Deputy Dean , Lyons College
Dr Viral Pandya is the Deputy Dean (Higher Education) and Acting Dean at Lyons College, providing academic leadership across program delivery, quality assurance, governance, and regulatory compliance. He holds a PhD in Management, multiple MBA qualifications, and is a CPA (Australia), with over two decades of academic and leadership experience, including more than ten years in Australian higher education.
Dr Pandya brings extensive expertise in TEQSA accreditation and reaccreditation, academic risk management, assessment integrity, curriculum design aligned to AQF and HESF (2021), and academic governance. He has held senior roles, and has served on Academic Boards, Boards of Examiners, and Learning and Teaching Committees across multiple institutions.
His scholarly interests include management education, academic integrity, and applied finance, with published research in peerreviewed international journals. Dr Pandya is committed to sustaining high academic standards and continuous improvement in student outcomes.
Academic Board Chair
Professor Michelle Towstoless graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours Physiology) in Human Movement Studies and Doctorate of Philosophy in Foetal Development from the University of Melbourne, Australia. Michelle has worked collaboratively with institutions in Canada, Chile and Denmark examining different aspects of foetal development. Michelle has previously held a number of key leadership positions including:
• Pro Vice-Chancellor, Industry, Community & Sport Engagement
• Pro Vice-Chancellor, Colleges and Distinctive Specialisations
• Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
• Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science
• Head of the School of Biomedical Sciences
• Chair and Deputy Chair of the VU Academic Board.
Michelle has over 25 years experience in course and subject design, delivery, assessment, evaluation, coordination and management within undergraduate and postgraduate programs. These programs span across Human Movement Studies, Nursing, Midwifery, Paramedic Science, Chinese medicine, Biotechnology, Biomedical Sciences, Food Science and Nutrition,Psychology and Osteopathy – across physiology, anatomy, pathology and nutrition. She has played a pivotal role in the development of the Biomedical Sciences Degree as well as developing major components of the Biotechnology Degree program, and more recently the new Bachelor of Science (specialisation). This has broadened her professional interest to areasof academic leadership where she annually presents sessions on Governance and Political Competence to the Women in Leadership program at VU. She has been awarded the FIT Award for Teaching Excellence and Michelle is currently the Chair of the Women’s Leadership Program Advisory Committee.
Independet Member
Mr Bergstrom is an experienced educational quality and compliance manager with a demonstrated history working in both HE and VET in management, teaching and quality roles. Skilled and experienced in building student focussed quality outcomes in TEQSA, ASQA and Skills First environments. Highly experienced in accreditation of HE courses and re-registration under both TEQSA and ASQA. Developed effective and efficient workflows for maintaining compliance in educational environments allowing teaching staff to focus on delivering quality student outcomes. In addition, he has many years’ experience in developing and managing academic policy, governance and risk frameworks for small and medium size HE providers.
Independent Member
PhD (University of Melbourne), Master of Business (Marketing) (Victoria University), Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Tertiary Education (Victoria University), Bachelor of Business (Accounting) (Victoria University), Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD), Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute (FAMI)
Romana is an experienced and highly respected academic in the tertiary sector. She has over 30 years of experience in teaching, curriculum development, and academic governance across the Marketing and Business disciplines, as well as undertaking various senior leadership roles including Dean and Deputy Dean of a university business school. Romana’s peer-recognised research has been published extensively in leading international journals spanning services marketing, consumer behaviour, and sustainability. She has authored/co-authored more than 25 refereed journal articles and conference papers, and supervised over 20 PhD and Masters completions. Her most recent role as Dean of the Victoria University Business School saw her lead a major curriculum transformation that embedded industry engagement and digital, sustainability-infused learning across all undergraduate programs, growing enrolments by 30% over three years.
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