Full Name
Jesse Gardner-Russell
Job Title
National President
Company
Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations
Speaker Bio
Jesse Gardner-Russell is the National President of The Council of Australian Postgraduate Associations (CAPA), and PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne Department of Surgery and Centre for Eye Research Australia. Jesse researches how neurons communicate with the vasculature in the eye and brain, to enable vision, and how to restore these mechanisms after stroke, which impacts an Australian every 11 minutes.
Originally from regional Victoria, Jesse has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, Honours in Enteric Neuron Stem Cell Therapies, and Master of Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated as Valedictorian and Dean’s Honours List student.
Prior to starting his role at CAPA, the peak representative body for all 570,000 postgraduate students, Jesse served as CAPA Board Chair, President and Board Chair at the University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association (GSA), Acting CEO of GSA and later as General Secretary of GSA, where he grew the organisation's membership by a net increase of 12,000 graduate students. Jesse is the longest serving student member of the University of Melbourne Academic Board and was also an advisory Board member at Melbourne University Sport.
Jesse has led both local and national campaigns to improve the conditions of postgraduate students. As President of the GSA, he created the Breakfast Club Program, which feeds ~200 students per session, the Future Careers Expo which connects postgraduates with employers from outside of their traditional domain, and helped lead the successful restoration of the COVID-19 Stipend Extension.
As National President of CAPA, Jesse has been focused on rebuilding CAPA's key skill: advocacy. Jesse has spearheaded CAPA's work on increasing the HDR stipend base rate, alongside UA and the ACGR, CAPA's campaign to expand commonwealth prac payments to allied health, alongside the HSU, and worked closely with 2025 CAPA International Officer, Weihong Liang, to establish the International Students Representative Council of Australia.
Originally from regional Victoria, Jesse has completed his Bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, Honours in Enteric Neuron Stem Cell Therapies, and Master of Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne, where he graduated as Valedictorian and Dean’s Honours List student.
Prior to starting his role at CAPA, the peak representative body for all 570,000 postgraduate students, Jesse served as CAPA Board Chair, President and Board Chair at the University of Melbourne Graduate Student Association (GSA), Acting CEO of GSA and later as General Secretary of GSA, where he grew the organisation's membership by a net increase of 12,000 graduate students. Jesse is the longest serving student member of the University of Melbourne Academic Board and was also an advisory Board member at Melbourne University Sport.
Jesse has led both local and national campaigns to improve the conditions of postgraduate students. As President of the GSA, he created the Breakfast Club Program, which feeds ~200 students per session, the Future Careers Expo which connects postgraduates with employers from outside of their traditional domain, and helped lead the successful restoration of the COVID-19 Stipend Extension.
As National President of CAPA, Jesse has been focused on rebuilding CAPA's key skill: advocacy. Jesse has spearheaded CAPA's work on increasing the HDR stipend base rate, alongside UA and the ACGR, CAPA's campaign to expand commonwealth prac payments to allied health, alongside the HSU, and worked closely with 2025 CAPA International Officer, Weihong Liang, to establish the International Students Representative Council of Australia.
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