACOSS, the Australian Services Union, and unions in disability and legal sectors.