Sue Starfield is a Professor and was the Director of The Learning Centre at UNSW for 18 years. She is co-author with Brian Paltridge of Thesis and Dissertation Writing in a Second Language: A Handbook for Supervisors published by Routledge in 2007. She was co-editor of the journal English for Specific Purposes from 2009-2014. She is the recipient of a 2008 Australian Learning and Teaching Council citation for an Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning for the development of a research-led innovative curriculum to support postgraduate research students' writing with significant impact on the field of postgraduate writing.

Sue's current research interests include advanced academic writing, postgraduate pedagogy and issues of identity in academic writing and language learning. With colleagues from the University of Sydney, Sue and Pam Mort of The Learning Centre were awarded a 2006 Carrick Institute Competitive Grant – Creating a student-centred online learning environment for report writing in the sciences and engineering.

Sue currently teaches Thesis Writing and Presentation, a course she has developed for the School of Education. She has also taught Developing a Research Proposal, a course for commencing postgraduate research students. In addition, she has been involved in program development to enhance students' successful access to academic skills across the university. She is currently teaching courses in advanced qualitative methods and TESOL curriculum.

Prior to moving to Australia, Sue worked for over fifteen years in South Africa, mainly at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she developed academic programs to promote access and success in higher education for students who had been disadvantaged by apartheid education. She also worked with academic staff who wanted to make their teaching more responsive to the learning needs of the very diverse student body.