Tracy Ireland is Emeritus Professor of Cultural Heritage in the Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra. Since 2009, Tracy has led research and teaching across UC's GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums), heritage, conservation and cultural leadership related courses. She was Associate Dean Research 2022-25 and Director of the Centre for Creatives and Cultural Research (CCCR)  2019-2022. Tracy founded the Future Heritage Research Theme of the CCCR in 2013 and it has grown to be one of today's most successful centres for heritage research in Australia.  Tracy is the immediate past president of Australia ICOMOS serving the maximum possible term in this role between 2021 and 2024, and editor of the journal Historic Environment. Tracy's career has also included working for the New South Wales Department of Planning and Heritage Council as the State Archaeologist and heading up the Canberra Office of GML Heritage. She undertook a PhD at the University of Sydney, awarded in 2002, and  has published extensively on historical archaeology, digital heritage, heritage management and conservation and their entanglement with nationalism and colonialism. Tracy has prepared heritage assessments and management plans for some of Australia's most significant places, including the Old Great North Road World Heritage site, the Australian War Memorial, Old Parliament House and the Blacktown Native Institution.

Tracy is known internationally for her research on heritage practice, ethics, and the social values of heritage and she is a regular keynote speaker at events around the world. She has  published on the archaeology and heritage of colonialism in Australia, New Zealand, Quebec, North Eastern USA, and in Cyprus, as a member of the Troodos Archaeological and Environmental Survey Project. Her recent papers and books include the co-authored 'Engaging the everyday: the concept and practice of everyday heritage', 'Situating (in)significance' (with Steve Brown and John Schofield), Connecting the Nation: A thematic history of civil aviation (with Paul Aston, Mitchell Whitelaw and Alison Wain), The ethics of cultural heritage (with John Schofield), and Object Lessons: Archaeology and heritage in Australia (with Jane Lydon).

Tracy supervises a dynamic co-hort of PhD candidates and has had 10 PhD and 1 Masters by research complete successfully since 2015.

In 2017 Tracy was visiting Research Fellow at the University of Stirling in Scotland.

Tracy was the Lead Chief Investigator for  Heritage of the Air, 2018-2022, a digital and community focussed project studying how communities value the heritage of Australian aviation, partnering with Airservices Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the SFO Museum and the Civil Aviation Historical Society. She currently leads two ARC Linkage projects: Everyday Heritage 2022-2025,  a project that will develop tools for communitites and heritage managers to give value to underrepresented groups and their stories, and Nuclear Nation: A Contemporary Archaeology of Australia's Atomic Heritage 2025-2028.

Member of Climate Change Adaptation Resilience and Recovery Network