Emeritus Professor Christine Bigby AO, FASSA, PhD, was the founding director of the Living with Disability Research Centre at La Trobe University from 2014 to 2025 and continues to be one of  senior researchers in the Centre. She has a long track record of working in partnership with disability support and advocacy organisations investigating the effectiveness of programs and practice to support the social inclusion of adults and older people with intellectual disabilities. She has led a team studying the practice of supported decision making since 2015 and a longitudinal study of the quality of practice in supported accommodation services since 2009. She has gained over $18m in competitive and industry funding. She has also explored the application of the concept of 'encounter' to the community participation of adults with intellectual disabilities. Her work has been translated in to evidence informed free online training materials for frontline direct support workers and practice leaders and is used extensively across the disability sector.
She has won the Research award of the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability four times since 1993. Professor Bigby was a member of the College of Experts of the Australian Research Council from 2019- 2023 and has published 10 books, 52 book chapters, 192 journal articles and numerous research reports.
She is the founding editor of the Research and Practice in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and has served as President of the Australasian Society of Intellectual Disability since 2022. Since October 2025 has been the editor of the Q1 Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilites. 
In March 2016 Professor Bigby was elected Chair of Academic Board and held this position until March 2022.
Professor Bigby was awarded an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her distinguished service to people with intellectual disabilities, social welfare and inclusion research, policy and practice and to tertiary education. She was elected a Felllow of the Academy for Social Sciences Australia in 2025.