Dr Sandra Phillips is a creative industries academic and researcher following a career in publishing as a freelancer and in-house with Aboriginal Studies Press, University of Queensland Press, and Magabala Books.

Through the late 1980s and 1990s Dr Phillips also worked in government concerned with Indigenous policy and program, from Aboriginal Hostels Limited to the Australia Council, with a short stint on the Queensland Government response to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC).

Prior to full time academic employment in mainstream faculty, Dr Phillips also provided guest lectures and tutored at several universities in Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Knowledges.

A prolific public speaker Dr Phillips has also held significant arts and culture leadership roles and is currently elected Chair of the First Nations Australia Writers Network Incorporated (FNAWN) and Member of the Library Board of Queensland. Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng, Dr Phillips has three adult sons and one granddaughter.