Rate My Professor Anya Phelan

Dr Anya Phelan serves as Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Discipline Lead for Innovation & Entrepreneurship within the Department of Management at Griffith Business School, Griffith University, a position she has held since 2023. Previously, she was Lecturer and Research Fellow (2019–2023) and Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2016–2019) at The University of Queensland Business School. With eighteen years of prior professional experience in project management, technical consulting, and business development in the resource and energy sectors, Phelan brings practical insights to her academic role. She earned her PhD from Queensland University of Technology, focusing on the social externalities of major resource projects such as coal seam gas developments on regional communities' quality of life using mixed methods and structural equation modelling. Additionally, she holds a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Phelan's research centers on the circular economy, entrepreneurship, innovation, social entrepreneurship, ecological economics, and sustainable livelihoods, with a particular emphasis on how community-driven entrepreneurial ventures tackle complex social and environmental issues like plastic pollution in regional settings. Notable publications include "Turning waste into opportunity: collective effectuation and place-based circular innovation" (2026), "Telecoupling cannot be ignored for the forest-based carbon market" (2025), "Equity in a sea of debt: how better understanding of small-scale fisheries can help reel in sustainable seafood" (2023), "Plastic pollution and packaging: corporate commitments and actions from the food and beverage sector in Australia" (2022), and contributions to discussions on REDcycle's collapse and soft plastic recycling. She serves as a Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites and the Solving Plastic Waste Cooperative Research Centre, and leads the Australia-Brazil Circular Innovation Ecosystems project funded by the 2024–2025 COALAR grant. In 2025, she received a Highly Commended recognition in the Excellence in Research Impact category at the Griffith Business School Pro Vice-Chancellor's Research Awards. Her scholarship has achieved over 1,500 citations, influencing policy and practice through public lectures, media engagements, and involvement in initiatives like the CSIRO Plastics Innovation Hub Indonesia and Griffith Asia Institute.