Shelby Higgs Howarth is a PhD Candidate and Australian Research Council Scholar whose mixed methods research examines the health, education, and adaptive capacity of street children in Manila confronted by frequent natural disasters. Mrs Higgs Howarth has experience in project management, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis. She was previously a tutor for the postgraduate course Social Research Practice and is the current tutor for Young People & Crime: Developmental Criminology & Its Discontents.

In addition to her work in the Philippines, Mrs Higgs Howarth has volunteered and consulted for a range of child welfare organisations including CASA in the United States, Tanoker Ledokombo in Indonesia, and ICDDR,B in Bangladesh.