Sharon McKinlay is a researcher, teacher, mother and grandmother. She has worked across a range of early childhood education and care settings over the last fifteen years, as a teacher, leader and mentor and the majority of her teaching has been in rural and regional communities in Queensland.

Her current role as an early learning consultant with Goodstart Early Learning enables her to work with a team of professionals committed to strengthening quality in early childhood education and care. She is Bachelor qualified, and Queensland registered early childhood teacher who holds a Master of Education Research. She has a research interest in early childhood workforce matters.

Her Master of Education (Research) study: Building a sustainable workforce in early childhood education and care: What keeps Australian early childhood teachers working in long day care? aims to strengthen the understanding of the factors impacting the retention of early childhood teachers in long day care, drawing on the perspective of early childhood teachers who are currently choosing to work in long day care.

Sharon was awarded a post-graduate scholarship to work on the Australian Research Council Linkage Project identifying effective strategies to grow and sustain a professional early years workforce study (Lead CI Professor Karen Thorpe). She has commenced a PhD by Publication which is situated within the ARC linkage project. Sharon is also an active member of the Early Childhood Teachers Association (ECTA) committee and their Journal, Educating Young Children editorial panel.