Rachel Ong ViforJ is currently John Curtin Distinguished Professor in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance. Her research expertise lies in the fields of housing policy, interdisciplinary housing studies and housing economics. Rachel's research interests are in intergenerational housing concerns, precarious housing, housing policy evaluations, and housing affordability dynamics. 

Rachel was an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (2021-2025). She was a recipient of the national Young Economist Award (2018) and Mike Berry Award for Housing Research Excellence (2019). She was an AACSB Influential Leaders Honoree (2024). She is currently a member of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, a national statutory body set up by the Australian Government to deliver evidence on housing supply, demand and affordability. She was a member of the CEDA Council on Economic Policy (2019-2025), Editor-in-Chief of Economic Papers (2021-2025) and she is currently a member of the External Reference Group for the HILDA Survey.

Rachel is currently Vice-Chair of the Asia-Pacific Network for Housing Research (APNHR). She also leads an APNHR Working Group on Intergenerational Housing Issues, which seeks to promote knowledge exchange and collboration among APNHR members on the topic of intergenerational housing dynamics.

Within Curtin, Rachel has undertaken numerous leadership roles, including as Deputy Director of the Centre for Research in Applied Economics, Deputy Director of the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Research Committee Chair in the School of Economics, Finance and Property, Acting Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor of Faculty of Business and Law, and Acting Head of Economics.