Bernadette Mercieca graduated with her Doctor of Philosophy in September 2018 from the University of Southern Queensland. The title of her thesis was “An exploration of the value of Communities of Practice for the professional learning of early career secondary teachers in Australia”. Bernadette currently works as a sessional educator at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne. Prior to, and concurrent with this work, Bernadette had a long career as a secondary school teacher, most recently at a Catholic boys’ school. She has an ongoing interest in teacher education and the development of appropriate support networks for beginning teachers in secondary schools. She has several publications to her name, including: "Early Career Teacher Peer Support Through Private Groups in Social Media" (2016), and "What is a Community of Practice?" (2017). Bernadette has also presented her research findings at international and national educational conferences. Bernadette recently conducted research with two colleagues in a review of teacher social media networks. She currently has a contract with Springer to co-write a book entitled Sustaining Communities of Practice for Early Career Teachers. The aim of this research is to provide a longitudinal perspective on the value of communities of practice for these early career teachers. The book will also have an international perspective, with contributing authors from Belgium and Northern Island. Bernadette has also been interviewed for a Teacher in Educational Research (TER) podcast on early career networks in private Facebook groups. This has been a means of spreading her ideas about how to support early career teachers, particularly those who find themselves in casual relief positions, without the support of a mentor or school-based community of practice.