Jacki Schirmer is jointly appointed in the University of Canberra's Health Research Institute and Centre for Change Governance, and is Chair of the University of Canberra's Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Research Network. 

Jacki leads the Regional Wellbeing Survey team at the University of Canberra. Her research focuses on understanding how to support wellbeing and resilience of people and communities across Australia in ways that also support the health of the environment. She focuses in particular on understanding how to support communities experiencing the impacts of extreme climatic events and changes in industries such as agriculture, fishing and forestry.

Jacki was born in Portland, Victoria and has lived in Melbourne, Tumut and Canberra. She spent much of her childhood living on a boarding school campus her parents worked at, where she learned a lot from the diverse students who came from all parts of rural Australia, and spent time on her relatives’ farms during summers. After an initial enthusiasm for economics, she realised she had a passion for working to address challenging land, water and environmental management issues in ways that also support the wellbeing of the people and communities who depend on our natural resources. That led her to working on studies that aim to build resilience and wellbeing in communities experiencing often rapid change in rural industries and high climatic variability.