Dr Tess Newton Cain was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in 2014.

She is also a research associate with the ANU's Development Policy Centre. Previously a Lecturer in Law at the University of the South Pacific, Tess has worked in the region as an independent researcher/consultant since 2001. Based in Vanuatu, Tess has extensive experience in relation to development, governance, leadership and political engagement in Melanesia and elsewhere in the Pacific island region. Tess has an extensive record of academic publications, including co-authorship of Introduction to South Pacific Law (1999) and co-editorship of A Kind of Mending & Passage of Change (released by ANU e-press in 2010).

Tess has a degree in Law and a PhD in Law & Criminology, both from the University of Wales (Cardiff).